Say it with us, “Theeeeeeey’re Heeeeeere!”
Oh man! If Heather O’Rourke isn’t on a patented GVN list about “scariest children in horror movies,” the list is broken. Yes, the guy who made E.T. made this film, so there’s a campy feel to the horror on screen. But the stories about this film is fabled, notorious, and very real.
Soemthing wasn’t right about Carol Anne Freeling in Poltergeist, but when she begins to play medium to the Indian Graveyard, you know it’s about to go down. There’s something about kids in horror movies that seems surreal to viewers.
We can take adults slashing and bleeding and dying and resurrecting. It’s the movies. But when kids do it?! Sheesh! And the best directors do it without exploitation or cheap jump scares, like sweet, innocent Carol Anne making you wish she would play in her closet or something off-screen. You can feel it crawling on your skin.
If you know, you know. And if you do, you peel your fingers open and watch the movie through your knuckles. That’s why this list is vital for October. Drop us some love on social if you get in the feels here too.
These are the Top 10 scariest children in horror movies ever.
P.S. Just listen to her in this famous clip. That freaked everyone out. And to make things even more horrifying, her real story…just awful!
10. Adrian, Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Wait. Adrian’s face is never seen on the screen. Right! That’s the point. The tension is contagious as it builds throughout the movie. Mia Farrow as Rosemary (who is mesmerizing in a freakish way) starts the movie a happy pregnant lady.
Then, she meets the freaky neighbors, who just happen to be card-carrying Satanists. (You like that upside-down cross hanging over the baby’s crib?) Finally, she is delirious as she stares into the eyes of what will become Baby Beelzebum. The crib, the stroller, her dang womb — it’s all a tour’s guide sojourn to hell. All the while, you know the little wicked brat is unleashing hell on earth.
9. Mercy and Jonas, The VVitch (2015)
These damn kids here! When Robert Eggers arrived in Hollywood, he did it with the thunder. The man understands how to establish a menacing foundation to any film. How he got these kids who seem innocent but act like the spawn of demonseed is a mystery.
Sure, Caleb is the one stricken with an illness but what is wrong with these two — sweet incubus and succubus children that they are. They taunt their older siblings to die or go to hell, whatever comes first in their deranged little minds. Dang! And playing with that Black Phillip in the thicket?! I’d rather slap a rabid pit bull’s mama than face that thing.
8. Park Hyun-seo, The Host (2006)
7. Charlie, Hereditary (2018)
This Ari Aster film is like the sweat strolling down your spine on a hot Texas day–you feel it, hate it, and can’t do a thing about it. Thanks to Princess Clicking Tongue here (Milly Shapiro in her first movie role), you are sucked into this depressing “family” film. Most of that uneasy cringe is because of Charlie.
The way she devolves (and Toni Colette, for that matter) following her grandmother’s death is captivating. You know she’s spiraling downward into a deep abyss, then clicks and twitches. You can’t keep your eyes off her and then she creeps you out like that. And then, this happens. That crash is still one of the most significant surprises in modern horror history.
Who didn’t leap off the couch when *BAM* happened? Definitely a rush of dread unlike any other.
6. Esther, Orphan (2009)
Yes, if you have seen the movie, you know this is a technical oversight. However, since you don’t know that until the end of the movie–it counts. Little Esther. Cute, pony-tailed, degenerate, maniacal, not-nine-years-old-but-actually-33-with-a-penchant-to destroy Esther.
You may not have heard of Isabelle Fuhrman before this moment, but her fiendish grin in the face of chaos is enough to make anyone shrill. Talk about being one of the scariest children in horror movies. The highest amount of cringe comes at the expense of Peter Sarsgaard–when she straight up is aiming for a booty call with her foster father. Ewwww!
5. Issac, Children of the Corn (1984)
If ever a child a lengthy ass-whoopin’, it was Issac. He’s 12, knows how to getting inside your head and tap dance on your brain–and does it all according to his twisted perception of the Holy Bible. And his kingdom, adults be damned.
