Children are a vision of innocence and wholesomeness. They haven't had the same experiences as adults, so their worldview tends to be positive. However, there is another way children get used more infrequently but very memorably: as polar opposites of how they act in the real world to instill a sense of creepiness that makes the viewer feel uneasy.

There are many notable, creepy children characters in cinema history. While creepy characters are more often portrayed by adults, there are some key ways in which kids can embrace it: This can involve knowledge a child shouldn't have, violent behavior, or even supernatural powers.

Creepy characters don't have to just exist in genres like horror. They can be used in thrillers, dramas, science fiction, or even comedies. The genre doesn't matter. What matters is how the audience feels when the character does something or says something.

So looking through modern cinema, we found quite a few creepy kids. Check them all out, in chronological order.

David Zellaby (Village of the Damned)

Actor: Martin Stephens

Year: 1960

In a small town in England, everyone falls asleep at the same time for a few hours during the day. When they awake, all the women are pregnant and later give birth to children with blonde hair and spooky eyes.

These identical-looking children are disturbing, but the one who stands out the most is David Zellaby. Aside from being the primary mouthpiece of the group of children, Stephens' performance is robotic, and his voice is soft but intimidating. He is one of the first examples of a creepy child in movies, and it's not only that he looks unusual. It's because of the potential threat he poses at every moment.

Regan MacNeil (The Exorcist)

Actor: Linda Blair

Year: 1973

An entity enters a young girl and possesses her, and the demon needs to be exorcized.

Linda Blair as the possessed Regan is a no-brainer, right? The Exorcist was a cultural moment in American cinema, as the shocking film was talked about all over the world. What makes Regan such a creepy character is her slow transformation from a pure girl to a horrifying creature capable of crawling upside down, spewing green vomit, and saying some of the worst curse words coming out of a child's mouth in cinema for the era it debuted.

Damien (The Omen)

Actor: Harvey Stephens

Year: 1976

A married couple wants nothing more than to have a child. However, their attempts aren't fruitful, and the couple adopt a newborn who grows up to be something more. Something evil.

You won't come across many people born after 1976 named Damien, and it's in part because of this movie. Stephens' role of a young child who may or may not be the antichrist is the focal point of the movie. The stone-cold look on his face as tragedy and horrors happen around him make him a disturbing character. He switches from silent, child with an intimidating stare to enraged, violent kid in a matter of seconds, which makes him all the more creepy–knowing anything can happen to the people who interact with him at any time.

Danny (The Shining)

Actor: Danny Lloyd

Year: 1980

In the Stanley Kubrick movie, a family moves into a large hotel in the mountains to become caretakers over the course of the winter. The father slowly loses his mind through the persuasion of ghosts in the hotel, and attacks his family.

While the focus of this film is on Jack Nicholson playing Jack Torrance, Danny Lloyd's Danny is exceptionally frightening. Outside of him telepathically speaking to Hallorann about their shared psychic gifts, Danny has a connection to the dead, so the viewer gets to see the same thing the young boy does. And in turn, it makes Danny a frightening and creepy character. There's also the scene where Danny says "Redrum" in a very unsettling voice, which resonates with everyone who watches the movie.

Ghost Twins (The Shining)

Actors: Lisa and Louise Burns

Year: 1980

In The Shining, the ghost twins are only briefly in the movie, but it's such a memorable scene. Danny is riding his Big Wheel down the hotel's hallways, and he turns a corner to see two twins holding hands. In unison, they say, "Hello Danny. Come and play with us. Come and play with us, Danny. Forever and ever and ever and ever." We see quick glimpses of their dead bodies hacked up in the hallway, with the floor and walls covered in blood. It's one of the all-time iconic images in cinema despite the scene being less than a minute long.

Carol Anne Freeling (Poltergeist)

Actor: Heather O'Rourke

Year: 1982

A family's home becomes the center of a haunting, and one of the children, Carol Anne, becomes the target of a poltergeist.

Carol Anne isn't the villain of the story. She's the target of the supernatural. However, her blonde hair and bangs and her newfound ability to communicate with the undead are already a little unsettling. However, when she touches the TV screen, which shows nothing but white noise, and says, "They're here," it is utterly spine-tingling. The ghostly activity that happens around her, while O'Rourke's character finds nothing out of the ordinary, makes Carol Anne a very creepy character.

Isaac Chroner (Children of the Corn)

Actor: John Franklin

Year: 1984

Finding themselves trapped in a remote town, a couple finds a cult of children who believe anyone over the age of 18 should be killed.

To be fair, Children of the Corn is filled to the brim with creepy children. However, none of them are as terrifying as Isaac Chroner, the leader of the cult that worships "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." While many may find Malachi (Courtney Gains) to be creepier--trying to take over Isaac's role of the leader of the cult--it's Isaac who ends up being the most terrifying as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" takes over his body to use his terrifying abilities on others. But even prior to those moments, Isaac leads an entire violent cult and does this with such confidence that it's off-putting.

