 Starring: Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Fernando Tielve, Inigo GarcesDirector: Guillermo Del Toro Year Of Release: 2001 Plot: In 1939, the bloody Spanish Civil War is coming to an end. 10-year-old Carlos, whose father was killed in the war, is left at an orphanage. He slowly overcomes the usual difficulties of fitting in among the established hierarchy, but never feels comfortable, particularly as he seems to have been latched on to by the ghost of a boy called Santi, who intones Many of you will die. As the caretaker, Jacinto reveals himself to be a true brute and the war comes ever closer, it seems Santis premonitions may be true. |
While in the last few years Guillermo Del Toro has been lauded for his Hellboy movies and Pans Labyrinth (and hes now taking on The Hobbit), for my money his best movie is still The Devils Backbone. While it looks as if its just going to be a fairly generic supernatural thriller, its more a riveting drama, set at the end of the Spanish Civil War, cranking the tension up amongst a group of people, and then throwing in a ghost story on top.
It is a truly wonderful movie and if you havent seen it, I recommend you get a copy from somewhere as its a truly creepy, edge of your seat drama. It also fits into films long tradition of creepy kids, with the main character haunted by a pale, bleeding host. With children normally seen as sweet and innocent, theres some innately scary when they become unhinged. But who are the creepiest kids ever? Well here are my picks.
10. Tomas (Sack Boy) in The Orphanage (2007)
Played by: Oscar Casa
There are a lot of screwed up things involving kids in The Orphanage, but the ghostly Tomas beats it all not because of what he does (hes actually a rather tragic figure), but because of the freaky sack he constantly wears over his head. Its one of the most memorable and disturbing images in recent, although as the film goes on he becomes less creepy and more a sad, vilified figures whos been misunderstood and treated badly since his birth, and even his death has really changed this.
9. Isaac in Children Of The Corn (1984)
Played By: John Franklin
Its actually a toss-up in Children of the Corn whether its Isaac or ginger haired Malachai whos the creepiest, however Id go with Isaac (not least because he look like a young Pete Docherty). After all, anyone who can enter town as a child preacher and convince all the kids there to murder their parents is more than a little unhinged. His ability to command complete control over his followers and even convince them they should accept death at the age of 19 definitely makes him creepy, as does the fact he eventually gets possessed by a demonic version of Jesus, called He Who Walks Behind The Rows. That boy has issues.
8. Aidan in The Ring (2002)
Played By: David Dorfman
In the remake of The Ring, it isnt Samara I find creepiest, it is Rachels (Naomi Watts) kid Aidan, played by David Dorfman. Most disturbing is that Rachel doesnt seem to realise that her child is a weirdo freak who acts wise beyond his years and yet seems one step away from being in a coma. Hes the sort of kid you expect to either cure cancer when he grows up or else end up in the cell next to Hannibal Lecter. However Rachel seems oblivious to this and only worries about a bloody cursed videotape. To be honest if shed just got with the programme and bought a DVD player, there wouldnt be any problem, so she gets little sympathy from me.
7. Santi in The Devils Backbone (2001)
Played By: Junio Valverde
While most of the creepy kids on the list are here because theyre actively unpleasant, Santi is scary more because of circumstance than behaviour. Hes a ghost who creeps around, whispering to the newly arrived orphan Carlos that Many of you will die (okay that sounds as if hes being horrible, but its more a warning than a threat). And when we finally see him properly halfway through the film, hes quite a sight; deathly white with an eggshell cracked forehead, with his wound copiously bleeding, with the blood gushing upwards, as if hes underwater. Its a scary sight, even if Santi himself is a tragic figure.
6. Cole in The Sixth Sense (1999)
Played By: Haley Joel Osment
He sees dead people! Ive included Cole on this list largely because he is insanely creepy the first time you watch the film. He seems damaged, slightly other-worldly, sad and not quite in touch with reality. Its one of the reasons the film became a hit, because Osment puts in a great performance. However the more you watch the movie, the less creepy he becomes, because once you know whats going on he becomes a much sadder, tragic figure, although still slightly unnerving.
5. Village Of The Damned Kids (1960)
Played By: Various
If you know anyone who looks at children through rose-tinted glasses and only ever sees them as sweet, innocent children of God, show them Village Of The Damned (preferably the 1960 version, but the John Carpenter 1995 remake at a push) and theyll soon change their minds. Admittedly, these arent normal kids, theyre alien spawn, but with their identical white blond hair, glowing eyes and ability to control the action of the adults, they are sweet and innocent twisted into something truly unpleasant.
4. Sean in Birth (2004)
Played By: Cameron Bright
Cameron Bright made quite a career for himself in the mid 2000s playing creepy kids, in the likes of Godsend (where he played a murderous clone), Ultraviolet (as a kid who carries something in his blood that could cure vampires) and X-Men: The Last Stand (as a mutant who can subdue the powers of other mutants), however its Birth where hes most disturbing, simply because the whole thing seems so wrong. He plays a 10-year-old who claims to be the reincarnation of Annas (Nicole Kidmans) dead husband, Sean. The film is sometimes silly, but utterly unnerving due to the fact that it deals with a seemingly obsessional love between a grown woman and a 10-year-old boy, which occasionally gets worryingly adult (such as when the kid talks about Anna and Seans sex life, and a scene where they share a birth, both apparently naked). It is perhaps most creepy because if Sean were older, Birth would be a rather delicate chamber piece looking at the line between love and fixation, but because hes a 10-year-old it becomes far more challenging and creepy.
