The creepy child character has become something of a trope within cinema, and it's particularly common within horror movies. Perhaps it's the fact that children are usually seen as naive or innocent that makes them doing disturbing, violent things so unsettling. Inevitably, it's human nature to protect the young, so disturbing complications ultimately arise in horror movies when a malicious, villainous child is affecting another character's safety or even endangering their life.
Horror movies have plenty of creepy kids who aren't necessarily villainous, though. But it's the ones that take things further by having the children be the villains that the following 10 examples aim to highlight. Also, to keep things interesting, while many of the following films are horror movies, a couple of them aren't, which will hopefully show that you don't need to make a horror movie to terrify audiences with villainous youngsters.
'The Omen' (1976)
It's hard to get more villainous than the literal Antichrist/Devil, and in the classic 1976 horror film, The Omen, the Devil himself is reborn into the body of a newborn infant, who the film's main characters adopt and try to care for. As it turns out, this is easier said than done, and violent events plague the family and all those associated with them, with these building in horror and intensity as the film goes on.
It's hard to think of a child from film history who's more villainous than Damien, to be honest. The fact that the film had an allegedly cursed production only adds to the eeriness of The Omen, and has assisted in making it a classic - or even legendary - horror movie.
'City of God' (2002)
City of God is an excellent crime drama that takes place in Rio de Janeiro during the 1960s and 1970s. It focuses on a group of kids who grow into teenagers throughout the film, and the way they adapt to and survive the violent, hostile world they find themselves in.
It's a film that's sympathetic to the majority of its characters, and doesn't seek to demonize most of them for doing what they have to in order to get by and stay alive, largely avoiding clear black-and-white morality. That being said, the closest person to being the film's villain - Lil' Zé - is terrifying. He's shown to be far more violent than the other children (he goes on a murder spree through a motel in his pre-teen years), and gets worse when he grows into a teenager. As far as non-horror movies go, City of God definitely has one of the most violent and ruthless child characters of all time.
'The Exorcist' (1973)
Technically, the villain of The Exorcist isn't actually Regan, a 12-year-old girl. The true villain is Pazuzu - a demonic entity who takes over the body of Regan and gets her to say and do horrific things, leading to the girl's mother and a pair of priests doing all they can to exorcise the demon from her body.
However, given the fact it's an unseen demon that does the possession, the villain at least has the appearance of a young girl for the entirety of the movie, which is one of the things that makes The Exorcist one of the scariest horror movies of all time. Possession or not, Regan - while under the control of Pazuzu - is just too unsettling to omit from a list of iconic villainous children from film history.
'Mikey' (1992)
Slasher movies tend to be pretty predictable. One killer, many victims, lots of them die, and then the final victim usually one-ups the killer, who'll return for an almost inevitable sequel. Mikey aims to shake up this formula by asking: "Okay, but what if the killer was a 9-year-old boy?"
And that's the movie. The title character has been abandoned by his abusive original family, and so goes from foster family to foster family, murdering those who he feels don't show him adequate love or attention. For as silly as it might sound, on paper, some of his actions are pretty horrific - he hurts animals and people in equal measure - making the title character of Mikey a great example of an antagonist child.
'Village of the Damned' (1960)
A classic British film that's equal parts science-fiction and horror, Village of the Damned is about a town that suddenly finds itself with numerous women giving birth to near-identical-looking children. They grow at a strangely fast rate, and the film becomes about solving the mystery of who they are, where they might have come from, and ultimately, what they want.
They take the appearance of kids and are young, so even if they're different from "normal" children, they do still qualify as villainous kids. And their appearance alone is horrifying and unsettling enough, let alone what they're shown of being capable of throughout the film.
'The Good Son' (1993)
The Good Son focuses on a pair of cousins. One of them (Macaulay Culkin) is seemingly evil, and takes pleasure in terrorizing and tormenting the other. The other (Elijah Wood) tries to do everything he can to make this torment known to others, but people don't seem to want to believe him.
It's a film that aims to show that children aren't always sweet, innocent, or good at heart, and does so without any fantastical or supernatural elements (unlike many other horror/thriller films with malicious children). It might not be a great film, but it stands as a good example of a movie with a truly monstrous on-screen kid.
'Toy Story' (1995)
Toy Story is the feature film that started it all for Pixar, given it birthed a string of successful sequels, achieved a great deal of critical acclaim, and revolutionized the animation industry through its groundbreaking CGI. It also gave audiences perhaps the most monstrous kid ever found in a kid's movie: Sid.
Sid tortures, torments, and essentially murders toys throughout the first Toy Story film. Sure, you could argue he couldn't know they were sentient, but his treatment of his younger sister shows that it's not just toys Sid enjoys to hurt in alarming ways. He gets what's coming to him, sure, but not without doing a great deal of damage (and potentially giving young viewers nightmares) beforehand.
'Interview with the Vampire' (1994)
Interview with the Vampire is a solid adaptation of the famous novel of the same name. It focuses on two vampires and their rocky relationship over many years, as they struggle with their condition and each other, resulting in a good deal of violence and bloodshed.
Part of the film involves Lestat (Tom Cruise) turning a very young girl into a vampire, which spirals out of control when it turns out that she's even more bloodthirsty and murderous than any of the other vampires. Seeing a young girl murder people and feast on blood is disturbing, and it's perhaps made even worse by the fact that it's a very eerie 12-year-old Kirsten Dunst, in one of her first big roles.
'Let the Right One In' (2008)
Even though Let the Right One In focuses on a young boy and his bond with a young vampire girl who has the appearance of someone his own age, she's not the villain. Rather, it's the gang of bullies who mercilessly bully the protagonist (Oskar) throughout, who are dealt with at the film's end by Eli (the vampire).
Their comeuppance is one of the most memorable parts of the film, and is quite shocking. Still, their treatment of the main character is shocking, too, and to some extent, they bring their downfall upon themselves. The realistic and quite brutal behavior of the bullies is one thing that makes Let the Right One In so memorable, and perhaps one reason why it's getting yet another adaptation (this time for TV).
'The Bad Seed' (1956)
Hollywood wasted no time in adapting The Bad Seed to the big screen, with the novel coming out in 1954, and the film being released in 1956. It's a slow-burn horror film about a seemingly innocent-looking girl who gradually starts to exhibit more and more signs of sociopathic, violent behavior.
It's worth noting as one of the earliest well-known examples of a villainous child character, and as a result, likely inspired many of the other iconic examples from film history. It's a well-made horror film for its time, and earned several Oscar nominations for the year it was released.