Children as Horror

[@VinusseyBeats]

the real reason why people don't call the police in horror movies is that the officer would laugh at them if they said "HELLO? THERE'S A 6 YEAR OLD IN MY HALLWAY"

[@spookymcg]

“What’s the 6 year old doing?” “He’s singing an old school nursery rhyme.” “Okay?”

[@Third_4]

I still don't get why they don't just lie about their situation for the cops to actually figure it out when they get there.

[@yaglanz8696]

Just tell them the kid is black

[@icantthinkofanything798]

No they wouldn’t, it would just be more about an unidentified child and you trying to return them to their parents. They might laugh if you sound terrified though

[@grigorikarpin]

The real reason is cops are basically useless in an emergency :)

[@amandacastillon8643]

I think a root of "kids as horror" is really a fear of corruption, taking of innocence.

[@DarkwaveMistress]

This is exactly what I was thinking.

[@bossdogw2051]

That's what I was thinking

[@TheAbigailDee]

Came to say the exact same thing.

[@yoavbenclaudia3073]

Additionally, it may also be the fear of manipulation. The fear that something is using a lure, and that child may not be an actual human child, or even if it were, that it may be controlled like a puppet by a greater threat trying to lower your guard.

[@PauTheDeo]

I wasn't thinking this, nor did I come here to say the exact same thing

[@bramblechaser162]

As a middle school teacher, I can tell you I’ve met some off putting kids. Kids that have made me wonder if that child would bring a weapon to school. It’s more on the disturbing side.

[@tayyibahz9343]

What were they like? How did they act? Can u go in more detail I’m interested plz

[@MasterFustache]

I agree that "not knowing how a child will react" is probably the ideal way to use them in a horror film. Giving an entity that has not developed an understanding of the world, or any sort of empathy or morality, powers beyond what those around them have and you have a recipe for some good spooks. Kids pull the legs off of bugs because bugs have no way of communicating with the kid that what they are doing if senseless, painful, and wrong. Just replace the bug with another human and you have what's basically homegrown cosmic horror.

[@spookymcg]

That’s a great way of putting it!

[@justanothermook6348]

see this is precisely what i was thinking children can be clueless little devils in disguise, giving them power and responsibility in a situation they don't know the gravity or results of or even just _what they're doing here to begin with_ is ripe for scare, drama and tragedy potential. though giving them any sort of dangerous power they can't hope to fully grasp or do right with can be equally effective

[@cephalo_bot]

I also think that children as horror can be scarier from the perspective of someone who experienced trauma in childhood. If you're a child and experience something a child should never experience it's going to make you respond in strange ways. Usually in horror like this I'm more likely to identify with the child. Sort of in a what happened to you to make you like this way. And that's where the horror comes from.

[@hunterv9259]

...especially if that trauma came from another child lol. kids hurt each other (and more so than just schoolyard bullying), not enough people recognize that fact

[@bebebonb0n]

@@hunterv9259 rule of rose kinda tackles that, absolutely gem of a game

[@soupydouby]

​@@hunterv9259also, "just schoolyard bullying" is incredibly harmful and affects people for the rest of their lives (be it increased suicide rates, chronic pain, other mental health issues, intimacy problems n more) i was bullied from 6-10 years old - eating out of bins, stolen underwear, name-calling, shoving, stalking etc - and it fucked me up. didn't help that it was constantly dismissed by the adults in my life. bullying is traumatic and if it were adults instead of kids, it would be resolved with jail time. kids are cruel

[@cephalo_bot]

@@hunterv9259God you're right. It's actually more common for children to be hurt by other children than by adults. COCSA is a real problem that no one wants to talk about.

[@mahogania5536]

​@@hunterv9259even schoolyard bullying can get straight up criminal

[@katherinewiykovics1602]

One of my favorite short horror stories involving kids was one about a child who wanted to be a vet when she was young and had a toy dog that she could take apart. Well, she saw her actually dog panting or something and thought he was broken so she...tried to fix him in ways that maimed the dog. Innocence is funny, precious, and terrifying at the same time. An innocent child might not understand they are hurting someone when they do something. Its why child murderers are so terrifying.

[@cat8324]

Vivarium is my favourite kid horror film because young sheldon always scared the shit out of me. Anyway. I think a lot of people find children uncomfortable to be around, parents included. They're loud and awkward and they defy all social conventions. They say weird shit out of the blue and they're violent for no reason. The twins from the shining could be completely normal 10 year olds. You can't really use children to terrify but they definitely make you feel creepy crawly.

[@spookymcg]

Love calling that kid “young sheldon”

[@piss7610]

Bazinga

[@ladystarfire]

Something that I think could be amazing to explore in horror is the fact that in our world children really don’t have rights and aren’t treated as humans, but as properties. Showing how many abusive parents stop liking their children and start their abuse around the late childhood, when they realise their little doll they thought could be a small version of themselves is a real human being with a personality and thoughts. I saw many times in medias portrayals of teenagehood and, while that’s also important, I think that childhood and how children live in a world they can’t navigate alone should be portrayed too, especially in the case of child abuse and what it does to children, who then become adults.

