No One Is Safe: Five Horror Films That Kill Their Children
We come to the horror genre to be shocked. Fans flock to scary movies for a variety of reasons, but one is to be jolted out of our everyday stresses with disarming events that play out on screen. Though we may crave this safe scare, we generally expect horror creators to abide by a set of unspoken rules. The dog will survive, the monster will be destroyed, and we will eventually see light at the end of the tunnel. Chief among these implicit guidelines is an understanding that cinematic children should not be killed. While the young often serve as hostages to danger or find themselves threatened by malevolent forces, they’re usually saved by the story’s adults or find a way to survive on their own.
Danny and Michael Philippou challenged this tacit tradition with their feature film debut Talk to Me. The 2022 Australian horror not only puts a child through several scenes of gruesome self-harm but suggests—and shows—his immortal soul tormented by nightmarish spirits. Their highly anticipated follow-up Bring Her Back is now in theaters and promises similar carnage as orphaned siblings discover a deadly ritual in the home of their new foster mother. Not known for holding back, The Philippou twins have become the latest horror creators to put cinematic children in real peril, proving that no one is safe in the horror world. They follow a harrowing tradition of notorious films willing to push our sensitivities to the breaking point by actually killing their most vulnerable characters.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)
Despite a few notable exceptions, vampire stories usually concern adults. In fact, the subgenre’s foundational text, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is devoid of children save for the unfortunate victims of its undead brides. But a reimagining of the novel’s often overlooked chapter places an innocent child in mortal danger. Set almost entirely on the doomed Demeter, André Øvredal’s film follows an unfortunate crew tasked with transporting deadly cargo. Traveling from Bulgaria to London, this doomed vessel carries the centuries-old vampire hidden away in a crate filled with dirt from his homeland. But the unstable container fractures, freeing the blood-thirsty creature to roam the ships decks at night searching for food.
When Toby (Woody Norman) succumbs to the strange blood-borne illness overtaking the ship, his grandfather, Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham) plans to bury him at sea. But moments before sending his body into the deep, Captain Eliot spies movement from the tiny corpse. Overcome with emotion, he rips away Toby’s shroud then screams as the undead child tries to bury newly-grown fangs into his neck. But before Toby can spread the vampiric cure, the sun’s rays cause him to burst into flames. Painfully burned, Captain Eliot is forced to throw the dying boy into the sea to keep from jeopardizing the entire ship. It’s a cruel double death for an innocent child and a reminder that no one is immune to the vampire’s curse.
Pet Sematary (1989)
Stephen King may be known as the Master of Horror, but the world-famous author admits to occasionally frightening himself. He was famously so disturbed by a draft of his 1983 novel Pet Sematary that he hid the manuscript away, considering it too terrifying to ever see publication. This unease likely stems from the fact that the story of an ordinary family ripped apart by death was inspired by his own young son wandering into the road. While King’s child survived this nightmarish event, Pet Sematary is an attempt to push parental fear to its outermost limits. Midway through the novel, young father Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) tries in vain to stop his toddler Gage (Miko Hughes) from stumbling into a dangerous country road where he’s struck and killed by an oncoming truck.
Mary Lambert’s 1989 adaptation wrings horror and emotion from this stunning scene by following Gage’s tiny shoe through the unthinkable wreckage. Louis silently screams in anguish as a series of snapshots highlight moments from his child’s brief life. Harrowing though this sequence may be, it’s nothing compared to the horrors to come. Determined to reconnect with his lost little boy, Louis digs up Gage’s body and reenters it in cursed ground rumored to reanimate the dead. But whatever finds its way into Gage’s shattered bones is not the sweet spirit of an innocent child, but a vindictive demon hellbent on revenge. This devastating story explores the fear of loving a vulnerable child while suggesting that sometimes death may be a blessing in disguise.
The Innocents (2021)
Eskil Vogt’s Norwegian film functions as a psychic battle royale populated by powerful, young kids. Ida (Rakel Lenora Petersen Fløttum) spends her days idly playing on the grounds of her isolated apartment complex when not tasked with looking after her nonverbal sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad). Bored, the girls make friends with their neighbor Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim) and a lonely boy named Ben (Sam Ashraf) who’s suppressed anger blossoms into deadly telekinetic powers. Abused and bullied, the child begins lashing out in all directions, killing animals and children alike.
Fearing they will be next, Aisha and Ida try to wield their own burgeoning psychic abilities but prove to be no match for the rage-filled little boy. Ben uses telepathy to control Aisha’s mother, causing her to stalk and murder her own frightened daughter. Ida’s parents are similarly possessed and threaten the sisters, driving them out of their now dangerous apartment and onto the playground below. The sisters must harness their collective powers and kill Ben before his rage-filled telepathy spirals out of control. This shocking film explores the inner desires of abused and neglected children while bestowing them with frightening talents and the unusual ability to control their own surroundings.
Funny Games (1997)
Michael Haneke’s genre-busting film challenges viewers to confront their own complicity in on screen violence. Throughout the film, villain Paul (Arno Frisch) addresses the audience, daring them to find entertainment in his depraved and shocking actions. He and partner Peter (Frank Giering) invade the Schober family’s lakeside vacation home and force them to engage in a series of depraved games, wagering that none will be alive by 9:00 the next morning. Their young son Schorschi (Stefan Clapczynski) must sit next to these psychopathic killers with a bag over his head as they torment and torture his frightened parents.
Eventually, Schorschi escapes to a neighbor’s house and locates a shotgun, but his captors have removed the ammunition and likely orchestrated this light chase to cause further terror. Panicked, the child bolts during another “funny game” and falls victim to the very gun he hoped would be his salvation. What follows is a brutal scene in which his mother Anna (Susanne Lothar) descends into shock and grief while trying to muster the strength to save herself. Haneke lingers on this excruciating scene before questioning the narrative fairness of his upsetting story.
Terrified (2017)
Many would-be parents move out of the city hoping to raise their young children in relative peace, but the residents of Demián Rugna’s suburban nightmare face an insidious entity lurking within their idyllic homes. This Argentinian shocker begins when a young wife overhears sinister voices wafting out of the drain. Her husband later finds her bloody corpse slamming against their bathroom walls, seemingly tossed about by unseen hands. But this demonic force does not only lurk in shadows. On a bright day, Niño (Matias Rascovschi) is playing soccer when he wanders into his neighbor’s yard and hears similar voices drifting out of the wall. Unnerved, he backs away from the house and into the path of an oncoming bus.
But whatever haunts this sinister street is not done with the poor boy yet. Comisario Funes (Maximiliano Ghione) enlists paranormal investigator Jano (Norberto Gonzalo) to assist with this mysterious haunting when the child’s rotting corpse appears at the kitchen table. Muddy footsteps suggest that Niño somehow crawled out of the grave and walked back home, going through the motions of his former life. The two men are discussing this frightening occurrence when they’re startled by the corpse’s unseen movement. Unsure what to do, they discard the poor boy’s body in a freezer and try to locate the entity terrorizing his surviving neighbors.
Bring Her Back is now playing nationwide. Get tickets now!
The post No One Is Safe: Five Horror Films That Kill Their Children appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.