3. Damien in The Omen (1976)
Played By: Harvey Stephens
While Damien is often lauded as the creepiest kid in movie history, I reckon people should go back and watch the original again, because I think his reputation is perhaps a little overblown (the remake turns him much more noticeably scary, because of this). Most of the deaths are apparent accidents or suicides (which may or may not actively be Damiens fault). His many demonic action is pushing his mother down the stairs, which admittedly is pretty bad, but to be honest the real creepiness of the film comes from whats going on around Damien and also the tension over whether they can kill someone who may be Satans son but who looks like a five year boy. Its mainly in the sequels where his true evilness comes through. Damien is creepy, but its more the film that gives you the shivers than the actual child.
2. Henry Evans in The Good Son (1993)
Played By: Macaulay Culkin
Although I find Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son incredibly creepy, I wonder whether itd have the same effect on people a bit older or younger than me. I grew up with Culkin getting left Home Alone and kissing Anna Chlumsky (and then dying from a bee sting) in My Girl, then suddenly we got The Good Son, where hes a completely unhinged psychopath, killing dogs with a crossbow, causing multi-car pile-ups, possibly murdering his three-year-old brother and threatening to kill Elijah Wood, all the while acting to the rest of the world as if hes utterly perfect and sweet. I find itll utterly freaky, partly because Culkin plays it surprisingly well, and also simply because it seems wrong that the kid from Home Alone is trying to kill people. Its little wonder the film proved controversial, not just because it was released close to the Jamie Bulger killing, but because it tramples over our ideas of what children are like.
1. Rhoda Penmark in The Bad Seed (1956)
Played By: Patty McCormack
Patty McCormack holds a notable distinction in the ranks of films creepy kids, because shes just about the only one ever to score an Oscar nomination for playing one (and this was back in 1956, when this sort of movie was often seen as throwaway rubbish). Rhoda Penmark is a truly wonderful and terrifying creation. Shes a young child who literally looks like a doll, and acts like a princess. Its almost a caricature of the perfect girl, but McCormack holds it in just enough so that when its revealed shes an utterly ruthless sociopath who thinks nothing of murdering those who break his strict and idiosyncratic moral code (which largely revolves around those things she thinks stand in the way of her drive to be perfect), that it comes across as creepy rather than silly. Its a film that shows that while we tend to look back on the 50s now as an era of white picket fences and social harmony, even at the time they realised this was hiding something far darker.
Honourable Mentions:
Regan in The Exorcist (1973)
Played By: Linda Blair
I really probably should have included Regan in the top 10, but there are so many great creepy kids that I decided to leave her out simply because I personally dont find her that creepy, despite her love of masturbating with crucifixes, projectile vomiting and spinning her head around.
Danny or The Grady Twins in The Shining (1980)
Played By: Danny Llloyd and Lisa & Louise Burns
Its normally the Grady twins who get the creepy kid vote in The Shining, largely for their identical kisses-and-bows appearance and desire to play for ever and ever and ever. However Danny, with his predilection for talking to his finger and saying redrum in a weird voice is just as freaky.
Veda Pierce Forrester in Mildred Pierce (1945)
Played By: Ann Blyth
This teen terror merely seems a selfish social climber at first but as the film goes on its revealed what a complete and utter bitch she is, taking snobbishness, self obsession and familial heartlessness to murderous extremes.
Karen Cooper in Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
Played By: Kyra Schon
For most of the film, Karen Cooper isnt that creepy, as when we first see her shes merely ill from having been bitten by a zombie. Her legendary contribution to the creepy kids subgenre comes mainly from a single scene where its revealed shes turned into one of the undead herself and is now eating her father, before murdering her moth.
Esther in Orphan (2009)
Played By: Isabelle Fuhrman
A movie that very deliberately tries to play on how creepy kids can be, Orphan initially works very well and Isabelle Fuhrman does a good job of alternating between sweet and murderous, but it all falls apart when the truth is revealed and the movie turns amazingly stupid.
Emily in Hide and Seek (2005)
Played By: Dakota Fanning
Youre not a true child star these days until youve made a creepy kid movie and Dakota Fannings attempt was Hide and Seek, playing Robert De Niros daughter, who seems to have become slightly unhinged by her mothers death and makes friends with an imaginary friend called Charlie.
Joshua in Joshua (2007)
Played By: Jacob Kogan
Although in some respects Joshua fits into the more generic end of the creepy kid subgenre, it is effective because the set-up is more realistic that most movies, playing on the jealousy an older child may have when a younger sibling enters the picture, in this case how it may turn an eccentric prodigy into a monster.
Claudia in Interview With The Vampire (1994)
Played by: Kirsten Dunst
Still the best thing Kirsten Dunst has ever done, Claudia is pretty terrifying, not just because shes a vampire who looks like a sweet little girl, but because of Dunsts great performance. She gives the character such venom, anger and wisdom beyond her years that its quite a sight to behold.
Gage in Pet Sematary (1989)
Played by: Miko Hughes
I like the idea of Gage in Pet Sematary more than I like the actual film. The idea of a family so distraught at the loss of their son theyd bring him back from the dead, even knowing he may not come back the same (an idea thats also played with in the more recent Godsend) is a fascinating one, and while Gage has his creepy moments, especially treating the murder of his family as if its a game, overall the movie comes as pretty daft.
Toshio in Ju-on: The Grudge
Played by: Yuya Ozeki
Toshio deserves a mention purely because he doesnt really do an awful lot, other than show up every so often, looking deathly white and staring in a scary demonic fashion.
Lillith in Case 39 (2010)
Played by: Jodelle Ferland
The sister of Orphans Jodelle Ferland got her own creepy kid movie with Case 39, which Ive included here not because its genuinely scary, but because it shows what can go wrong with these films. The makers seem to think all you need is a scary kid and the movie will sort itself out. Lillith may be an evil demon child, but the film is so stupid it destroys any creepy potential.
TIM ISAAC
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