[@a-morgan-l]

Throwing my hat in the ring, I think horror movie children are often scariest to those who like/interact with them because if you know kids, you have this nebulous understanding of how kids usually interact with the world, how good of actors they are at so and so age, and how to gauge their moods based on demeanor and affect. Horror movie kids are hired actors in a controlled environment, so a well acted scary kid can be almost like an uncanny valley type thing. Like your brain registers "hey most 8 year olds wouldn't be able to hold that stare so long without cracking" and boom, eerie vibes from the kid. It's funny because I work in childcare but am actually with you here, evil kids read as super camp to me despite being able to see why that's not universal.

[@aemidaniels]

for me, it's a blend of 2 things. 1) this kid is not acting like a normal kid. They're in a place they shouldn't be or doing something that's entirely too calm/happy for the situation. Why are they not uneasy? Crying? Kids are great indicators of a solid vibe check fail. I'm already on edge and the sheer CALM of this child is unnerving. 2) Children are seen as pure and innocent, making them the ideal creatures to make us lower our guard. Even unposessed kids make me nervous these days. I've met far too many kids who will approach you all sweet and cute only to kick you in the shin and run away cackling. because kids are so honest with their intent and emotions, they are very capable of acts of pure unfiltered evil for no reason other than it is fun. Take that knowledge into a horror scenario and I'm noping out of there. except, weirdly enough, ghost kids. I don't know why but I'm way less afraid of ghost kids. Probably because they feel like they are only lashing out because they were hurt. I feel bad for them.

[@bencesarvari2235]

I thought this would touch on imagery of childbirth and why that and infancy is so horrifying. Being vulnerable as well as taking care of someone in such a vulnerable state. Eraserhead is a great movie about the horror of birth and family.

[@heathermackenzie3490]

I love your essays. They get me thinking. I am a parent but I think a lot of the idea of children in horror is we expect children to be a certain way and when they aren't, there's no safety from them. Nobody is going to believe you. My reccs for good kid horror is Chidren of the Corn, Village of the Damned ( not the remake) The Bad Seed or the Twilight Zone episode "its a good life" as examples of terrifying kids

[@virgil6493]

I grew up around children in the foster system- more often than not, (and I mean, 99.9% of the time, it's external forces that led them into care, but I can remember a few that absolutely terrified me, and I slept with my bedroom door blocked from the inside, those ones I remember most. The tragedies attached to them made relating to them with empathy nebulous, you want to extend kindness, be gentle, but they'd take advantage of that, and as a child myself that'd already been abused, these children were frighteningly violent, unempathetic, and sadistic, not just in my eyes, but adults, too. I'm not sure I'm really illustrating how terrifying children can be, even those without attachment issues, or those who weren't abused or influenced by abusive, scary adults. It's important to remember very scary adults are scary because of an arrested development where they have only maladaptive options to bridge that deficit. They are children in adult bodies.

[@BauzzyS]

I’d love to see you maybe talk about psychological horror games, like Omori or cry of fear

[@astraying5824]

My sister works with trauma in children. With each story I hear about some of her clients, I realize more and more how some kids really are just creepy/psychopathic for no reason. Their minds and hearts are so delicate, and the thought of such being so easily manipulated can be terrifying. Every other while she tells me about a kid with seemingly no negative outside influence who has somehow developed violent tendencies. There’s just something so unsettling knowing it can just happen out of nowhere. Love your vids, keep it up!

[@owloko1349]

In general I feel that kids can be scary because of how not scary they are, like they are usually so unassuming that a scary kid is like a very fast old man, it's so opposite to normal that it immediately throws you off

[@UliTroyo]

I hate to tell you, but if you’re not afraid of kids, it means you’re going to be a parent. I never found them scary, and now look at me-I’ve got three.

[@uhmuh7484]

kids are too silly and adorable to be scary

[@Jopeth23]

My fear of "scary children" in movies prolly started when my foolish 10-year old self popped in a VHS tape of the movie adaptation of Stephen King's "Children Of The Corn", mistaking it for one of the cartoons I use to watch (the sleeves must have been switched, I can't remember). The idea of children who were around my age being in a murder cult scared the shit out of me. As I grew up, I watched more movies featuring scary children and came into my own conclusion why they are scary: 1.) Children (or at least malevolent entities wearing skin of children) could easily fool adults and lull them into complacency, thinking they are incapable of doing any harm. 2.) As mentioned in the video, the innocence of children any evil they might have committed that they would think of it as normal, or even part of their play activity (such as in "Children Of The Corn). I mean, if a kid brandishes a knife and tells you, "Hey, let's play catch!" and gleefully throws it to you, thinking it's normal play behavior, I would be scared. But then again, this might fall under "subversion of expectation" cathegory.

[@amythepandemonium3673]

First thing I could think of is the child is a signifier, either of a greater force that could harm you, or of some circumstance it has that could lead to harm you. So it's corner all over again, what this element has or that could be scary? Reminded me of the Big daddies in Bioshock.

