The Little Monsters

One of the most talked about horror movies of this past summer has been director Jaume Collet-Serra's Orphan. In this movie, unlike in most horror films, the monster is a child. Within the horror genre, this may seem to be a new trend. Earlier in the year there was The Unborn (directed by David S. Goyer) and The Uninvited (directed by Charles and Thomas Guard). Not too long before these there was The Others (directed by Alejandro Amenabar, 2001) and The Orphanage (directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, 2007). All of these involve monster- or demonic children of some sort. There have been several others in addition to these movies in our current decade, the 2001s, but even so, such a subgenre is really no new trend. As the list below indicates, the child as monster in horror films is a theme that dates almost as far back as the birth of cinema itself! If you like being scared by evil or ghoulish children in film you may want to try to get a hold of DVDs of the movies listed below or catch streamed versions of them. Because many of them are obscure they may be hard to come by (Even I haven't seen all of them!). But because of this, hunting for them may be half the fun!

The 1950s and '60s

The Bad Seed (directed by Mervyn LeRoy, 1956): This is the classic monster-child movie that started the whole subgenre. However, the little girl in this film is no literal monster from beyond the grave. As with the little girl in today's Orphan, she is psychologically a demon who raises hell (figuratively speaking) for the adults she comes in contact with. The movie itself had its own "bad seed" in 1985 as in a bad TV-remake.

Village of the Damned (directed by Wolf Rilla, 1960): In this fabulous British movie an alien force impregnates the women of a small rural town. When the children are old enough to walk they wreak havoc on the grown-ups of the town through telekinesis. This movie was directed really well and contains great plot development and eye-catching surreal elements. John Carpenter's 1995 re-make is far from doing it justice (more on his version later).

Rosemary's Baby (directed by Roman Polanski, 1968): In this movie the kid is just about as bad as a kid can get-not only is it Rosemary's baby but also the devil's. Yes, that means the mother gets laid by the devil, but by no fault of her own since the devil rapes her. I thought this movie had its good parts, such as the evil history of the apartment building that Rosemary and her husband live in, and that the irony was great. However, the nature of the movie just gets a little too upsetting for my taste and there are major contradictions to the Christian mythology behind it. For some people, such as myself, it can get very morbid.

The 1970s

The Exorcist (directed by William Friedkin, 1973): It looks like Rosemary's Baby started a line of devil possession/son of Satan movies. In this classic, as many of us know, a little girl is possessed by the devil. This is the most popular of all devil- possessed child movies.

It's Alive (directed by Larry Cohen, 1974): A couple's new born baby is a monster that is a deadly threat to the entire city of its birth. This is a good twist on the plot of the monster-child subgenre. However, it's not quite my kind of monster-child movie, but not because of its B-rated quality but for its seemingly infanticidal message.

The Omen (directed by Richard Donner, 1976): As with Rosemary's Baby, the demonic child in this movie, Damien, is the son of Satan. More precisely, he is the anti-Christ (Jeff Shannon). However, he's a few years older than Rosemary's baby and perhaps even more threatening because of. This movie is loaded with suspense and contains an eerie satanic sound track sure to echo in your head long after having watched it.

It's Alive 2: It Lives Again (directed by Larry Cohen, 1978): In this sequel to It's Alive several babies of the same breed of the monster from the first film attack people (Amazon.com).

The Manitou (directed by William Girdler, 1978): This movie involves the birth of a child who is the reincarnation of an evil Native American spirit. Even though this movie falls within the B-rated category, the mythical elements behind it contribute well to the plot and the initially unexplained deaths uphold the suspense really good. It's a fun one.

Alien (directed by Ridley Scott, 1979): Many people don't think of this one as of the monster-child subgenre. However, I chose to list this film because it involves the birth (more like the burst) of a monster (although via a male astronaut). However, the monster does not stay a "child" for very long since it grows to its adulthood within only hours.

The 1980s

The Changeling (directed by Peter Medak, 1980): This movie is about the ghost of a little boy who had been murdered by his father and now haunts the house of his homicide currently inhabited by a music instructor. Through the music instructor the ghost seeks revenge. Not only is this one of the best monster-child movies, it's one of the best ghost story films in general. The gothic setting is done great with the mansion's eerie, bone white interior walls and the suspense does a good job building up to the climax. The story unfolds like a paranormal detective mystery.