Henry Evans (The Good Son)

Actor: Macaulay Culkin

Year: 1993

At the time this movie came out, Culkin was coming off of two Home Alone movies and My Girl. He had become a lovable, smart goofball, as well as a sympathetic, intelligent companion, respectively. Then, The Good Son came out. Culkin plays a young boy named Henry, whose cousin, Mark, stays with Henry's family. Over the course of the movie, we learn Henry is disturbed and has violent tendencies.

Many people remember the infamous scene where Henry hangs onto a dangling Mark from a treehouse, and while Mark clings to Henry for dear life, Culkin's character says, "If I let you go, do you think you could fly?" That phrase sticks in people's heads. Henry is terrifying. He tries to kill his sister twice, murdered his younger brother, and tries to kill his mother. Henry is deeply disturbing on his own, but what makes this character even more shocking is that America's lovable scamp Macaulay Culkin is playing the role.

Dylan (Wes Craven's New Nightmare)

Actor: Miko Hughes

Year: 1994

Freddy Krueger is back, but this time it's set in the "real world" and Kruger is the embodiment of an ancient demon going after Heather Langenkamp--who played Nancy in the first Freddy movie--and her child, Dylan. She shares her pain and worries with director Wes Craven and Freddy actor Robert Englund--both playing themselves--and tries to find a way to vanquish the demon.

Hughes is no stranger to playing a creepy kid, also appearing in Pet Semetary as Gage Creed. Langenkamp's on-screen son, Dylan, seems to be a regular, everyday kid. As the new Kruger emerges, Dylan taps into pure evil, bit by bit. He witnesses the evil Heather experiences, and eventually, Dylan becomes a vessel and potential victim for this demon. Some of the most-chilling scenes in the film are when the demon speaks through Dylan.

Cole Sear (The Sixth Sense)

Actor: Haley Joel Osment

Year: 1999

The psychological thriller follows a child psychologist trying to help a young boy who can see the dead.

Osment's performance in this role is fantastic. His character is layered: He's hiding a secret, he's trying to deal with talking to a psychologist about his issues, and he's constantly being sought by ghosts. Everything around Cole is terrifying, and because of that, it makes the viewer a bit uneasy about him. This makes him quiet and reserved because of all this trauma he's facing, and the child becomes an outcast as a result.

Samara (The Ring)

Actor: Daveigh Chase

Year: 2002

A journalist stumbles upon a mysterious VHS tape, and if you watch it, you have one week to live before a ghostly girl comes out of a television to end your life.

Samara had a traumatizing childhood, which is slowly revealed throughout the film. Chase plays what, at first, seems like a quiet, reclusive child in a way that is already creepy. However, that level of creepiness is elevated when we see the ghost version of her. On the television, she climbs out of a well, with her long, black hair covering her face. She creeps closer and closer to the camera and crawls out of the TV and into the real world. If that doesn't send shivers up your spine, then nothing will.

Esther (Orphan)

Actor: Isabelle Fuhrman

Year: 2009

In the wake of losing their baby, a young couple adopts a nine-year-old who has a deep, dark secret.

Much like The Good Son, Orphan deals with a new child entering a relatively stable family dynamic, with the family already having five-year-old and 12-year-old children. Esther, on her own, is a little bit creepy, having knowledge of certain aspects of adult life--like sex--as a child, which is extremely off-putting. As the film progresses, you learn how evil the child actually is through her actions, like trying to murder her family.

Charlie (Hereditary)

Actor: Milly Shapiro

Year: 2018

Following the death of a mentally ill woman, the film follows the woman's daughter and her two children as they deal with the trauma of this incident. They learn about their heritage and mental illness, before encountering the supernatural.

Charlie is a character dealing with a lot of grief after her grandmother's death. She's obviously traumatized and has withdrawn herself. However, it's also apparent that the mental illness her grandmother had is affecting her as well. Shapiro is excellent at playing this role and her "thousand-yard-stare" is nerve-racking. The creepiest moment from Charlie comes when she clicks her tongue in her mouth, a sound effect used to great effect throughout the movie.

Umbrae and Pluto (Us)

Actors: Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex

Year: 2019

A family on vacation finds themselves trapped in their house as familiar stalkers try to enter and assault them.

All of the tethered versions of the family are undeniably great, but when it comes to the children, the tethered versions of Jason and Sora--who go by the names Pluto and Umbrae, respectively--are especially unnerving. Joseph is exceptionally scary with the way she stares at everyone with a slight smile on her face, and the mask-wearing Alex finds ways to be creepy through his body language.

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