[@sophiatalksmusic3588]

Not a horror movie, but this video reminds me of the time I was watching "A Woman's Face" (1944) with my parents. The main character is a criminal who, in part of the film, disguises as a governess in order to kill a rich family's child so that her lover can inherit their fortune. There's a very suspenseful scene where she's on a ski lift with the child and, as he's looking over the railing, she nearly opens the gate so that he'd fall to his death, but she ultimately decides not to. When I was watching the movie, I thought the suspense was gripping enough, but my mom was FREAKING OUT. It turns out, the actor who played the kid looked a lot like her close friend's son, and she kept commenting, "he looks just like (her friend's son)," and seemed visibly distressed by seeing the child in danger. While I thought it was a brilliant scene on its own and plenty suspenseful, my mom was experiencing another degree of distress watching it because of her personal experiences.

[@finpin2622]

I think one of the ways “children as horror” works is more conceptual- maybe you’re not scared by the presence of a child doing something weird, but you’re more disturbed by the concept of a child (who should be innocent) doing something horrible or violent. It’s more shocking when a child commits some kind of crime than an adult, because a lot of times we think a child is inherently more pure than an adult. Such is why there’s a stereotype of demons using child-like identities to seem innocent, or ghosts attaching themselves to children as their imaginary friends. Sure, in that case the fear is more of a demon or ghost, BUT, it adds a layer of discomfort because it’s challenging what may be your worldview. The unpredictability element I think also makes sense, though. Sometimes children do things that make it very clear their ability to empathize with others has NOT fully developed and even in real life that’s off-putting. Even if they aren’t a physical danger to you, they can be mentally tormenting in some way, and especially in the case of the horror movie being from the caretaker’s perspective it triggers a “Oh god, what am i doing wrong? Is this my fault?” Sort of fear. Also the idea that no one else will be on your side and there is no way to “retaliate” or even truly communicate with the child, because you don’t ACTUALLY want to hurt a child. Well, maybe some people would be okay with drop kicking a child but when I think of it myself, I would have an incredibly hard time hurting a child even if they WERE posessed by a demon lol.

[@Eileeleedon]

Kids are seen as the purest form of innocent. So seeing them in upsetting and scary situations makes us uncomfortable because it’s something that’s just so viscerally wrong.

[@moon2069]

Absolutely fantastic editing, props to the new guy! Your lighthearted and full of personal references yet nuanced commentary is always spot on! Keep up the good work!!

[@kiah9085]

I think one part of it too is that you can’t really…. Defend yourself from a kid? Like physically yeah but. I work with special ed high schoolers and some of them end up getting crushes on staff or stalking them, some make up accusations to get people who annoy them in trouble. They don’t understand it could ruin someone’s life to say a certain thing or show up at their house, all they know is that they’re mad or that they want to see that person and in the short term doing that will get them what they want. What are you going to do if they show up? Insist you don’t know how they found you and that you didn’t invite them? Call the cops? Fight a disabled child? Could you even make yourself do those things? Brightburn and Vivarium did some of that interestingly because one of the parents had that idea and the other instinctually felt the need to protect them (tho brightburn is bad). Also as adults it’s your job to control how a child ends up and take care of them even if it’s not your kid. The idea of the kid being stronger than you is frightening because they do do things like hit you and the reason it’s okay is because you are powerful enough to not be bothered and teach them better usually. How do you teach a kid who doesn’t have to deal with consequences that they can’t have whatever they want? And if they aren’t more powerful at what point do you give them up for a lost cause? When do you know it’s malevolent and not a misunderstanding? My biggest issue working with social emotional disturbance kids was not knowing when I had to call security because I wanted to give them an out because. They’re kids. And that’s a scary consequence that seems too harsh. So kids are scary in a sense of not being what you expect as you pointed out, a sense of helplessness because you can’t call for help or fight back as easy as you would be willing to against an adult, being misconstrued as a bad person, and the psychological aspect of how much of this is your responsibility. Saw isn’t scary because of the traps. It’s scary because it pushes you to do things that are morally reprehensible. If there’s an even 1% chance I can make the kid change their mind I can’t kill them. If there’s no chance and I do there is a 99% chance I am going to jail forever and will be shunned and hated.

[@sarawhitley9833]

As someone who works in on the children’s unit in a hospital. The scariest thing to me is that I know what even the most well behaved child is capable of. I’ve had a 5 year old who has stabbed her older sibling and put a turtle in a microwave and she was one of the sweetest kids there

[@chaoscat6436]

As a girl, the thought of having a child is horrifying. They are a parasite. The Alien series gets this horror.