John Franklin plays a sinister, sniveling little punk to perfection. Look at that scowl, and in this scene, we are two minutes into the film! Where does a pre-pubescent kid accrue that much angst anyway? A Hitler youth rally? He’s so charismatic and cunning, like most cult leaders would be, but this kid does it in a way that makes you want to hide under a blanket and suck your thumb.
4. Samara, The Ring (2002)
The deadpan, ciy stare through the curtain of grease known as “her hair.” This girl is seriously disturbed. The premise of this Japanese film is vile already, but there is something way left of center about “the girl in the well” that haunts you. And then, she pops out of the TV!
Gore Verbinski took the original Ringu and got it turnt up to hellish volumes of spooky, and Daveigh Chase is so particularly gruesome as Samara, no cared what her name was — she was Samara the Well Girl. She gave off this “I’d butcher a close cousin if it meant making me feel good” vibe.
That’s what makes Samara so high on the scariest children in horror movies list. Who wants to her to answer the door while Trick or Treating?! A face only a mother could slap. Such a lovely, dark and dreary soul.
3.The Grady Twins
Stare at this cringe picture of the Grady Twins–easily some of the scariest children in horror movies. Like, ever! And if they are number 4?! C’mon. You know you got the willies just looking at them.
When Lisa and Louise Burns (IRL names) showed up on the screen, Stanley Kubrick knew he had sinister gold on the reel. Look at them! If you didn’t see the movie, you can’t capture the essence of their creep factor. In 1980, those two holding hands so innocently was butt-puckering cringe factor number 10.
And then “Come and play” echoing in the death chamber hallway? If I was Danny, that big wheel would have left skidmarks. You know, like the ones in our pants if we were looking at them.
3. Hyo-jin, The Wailing (2016)
You may kis month because of the horror movies. Good times, right? Make them watch Hyo-jin (Kim Hwan-hee) go through a gauntlet of terror. What this little girl endures becomes her fuel for seething hate and horror.
There are supernatural manifestations, dead goats, trophies from the dead, a reainmated corpse–and, all the while, a search for an abducted Hyo-jin. At least, that’s what you’re led to believe until she encounters a Shaman performing an exorcism. It’s a scene you can’t unsee. And then, there’s that time you meet Satan in convincing fashion.
Unless you are a sheer horror fan, you’ve never heard of this movie. Watch it and you’ll see what we mean.
2. Damien Thorn, The Omen (1976)
Everything we learned about the scariest children in horror movies, very well could have stemmed from this chump. That dumb little AC/DC get-up Damien has on give you the creeps on a hanger on its own. Then, he poses in cemetaries for kicks. This kid (played superbly by Harvey Spencer Stephens) is 100% the spawn of Satan, and believe that “Daddy” is all over this ignoble flick.
It’s not that he’s even commiting the heinous acts against people. All “Junior” has to do is stand and stare. The spirits of his minions do the rest to everyone around. That clip is the adoring effect Damien had on his Nanny. And in 1976, this was frowned upon in every way possible. Just about every scene involving the adopted Antichrist here leehes onto your medulla and you can’t shake it.
You will grow to hate this kid! While our top earner is possessed by evil, this kid just is evil.
1. Regan McNeil, The Exorcist (1973)
Who else? A 12-year-old Linda Blair is goofing with an innocent Ouija board and ends up swirling her head like an owl spitting up green pea soup. It was the most intense frightfest ever seen on screen before that moment. Many believe it still is because there was something visceral about how William Friedkin made her bat-ess crazy.
The evil oozes through the screen. The Exorcist stays with you in ways other movies make you jump and then the cringe vanishes. Regan’s sardonic presence (backed by the evil puppeteer, Pazuzu) does not. Like, ever. In fact, there was a scene so scary–yes, that one up there–it was taken out of the original movie.
And her lizard tongue was before the demon manifests and really throws a party. Oh, this movie was the perfect mix of unrivaled evil and unholy terror never quite to be duplicated again. As a reminder of how long Regan’s legacy of slithering iniquity still strikes gold, have you seen this fun meme below?
She is queen of the scariest children in horror movies until further notice. Take this maze. We dare you.
Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.