Kids add a layer of discomfort to any horror movie. If the child is a sympathetic character, the danger is heightened as any horror is worse when it happens to an innocent little kid. If the kid is part of the horror (for instance, the little girl ghosts in The Shining), the unfamiliar feeling of being afraid of a child adds a sense of unease to the regular doom and gloom of watching a scary movie.
These horror movies have some of the creepiest kids you’ll see on your screen:
The Exorcist (1973)
After playing with a Ouija board little Regan MacNeil begins acting strangely. Her bizarre behavior includes predicting the death of an astronaut at her mom’s party, peeing her pants, her head spinning around, etc. This forces her mother to accept that her daughter may be demonically possessed and seek out priests to perform an exorcism.
The Shining (1980)
The Grady twins are who most people will think of when they consider “creepy kids in horror”. The little girls were murdered by their father, Delbert Grady, in the Overlook hotel prior to the events of The Shining. Their ghosts haunt the hotel and the Torrance family, inviting poor Danny to “Come play with us. Forever and ever.”
Children of the Corn (1984)
Children of the Corn is about a couple on a road trip who discover a whole ghost town full of creepy kids. In Gatlin, Nebraska, all the adults have mysteriously disappeared and the town’s children practice a corn-based religion. Creepiest of all is Isaac, the leader of the religion who demands human sacrifices for “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”.
The Ring (2002)
Samara was adopted by the Morgans and raised on a horse ranch on Moesko Island. However, the Morgans found Samara so creepy that they forced her to live in the barn, eventually deciding to kill the girl by suffocating her and dropping her into a well. She survived in the well for seven days before dying.
Bring Her Back (2025)
Oliver is a mute child in the care of Laura, a woman who also fosters the main Bring Her Back characters Andy and Piper. Oliver is creepy to the extreme — when Andy offers him a slice of freshly cut cantelope, he takes the knife and instead begins chomping on it, resulting in serious injury. Of course, the movie’s twist reveals a pretty good reason for Oliver’s bizarre behavior, but that doesn’t make the movie any less unsettling.
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