[@vanguardiris3232]

Babies are cute and vulnerable and unable to clearly communicate what they need, but even worse, there are parts of their brain that aren't yet covered by skull! Putting your thumb in the wrong place on their head could kill them. A misplaced word spoken to a child could give them nightmares or give them the wrong idea about the world, and that's scary. Young kids in real life make me feel like a rampaging creature of unstoppable destruction and I wish that was more prominent in horror fiction

[@TrixxedHeart]

Gonna be honest while it's not exactly the same, this is why I liked the FNAF movie so much, I'm not a parent, but I'm the oldest of three siblings and have helped taken care of them their entire life, so might as well be a parental figure. The idea of being an older sibling out with your family, tasked with keeping an eye on your younger sibling, my biggest fear has always been looking away for two seconds and them getting lost, or worse, kidnapped. It was genuinely the most terrifying thing in that entire movie for me, the absolute discomfort and horror I experienced watching how the ghost children interacted with the main character was IMMENSE.

[@galacticgila219]

Watching the Fnaf movie- the part where the Freddy kid runs off and the baby sitter follows? I would follow the kid too, but I wouldn’t go up to Freddie’s mouth like she did

[@chazruff6898]

Give the game "rule of rose" a try, that made me understand horror with children / childhood themes. I think it's mostly about the contrast of innocent symbols (games, songs, certain clothes, etc) that evoke bostalgia in us + horrific situations that corrupt them. Like taking comfortable memories of simpler times and smashing them

[@SoffyChannel]

I love your takes in this video but I really wished it was longer! I was right in the zone listening to your soothing voice when you appeared in the outro already..

[@doreenlarson5849]

i remember being quite young and in the backseat of the car while my mother and my friend's mom talked, and they came to the conclusion that they both loved horror movies until they became parents, they just couldn't handle horror anymore. i remember it stuck out to me a lot because my mom never once implied she ever enjoyed anything horror before that moment.

[@jaz9261]

You are correct as someone who answered yes, it is What happened to make them like this if the kid is the horror im left wondering why the,kid did that, kids aren't adults, they don't have as many reasons for doing horid things, if a kid kills someone I'm left wondering why, what happened, did someone die in front of them, do they not understand death, did they witness something similar, do they understand death and simply need help Why does this kid have powers, did someone experiment on them, did they have them naturally and weren't taught to control them If there's a kid not scared in a horrible situation what happened to desensitize them, if there's a kid in old timey clothes saying "he's behind you" I wonder if their a ghost who heard those words in their final moments If there's a little girl in a haunted house, its obvious that kid died

[@BloodylocksBathory]

Totally agreed on the final discussion point. I think a story that explores how children can be legitimately frightening is the novel Let's Go Play at the Adams'. It explores the way kids can be super screwed up in their lack of impulse control, inherent destructive behavior, and shallow thought process. In the real world, all too often, a child will do something terrible and when asked why, they simply say, "I don't know."

[@spookymcg]

thanks for the rec!

[@Memes_Confirmed]

I also think that the reason kids could be used for fear, is either because you don't want anything happening to them due to their innocence to the world. Or the second one is because we view kids as very innocent, (most of the time) and it kinda puts a fear in us when something that is supposed to be innocent is suddenly not anymore

[@madamedeath3780]

Load bearing 'In an Appropriate Way'. Also, you had a great point with the 'Uncanny Valley' Theory, in more ways than one! I've actually noticed something with people I know and have known for a while in their thoughts about kids. My sister is notorious for basically hating children. Okay, not Hating them, more the idea of them. She hates when children are about because the way they behave is usually tied to their parents and she Actually hates adults, not to mention that she dislikes the idea of being responsible for them in the case their parents are not. But the thing I noticed is that she also thinks most, if not all children are pretty weird looking, or ugly in a way. Which would be just another product of her dislike of children in general if not for the existence of another fact that contrasts with this one. She thought I was really cute. I'm not here bragging or anything, I swear I have a point with this. She's a fair bit older than I am and we have three brothers in between us, so she was almost an adult by the time I was born, and yet she still thought I was adorable despite already having a dislike for children by that point. Now it isn't just her, a lot of my brothers and sisters and friends have expressed that children look weird or ugly in some way. I don't, to me all babies are adorable in their own way, but I think I understand why they find kids so off-putting. It's a version of the uncanny valley effect, but due to them not knowing the parents. I believe that my siblings found me 'Cute' because they were familiar with the features that mirrored our own set of close adults. I had my dad's ears, I had my mom's nose, my grandma's chin, my grandpa's eyes. They were familiar and therefore comforting, and to top it off, they were miniaturized! Which is almost universally cute! But for other children? They don't have 'Familiar' features, but they do have features that mimic some kind of adult. I asked my brother once about what was so ugly about the child I showed him, and he pointed out the eyes, how dark they were and how wide, which matched their parents, but when I showed him the mom and dad of said child he expressed no such discomfort. So yeah. Children are tiny sort-of-humans and they scare some people with a natural uncanny valley effect! Just a lil thing I thought was really cool, and helped me realize that my siblings aren't jerks, as they don't express their dislike to the kids themselves, and are always kind and helpful despite these feelings. They don't hate kids, not really, they just find them odd looking due to unfamiliarity. This went on waaaay longer than I thought, lmao, enjoy this essay ig.

