Hi internet friends. Today we are going to talk about something fun, something creepy, and something I’m really excited about! Forewarning, it is a long one! This (again) is not my traditional fare, so if you aren’t interested in this come back later this week for a new beer and tarot pairing. I’ll also be uploading a new moon angel food cake recipe and ritual!
So let’s start with some background information. Several years ago I was a teaching assistant in a course at my university titled “Women in Horror.” This was one of the most fun and engaging classes I have ever been in and I was so grateful to actually be able to teach some modules. We covered everything from murderous motherhood (Carrie), toxic masculinity (American Psycho), and the rules of horror movies (the final girl, never have sex/drink/or do drugs etc.) It was an amazing class from top to bottom. As the semester progressed, I was talking to my professor about horror movies that I really enjoyed or freaked me out and we discovered a common theme of children as villains or antagonists.
After I made this discovery, I spent months trying to unpack why I was so terrified of children in horror and what made them such compelling characters. I dived into the deep recesses of the internet, academic articles, personal blog posts, and my own synapses to figure it out. What did I find? Not shit. There were probably 20 total sources (both academic and non-academic) about children in horror that mostly discussed the writers favorite flicks or historical context around a film.
I was not satisfied with these results, as you can imagine so I started the greatest horror movie marathon of my lifetime. I made a list of over 100 horror films going all the way back decades that had children in them. After careful analysis, a lot of popcorn, and several weeks of being chained to my television – I finally constructed a theoretical framework for why children in the horror genre are so scary.
You might be thinking, why the heck are you telling me all this? Well I guess I wanted to type it out and put it into the universe just in case someone else was interested. Also, I – selfishly – wanted to claim it just so somebody doesn’t steal my ideas haha.
So now, let’s get into the nitty gritty. I am defining horror based of the definition by J. A. Cudden (literary historian) which states that horror is “a piece of fiction in prose of variable length… which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing”. Additionally, I am also making additions to this stating that usually there is a bodily response to horror films such as increased heart rate, sweating, nausea, crying etc. Also, there needs to be a villain or monster (though they do not need to be explicitly seen in the film). Finally, (good) horror movies should be based on societal fears.
I am defining children as someone between the ages of 1-13 (stopping at puberty) and they must be a lead or supporting character in the film (not just some kid in one scene who has no relevance to the film). Another important characteristic to mention is that the children do not have to have a certain number of speaking parts to be considered a lead or assisting character. Some children in horror films may never say anything more than “Redrum” but I still classify them as part of the character ensemble.
Children have had varying character roles in the horror genre for decades. I have isolated two roles that children portray most commonly in horror films. The first role, I am calling The Silent Witness. This role is characterized by a child who is usually a part of the core group of characters (usually a family) but actually has very little contribution to the story line despite being in the entire movie. Danny Torrance from The Shining is a great example of this type of character or Rachel Ferrier from War of the Worlds. The are definitely present but they usually don’t say anything, they just scream the whole time, or they talk frequently but they don’t say anything that moves the plot forward. Sometimes they may introduce the villain like in Babadook but basically if you removed the kid after they introduce the villain/monster the movie would not change.
The next type of child character are the Creepy Killers. This type gets a little complicated because you can break this character type into two more sections which I call: just shitty little kids or the possessed. Creepy Killers are those children that are the primary antagonist, villain, or monster in the film. Such as Reagan from The Exorcist, Damien from the Omen, or the children from Children of the Corn. Now to define the two additional sections of killers, the first is the shitty little kids. You don’t see this type of character a lot (and I’ll explain why later) but these are just kids who aren’t being possessed or manipulated or anything – they are literally just shitty little kids. Rhoda Penmark from The Bad Seed is the embodiment of this type. She is a just a sweet, little, blonde, 8 year old girl who likes to kill people when she doesn’t get her way.
The possessed would be like Reagan in the Exorcist. She is literally possessed by a demon and if she hadn’t been possessed she never would have done those horrible and creepy things. This type of child villain is much more common.
Now, I’ll stop here but tomorrow I’ll be discussing the actual framework of why we think children in horror are so terrifying! Stay tuned until next time!
beer & tarot 