The Shining (directed by Stanley Kubrick, 1980): Unlike the monster-child in The Changeling, the ghost children, the Grady twins, are not actually the starring monsters in this super high quality film based on Steven King's novel of the same title. But they are creepy nevertheless, particularly in the way that they lead a couple's little boy into the evil secrets of the remote and winter-long vacant hotel that he and his parents stay at.

Firestarter (directed by Mark Lester, 1984): Also based on a Steven King novel, this one involves a girl who can start fires through telekinesis. So she's like Carry White of King's Carrie only a lot younger, 9 years, and her telekinetic power is limited to specifically pyrokinesis (the mental ability to create fire). Also, the scientific concepts of the telekinesis are emphasized much more (IMDb). However, even with these unique elements, I still felt this movie was too much like Carrie.

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (directed by Jerry Jameson and Larry Cohen, 1987): They still live in '87! On a remote island. But only to migrate elsewhere to be a threat to the human race again (Amazon.com)!

Child's Play (directed by Tom Holland, 1988): The demon-child in this movie is actually a doll of a little boy character named Chucky. However, the doll is possessed by the spirit of an evil man. This movie spawned several sequels into the '90s (see below) but is unnecessarily gory and trying to be a little too comical for a horror movie. Actually, I didn't find a damn thing funny about it.

The 1990s

The Omen IV: The Awakening (directed by Jorge Montesi and Dominique Othenin-Girard, 1991): Damien Thorn is thirteen in the first sequel (1978) and a grown man in the second (1981) and so is just a little too old in both for the topic we're discussing. So that's why I skipped Omen II and III and am listing and discussing this fourth film of the series. By this film he's dead anyway (Mark J. Popp). And so a new devil child is born and it's a girl (Popp) (Hell's cigars for everyone? Not me, thank you. (I don't even smoke!)). I don't feel this one is that great merely for the reason that the devil's son of the first three movies that the series is based on is not in this one.

Interview With the Vampire (directed by Neil Jordan, 1994): This movie involves a little vampire girl, who is nearly as menacing as the adult vampires. Her character is so believable it makes one hesitant about ever babysitting a child in that age range. Based on an Anne Rice novel.

Child's Play sequels 2-4 (Directed by John Lafia, 1990; Jack Bender, '91; Ronny Yu, '98): These sequels to the first movie seem to just get worse and worse, the worst of them-for the '90s at least--being the fourth one subtitled Bride of Chucky. Is it really that much of Child's Play if Chucky does such an adult thing as getting married? Well, in 2004's Seed of Chucky (directed by John Mancini) it is because he and his bride have a kid. But, because the first movie was so bad, I didn't waste my time with any of these.

Village of the Damned (directed by John Carpenter, 1995): This is the poor remake I had mentioned above. A major difference in this movie from the original is that the setting is moved to the rural U.S., which in my opinion is not as dark as rural England, detracting much of the sense for terror. Although the camera work is good, most of the surreal elements are gone. But what really makes this movie crappy is that, like with his Halloween movies and other poor remake 1982's The Thing, it becomes much too sadistic. Only with this one it's worse because the sadism is aimed at minorities of color (particularly Asians) making the movie racist as well, even if on a more subtle level (which may be the worst form of racism considering). In my honest opinion, this movie is as guilty as the alien force that basically rapes the town's women.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (directed by George Lucas, 1999): The demonic child in this movie is . . . well that's just it: he's not demonic in this movie. However, he slowly but surely becomes a demonic character in the following two prequels (which were actually released in the 2001s). But since many of us have seen the first three Star Wars films (episodes IV, V and VI) we know that in this one little, innocent Anakin Skywalker is to become the evil Darth Vader, a horror type figure even though the movies aren't classified as horror.

Since the 1950s, the monster- or demonic child character has been haunting cinema. All of these movies involve either life threatening children or children of the dark supernatural who bring some sort of warning or dark prophecy to older kids and/or adults. Because many of these movies are so low quality-made, at least according to mainstream movie standards, they may be hard to get a hold of. If you do get a hold of any of these rarer ones please drop me a comment and tell me where you found them; many of these I haven't seen in the last several years but are so great in their own right that I would like to see them again! Good luck!

References

http://www.amazon.com/Its-Alive/dp/B000HT38B2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1252558282&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Omen-Gregory-Peck/dp/B00004TS0G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1250038218&sr=1-2

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087262/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102585/plotsummary