[@connect2reality]

One thing that comes to my mind about seeing a child doing something children do somewhere they normally wouldn't makes me thing that it's something that isn't a child trying really hard to pretend to be a child. Especially if the child has knowledge of things no child would know.

[@Vergillux44]

It is a true crime that you dont get more views,i really enjoy everything about your Videos. Keep up the great work

[@PixlWizrd]

Found your channel earlier today, I go to your main page and lo and behold, there’s a new video. The stuff you talk about is pretty intriguing, so consider me subscribed.

[@dominickrouser8124]

I think 'Children of the Corn' the original movie from 1984 based on Stephen King's classic short story is one of the greatest Stephen King Adapted films. The child actors as well as the adult actor put such a great perfomance on the screen, with genuinely terrifying moments and genuinely funny moments in the film.

[@Kazooples]

my mum watched The Exorcist before she had kids and she thought it was yknow, pretty scary but also kind of stupid, but then after she had a daughter she watched it again and it became a lot more terrifying for her.

[@theAxolotlKween]

I think that Shirley Jackson is one of the best at writing unsettling children, and not even in a way that’s paranormal and demonic. Also cool video!

[@eleanormarks7083]

"The Innocents" is a great horror movie that explores what can be scary about children, I would really recommend it.

[@catalinaplaza7909]

While I understand your reasoning, is the uncanny valley, kids doing things they shouldn’t be doing or something that looks like a kid but is not is the scary part (I can’t think rn on a good example) but I feel is more effective when you see horror through a kid

[@scoobydoo2onvhs]

I really love your content. I’m thinking that I just made it to your work before you blow up. Please keep making more! I’m a huge fan ❤️

[@spookysnek]

I’m surprised that a certain episode of The Twilight Zone isn’t being brought up. The one where the little boy has the power to do anything, and he won’t let anyone leave. He’s sent all the cars, animals, and even just people he doesn’t like to the “corn field” because the adults around him are too scared he’ll turn his powers on them. He creates abominations just to kill them, because no one has the courage to tell him it’s wrong. This episode traumatized me more than any other Twilight Zone episode, because just imagine that your life is in the hands of a small child, and could end it because he finds you annoying.

[@princesspancakes3737]

I generally am not scared by kids exactly, but it's the setup that does it. Especially when the kids don't necessarily have connection to the main characters, but are there anyway. Especially when they're just kind of mysterious and in the background. Another thing I like but is not done much is kids that appear human, but are definitely not.

[@MaggotLou]

I remember the first time I tired to watch the Bubabaduke with my mom she had us turn it off lol and said it was about demons and was gonna let demons into the house. I didn’t try to explain to her that it was about grief because I figure she was just really bothered by it and so we just turned it off.

[@ztsharp8963]

new video from our king

[@larabulek1344]

ur videos are getting better and better!!!! love ur channel very underrated

[@jlshootingstar333]

I think the best example I have of reacting strangely as a kid was when I was around 6-7 and my mom left some hot dogs cooking on the stove and they caught on fire. I don't remember if I was even scared, but I do remember what I did. I just went to knock on the bathroom door where my mom was and she asked "What?" and I just fairly calmly responded "Mommy, the hotdogs are on fire." and she ran out with her pants down and sprinkled baking soda on the fire to put it out which I thought was interesting bc I didn't know you could put out fires like that lol. It's not really a scary example but then again it sure did scare her 😂

[@apizzathatgiantforthesimpl5191]

A really good example of child horror is The Bad Seed starring Patty McCormick. It’s a confrontation of what it would be like to have a child who has no developed sense of regret or empathy and how little parents are equipped to deal with that. What are you supposed to do when your child is an unrepentant killer? Turn them in and bear the scorn of everyone you know? Do nothing and try to keep it under wraps? It's a scary concept.

[@aliiiiiiit]

i think the scary thing about kids is how they are less aware of the fixed conventions of our world and sometimes seem to be more connected to the supernatural realm or to the dimension of death and so they work really well as a sort of medium in a supernatural horror situation. also the idea of that kid then knowing more than you about a situation and having the upperhand, knowing how unregulated kids can be, is terrifying. in these cases kids might not be The Source of Evil but theyre still an extremely menacing presence because theyre in this kind of limbo between this world and another. i think that’s the case with the shining. also we all have memories of strange or paranormal things happening in our childhood that were immediately invalidated by the adults around us so the monster under the bed trope opens up this primordial fear in us that we simply can’t come to terms with because we can’t tell if our little brains made those things up or if we were right all along

[@polliwoggle4081]

I don't typically comment and I'm sure there's not anything I could add to this conversation that hasn't already said, but I wanted to throw in my two cents anyway. I just happen to have a really niche type of horror that I fucking adore and can't find enough of: "pastel cutesy shit that will traumatize you." Think DDLC for something more well-known, and think Omori for my favorite example. And it's exactly the reason kids in horror work well for me- it looks innocent. Cute. Safe. Loveable even! Then hours of gameplay later you're having to step away for a minute because it got that fucked up. (Side note; Omori was the first game to do that for me and honestly I applaud it for that.) The horror that works best for me is when it should be safe. When every cue is telling me that this is a place/person/etc. that's cute and loveable and then there's something GLARINGLY OBVIOUSLY BAD OR DANGEROUS. Kids in horror is similar in vibe to that "cute horror" niche I love so much, at least the way they scare me.

