Horror works best when its tropes are universal, and few things are more universal than children. Even if we don't have kids of our own, all of us were children ourselves at one time, and we've all had some experience with kids and our relationship toward reproduction. Whether you want kids or not, having them is fraught with anxiety: the body horrors of pregnancy, the loss of autonomy, the disruption to your lifestyle, the constant worrying over this helpless being who is yours to protect. Our kids are a part of us, but they have minds of their own and inner lives we have no access to.

Little wonder that so much horror throughout the ages has been infatuated with creepy kids.

Changelings

Some of the oldest stories of parental horror come to us from Europe, where meddling fae are known to sometimes steal away children and replace them with something more sinister. The nature of the changeling varies from tale to tale. Sometimes, it's a faerie; sometimes it's an enchanted bit of wood. Whatever the case, the changeling does not behave the way a child should. Parents in these stories realize that their child has been replaced when their normally happy, healthy infant is replaced with a fussy, cantankerous, sickly, squalling creature that doesn't eat properly, never stops screaming, or has apparently sinister intentions.

It's important to note that these were true beliefs held by real people at some periods in time. Various methods were said to force a changeling to reveal itself. Most of them are cruel. Real children absolutely were at times tortured, abused, exposed to the elements or killed under the belief they were changelings. Undoubtedly, some of those "changeling" children were likely autistic or had some other neuro-atypicality that manifested as they aged. Others may have contracted diseases or shown signs of deformities and birth defects. In any case, there is darkness lurking in that part of history.

But from a narrative standpoint, the concept of the changeling -- of some inhuman, malevolent entity taking the place of a child and causing a household harm -- remains compelling.

Curiously enough, Peter Medak's influential horror film The Changeling is only tangentially related to this trope. But Victor LaValle's novel of the same name certainly is, and it features a truly chilling scene of the aftermath of someone testing whether their baby is really a child. Jordan Peele's Us also touches on the the trope. See also The Orphan, where a family adopts a child who is not at all what she appears to be, and Caitlin R. Kiernan's Daughter of Hounds, which offers a glimpse at what happens to the children who have been taken. For the inverse of this trope, see Goodnight, Mommy, where two young boys become convinced that their mother has been replaced by an impostor — and will go to great and horrifying lengths to prove it.

On the more light-hearted side, Labyrinth is absolutely required watching on the topic, and a well-needed palate cleanser for some of the heavier titles on this list.

Satan's Spawn

Sometimes, the enfant terrible is not due to faerie magic but demonic interference. Christian mythology provides the template for such an idea: The Anti-Christ, a child born to bring about evil and destruction. What would happen if you harbored such a child in your home?

That's the question behind The Omen, a 1976 horror that spawned a multi-film franchise and may have helped kick off the Satanic Panic. The Italian-made film Holocaust 2000 is directly inspired by The Omen as well and treads similar ground. There's also The Exorcist, where an otherwise healthy, normal little girl gets possessed by a demon. Iain Rob Wright's novel Sam deals with just such a demonic possession. For a humorous take on the trope, try Little Evil on for size. For a horrifying modern evolution of it, check out Hereditary.

Rosemary's Baby looks at the antichrist trope from another angle: Instead of focusing on a child that's already been born, much of the film (and book it's based on) deal with the horrors of carrying such a pregnancy to term. Compare and contrast with Prevenge, where a woman believes her unborn baby is giving her murderous impulses.

Although not literal demon-spawn, the murderous children in The Brood may also qualify for this trope, born as they are from the dark impulses of their mother (and sent out to do her bidding).

Bad Seeds

Much child-centered horror asks the question whether evil is a function of nature or nurture. We all know that some people turn out bad -- but whose fault is that? And what if a parent does everything right and still raises a terrible child?

Changelings and demonic spawn have a supernatural reason for being monsters, but what if some normal people are just born evil? That's the question posed by trope-namer The Bad Seed, a 1956 film about a little girl who does terrible things, but no one suspects her because she appears so sweet and innocent. A gender-flipped version of this story, The Good Son, asks the same question. Zoje Stage's novel Baby Teeth explores the same trope from the perspective of both parent and child.

Of course, Michael Myers in Halloween is a poster-child for young evil. But two years before, a different masked youngster was committing murder in Alice, Sweet Alice. A more chillingly realistic portrayal is We Need to Talk About Kevin, which tackles the school shooting epidemic head-on (and provides a reminder that, horrifying as it is to consider, there is some truth to this trope).

Monstrous Infants

But what happens when your child is just *wrong* in some way? Worse -- what if you find you cannot love it, no matter how hard you try? Or what if you love the child too much, becoming complicit in its evil?

It's Alive! is about a horrifying mutant child who goes on a murder spree immediately after its birth, and the father who has to put a stop to it. The film spawned (ha, ha) a few sequels and a 2008 remake. Eraserhead is about a man who ends up needing to care for a horrifyingly disfigured, inhuman mewling infant that may well not even be his own. A few other films can be found in this niche, though they’re not as well known. Go look for Demon Seed (where a sentient computer program impregnates a woman) and Baby Blood (a tale of a circus performer, a womb-dwelling evil, and cannibalism), as a treat.

Although it doesn't start out this way, Pet Sematary ends up here as well -- a father tries to resurrect his dead son with horrifying, murderous results. Alternatively, there's Grace, about a mother who will do increasingly desperate things to care for her undead infant.

It's probably not a coincidence that many monstrous infant movies are centered on fatherhood. After all, the mother has presumably had time to build a bond with the unborn child. The father must get to know that kid as a person and may end up feeling threatened, displaced or antagonized by this newly needy human. There is more horrifying truth-in-television to uncover here, but I think you can figure that one out on your own.

Feral Children

Kids are supposed to be innocent. They're also supposed to be under the protection and supervision of adults. So what happens when they run wild? Some stories imagine a world where kids are in charge, with horrifying consequences.

Village of the Damned and Children of the Corn are two well-known versions of this -- both involving towns under the leadership of creepy, inhuman children. Lord of the Flies, of course, explores the concept in both book and film. In Children of a Darker Dawn, a virus has destroyed the adult population, leaving the kids and teenagers to fend for themselves. Although not a horror movie per se, City of God is a grim but realistic take on this involving warring drug-dealing gangs of youths in 1970s Rio de Janeiro.

Do you enjoy the "evil kid" trope in horror? Have you read or watched any of the titles on this list? Have something else to recommend? Drop it down below!

Monstrous Infants, Creepy Kids & The Horrors of Parenthood

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