[@spookymcg]

I know exactly what you mean! I actually have an Omori tattoo on my left arm!

[@rexaclyde2235]

great vid man, most videos are a slog for my adhd brain to get through but this is a really engaging watch :]

[@TheDonLemonSnickety]

Kids do one horrifying thing adults would ever dare..they bluntly and loudly say embarrass awkward crap.

[@davidallenmandal2439]

It was back in 2018. I got off work a bit late thanks to my "superviser". It was 6:30 when I got out of the office. The street was awfully quiet. No one was in the street except a kid. He looked like a 6 year old. He was wearing some shorts. Just shorts. He was looking at me. As I passed him I noticed the kid was slowly walking behind me. I didn't think much about it. Suddenly I heard am inhuman scream from behind. I can't describe the sound but it was the type of sound that would make anyone run. I tried to keep calm. I walked normally. The scream happened again. I looked back and I saw the kid. I strated walking faster. I heard the screams a couple of more times. It was the kid that was making those noises. I ran out to the main street and finally the noises stopped and the kid wasn't following me anymore. After this incident I avoid interaction with children.

[@peachrossman1903]

My understanding of it always has been that children are generally seen as comftotable, innocent, and unintimitating, and corrupting something like that has always been an effective horror technique. Think dolls and clowns, clowns as i understand didnt used to be something scary, they used to be fun and reminicent of childhood, but now because of their use in horror a large precentage of people are scared of them. The same with dolls, though I think those also have to do with the uncanny valley, generally dolls are asociated with childhood, innocuous things in your home, and something without agency. When something litterally close to home gains agency with merdurous intent, that scares us. Its the same with kids, taking something inocuous, obviously associated with childhood, innocent, and normally without much agency and corrupting that can cause quite a bit of fear

[@Celebrindal333]

Kids in movies don’t scare me, but as a teacher I’ve met unsettling children. I even affectionately nicknamed one 6yr old during one of my University practicum placements, my “little psychopath”. This kid drew a flintlock from memory…at 6! He had such an obsession with blood, death and guns that even his homeopathic treatment mother (that was her title) opted to get him treated by actual medical professionals. I worked hard to endear myself to him however I completely understand why others might find his habits and obsessions as frightening. I hope he’s coping well in life now. I’ve dealt with scarier students since then, been directly threatened and attacked by 10yr olds, however I still believe children can be redirected. Adults are much harder to reach once they’ve gone through school with little to no intervention into their troubling habits, I still believe teens can change but the older kids get the harder it is to break these dark fantasies they’ve developed over time. Of course in writing this I can’t forget my irrational fear that my heels would be slashed by that creepy kid in Pet Cemetery, jumped at least a foot onto my bed for a good 3 years before dealing with this, and had a problem with backless stairs for much longer.

[@Makingupausername1]

I really like your point about how the ignorance of a child can be a source of horror. One of my very favorite examples is from a Doctor Who episode, "The Empty Child" (and its sequel episode "The Doctor Dances".) The antagonist is a small child who has essentially gained the powers of a god through a freak accident. What makes him scary isn't actually his power- it's his motivation. He's a six year old boy wandering around a city looking for his mother. That's it. That's all he wants. But that simple, innocent, deeply understandable desire is what drives him to almost destroy the world. And it doesn't matter to him because he doesn't know that it's happening. He is completely and utterly ignorant to everything that isn't his goal. There is no reasoning with him, because it's an entirely innocent desire. He's a starving kid in the dead of London winter in the middle of World War II. He's tiny in a world that is massive and violent and dangerous, with only one person in the entire universe that he trusts. What could you possibly tell him to get him to change his goal? And it's so successfully horrifying because he is a child, it just wouldn't work as well if he wasn't. The whole thing is beautiful and tragic and mortifying, I adore it.

[@KristofskiKabuki]

I can't believe you did a video about scary children in horror and didn't mention the OG creepy blonde British kids of the Midwitch Cuckoos

[@baphomex668]

Maybe this is just me, but i feel that it could be related to our natural instict to protect kids (which also relates to kids not reacting acordingly) When i see the little girls in the Shining, im not afraid of "lol scary twins" but more of what they represent. They represent how the Torrance family will end if they don't manage to escape the Overlook. They are a tragedy, of two little kids that were killed by their father, the person that should protect them. And Danny is being exposed to that, completly alone and without anyone that can help him near. I feel like its something similar to when you are taking care of a kid, and you are afraid that you will slip a curse word, or that a movie can show something inapropiate. Just that instead of being something like nuditty or profanity, its likely something awfull and fucked up

[@thefrogthatknows5251]

In my experience the answer is more intuitive than you think. I think it does come from that innate sense of a child's vulnerability. Fragility can genuinely evoke a feeling of fear, discussed, or revulsion. It's The root feeling that causes you to cringe, and ultimately things like broken bones and incorrect body proportions can spark fear due to their relation to the site of a mangled form. You only need to look up what a baby horse's foot looks like before the hoof grows in once to recognize the overlap between discussed fear and revulsion, especially in how it relates to fragility. There is something intrinsically fearful about a vulnerable creature as a threat. The juxtaposition of vulnerability and victimhood against danger and malice. Scars, exposed musculature, visible bones, sickly pale skin, milky eyes, misshapen limbs, malformed jaws. These things are all inherently symbols of fragility and weakness, yet are intrinsically aspects of a monster. The child's role as a victim is what heightens its position as a threat. Ultimately though, children both as victims and as threats have become so widely used that their inclusion has become forced, the removal of immersion and in so doing the showing of the director's hand brings out the obvious objection to children as a threat, namely that they are not threatening or imposing. When you see a child now, you don't think of them as a danger or even as a victim, you think of the fact that this is a scripted farce and question the artistry of placing a child here. The fear is gone because its been overused.

[@spiceupyourafterlife]

"Kids aren't that scary." You haven't worked with kids, have you?

[@avarievans7065]

There's also something to be said for the fact that, because children are inherently less visually or immediately threatening than, say, an adult acting strangely, or a monster, or a demon or whatever, they're a lot more likely to be able to get MUCH closer to you before the wrongness starts to register. Most people have at least some instinct to be like "hey man what're you doing out here, where are your parents" at a kid. If you look at movies like Ju-on or 30 Days of Night, both of which feature children that are dangerous in different ways, the people who encounter them have at least some partial urge to step closer, to look into the situation, and that's what causes trouble. That, and usually when children are being filmed for horror they're either REALLY fast and way more coordinated than a child should be, or they're completely still. Both of which are unnatural movements that are likely to trigger unease when viewed. That's my two cents on it anyway.

[@spookymcg]

I think this is a great point

[@riffz6065]

Brightburn was good. Idc what anyone says and I'm stoked for part 2. Also love your horror content. Hope to see you blow up 🤘🏻

[@Amber_Phoenix]

Underrated channel alert? 👀

[@disownedgamer]

Better watch out is a very good horror film about killy kid

[@frogskeleton222]

3:21 the Mandela catalogue (2021):

[@Pyromaniax]

Im afraid of child support

[@someoneawesome8717]

When I was in school I took a creative writing class, the Genre of the month had been horror, my story was called Cuckoo and it was about a child that had many qualities of the eponymous bird. The mother was literally wasting away because the child required so much food she could do nothing except feed it, change the diaper and prepare more food while her husband needed constantly increasing hours of work to pay for it all. The actual potential for making children a source of horror is severely underused because I doubt many published horror writers nowadays are women let alone overworked mothers

[@lucypetters2376]

Another way of kids as horror is specifically from the perspective as women, in these times specifically, of being forced to care for another person and similar to what you said, that person being your main focus, above yourself

[@Quiet_Void]

To be fair, I do find kids terrifying.

[@BluecarKing]

Yes children are pretty creepy.

[@JuliaH-c6f]

Another kind of child character in horror is the one that's psycho. Like Rhoda Green in The Bad Seed. And that usually is about nature vs. nurture. These kids might be terrifying because of the lack of empathy. A child killing someone and yet not understanding what they did was bad can be scary or off putting. And there are kids like that in real life. They're just rare.

[@TinyFlyThing]

A jumpscare isn't called that because it makes you jump. It's called that because something is jumping at you - literally "jumping" into frame suddenly or a sudden loud noise startling you. I know it's nitpicky but this sort of stuff makes the whole work seem sloppy.

[@itsanotherhomestuckfanwow9350]

Kids can be used for horror about femininity and pregnancy, kinda like in babadook as you mentioned.

[@RaeAguirre-sr8cu]

i think kids can be scary to me in film is because they have the ability to gaslight you and everyone around you. nobody’s gonna believe you that they’re dangerous. theyre also understood in many cultures to have thinner veils between themselves and the ghost realm, so they can act as oracles and speak to the dead and are more likely to become possessed

[@kilian-one-l]

Alternatively, children can just be fucking creepy as hell sometimes

[@captainhugo0667]

I think you should really look into “Let’s Go Play at the Adams’” - a horror novella from the ‘70s. It’s the absolute scariest kid horror I’ve ever experienced as a big horror buff and really highlights a few big ways children can be scary, some of which you touched on. Spoilers below but here are a few ways the children in the book can be scary: 1. Adults who are monsters (serial killers) started as children. Did they grow up with that sadism within them? What happens when a child is given the power to act on this impulse? 2. A child without empathy is a child that can be terrifying. Being unable to put themselves into anyone else’s shoes makes them unpredictable and, since children are endlessly curious, this can also make them unknowingly cruel. 3. Children can be dumb. A child that doesn’t think for itself can end up going along with what others are doing or what they think they should be doing. A child young and dumb enough can convince themselves that anything is okay, even if it’s violent. 4. Children with power are still children. Giving a child with an undeveloped psyche and flimsy moral compass power over adults immediately strikes fear. There’s a lot more from that book that touches on child horror but I just thought I’d put that out there for anyone interested in this topic! And if you are, I cannot suggest this book enough!

[@VioletKitUWU]

I think that the mere concept of reproducing is terrifying tbh

[@VioletKitUWU]

raising a kid ain’t that tho

[@southshart]

3:36 NOAH!?!?!?

[@thecondescendinggoomba5552]

Great channel

[@therizinosauruscheloniform2162]

Yay new video!

[@jwade3569]

I think what makes children scary for me is the moral question of what are u doing to do if a child is a threat to you? A good example is with children of the corn, the kids in that movie aren't processed or are ghost. Their just kids that have been brainwashed to commit evil acts. What are you gonna do against a mob of children that is trying to kill you? Not many people would be ok with the fact that you have to fight a child, let alone even kill one for the sake of survival. I guess a similar feeling in media like American sniper and you see children being weaponized. I think the fear comes from that, the fear that you have to retaliate against a children.

[@clairejohnson1299]

2:15 “here’s the thing though…kids aren’t that scary” Me, an elementary art teacher who receives at least one (1) horrifying image a week from my students: *laughs maniacally* You will never know true terror of kids until one of them draws their imaginary friend who is described as an actual demon and looks like an eyeless flesh monster with a gaping maw full of rows of teeth. Or of a different child drawing themselves sleeping in their bed with a person watching over them from the closet and you are told “that’s my brother he lives in my closet and isn’t allowed out. But he likes to come out at night and watch me sleep”

[@devinpaul9026]

I think it works on a SIMILAR level as an innocuously frightening euphemism or name that SHOULDN'T be, but is. A large hairy thug named "Little cartoon" or "Jimmy the donkey" or some shit like that. Or an example FROM a horror movie-- Sometimes They Come Back. They kidnap a guy, they're driving like maniacs in a fire spitting hot rod, they've literally got knives to his throat. "What are we gonna do with this guy, huh fellas...?" "We could show him The Face..." "Man, that's kiddie shit, why don't YOU do it?" "That shit's boring, man..." "I'll do it." And then they all turn into busted up, burned crispy, giggling screaming zombies. A kid in horror works on THAT level. "What the fuck?! Man, get the hell outta here with that comedy shit--- OH. OH FUCK." It's WHIPLASH.

[@annsh.6487]

"I've never been scared by a kid" speak for yourself. They're barely human

[@mariaeduarda-qi2rg]

i LOVE the editing it looks great!!

[@spookymcg]

Right?? Teo did a great job!

[@thesixfootsixexperience8781]

How tall are you, Connor? Great vid, by the way

[@MadamFizzgig]

Idk I think kids are inherently creepy

[@KiaraValentine]

Please, watch the original (german I think...?) "Goodnight mommy", it's better, A LOT.

[@spookymcg]

That’s actually what i was referencing! I didn’t know there was a remake until my editor put it in!

[@jadetortellini6150]

Nah dog, you can’t just put in like 3 frames of some lady, _peeling her toe skin back,_ and just move on like nothing happened

[@iwouldcryifihademotions6966]

slayed

[@KaKow64]

Kids brains are not fully baked, and certainly their sense of mortality and empathy/sympathy can be lacking. To me, this is where the horror enters. Alà The Lord of the Flies/Children of the Corn which is horrifying even when in the context of "normal" emotional capacity. Then there's the escalated versions of those "normal context" horror stories like We Need to Talk About Kevin/Baby Teeth/Bad Seed, where the child really is violently psychotic but due to age most people think it's too early to formally call that and give them benefit of the doubt (to some disasterous end). Children/teens have the capacity to do positively horrid shit to themselves or others, gleefully and without regret. One of the best portrails of "War" personified I've ever seen is that of a child: Does't really care about the "why", very binary reasoning, just laughs and enjoys the slaughter. Then there's the flip side of the coin (in a horror context) like Skinamark, where their innocence means they don't grasp how bad their situation is.

[@arstotzkanplaguedoctor]

🎠

[@S0ULSLAYR]

BRIGHTBURN WASN'T BAD MATE.

[@balunalight2171]

❤ love your vids

[@B_4035mn]

I think the whole reason why it's "scary" is because of unaturality, you shouldn't be asking why the child is in the mansion, you should be asking *HOW* the child is in the mansion, like idk about you but if I live alone and take a second to look into a hallway then see 2 twins saying ".redruM" look away then look back and they're gone, I'd be pretty freaked out.

[@bogdancomic2512]

it is so funny how bro said babadok aslo bro said it 10 times lol edit: how to tall is you