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I watched "The Host" a couple of nights ago, and one of the things that suprised me was lost little girl ends up dying.  When I was dicussing the movie with some friens, one of them said that this broke horror movie rules-that the child can't die.

In response, I tried to think of examples of horror/monster movies in which kids end up getting killed.
So far I have
The Host
Mimic
Godzilla (1954-origianal cut)
Jeepers Creepers 2

If anyone can think of others, feel free to post.

While I have your attention, Do you think of this rule?  Naturally nobody wants to see children die-but woulndn't it increase the horror if the movie provides an example of how nobody is truly safe.  Kids and often pets are somehow able to escape monsters, slashers, and other horrors.  What do you think?

The Children is another flick which features a number of dead kids, as does Beware! Children at Play. Outside of those two examples, I'm drawing a complete blank.

 :question:

This thread reminds me why I hated the movie CUJO so much.  King had the right kind of ending in the book, but the film totally wimped out.

Ooops, I almost forgot: Though it was cut in the original release, FRANKENSTEIN (1931) had what is now considered to be a classic horror scene with a child death.  And if I recall correctly, it is a pretty horrific scene (at least psychologically), partly because the viewer knows the monster really was not intending to hurt the little girl.

 PET SEMATARY kills a kid and a cat.

This scene always bugs me out.... :buggedout:

 [youtube=425,350] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQZgSmv-kvE
 

It is a sort of rule in the "B" movie world that kids, if they're cute, don't get killed. They usually cause problems for the adults some of whom may die rescuing the kids, or they are the first one or group to see the creature, alien etc. and none of the adults believe them, same is true of cute pets, cats and dogs.
Exceptions:
In Jaws, Pippin the dog gets eaten while fetching a stick in the surf, not shown in the film, dog just disappears.
The little Kitner boy gets eaten and Chief Brody is the one of the few to notice.
In Salem's Lot, the vampire and his assistant kill a dog, and attack 2 of the local boys.
In Feast the only kid in the film gets eaten almost right at the start.
It is true that the little girl dies at the end of Host, but the little boy she's been trying to save not only survives but is adopted by her father.

In the sleepy hollow movie staring Johnny Depp a kid is killed by the headless horsemen.

 Think FAST! Fulci's the BEYOND....

[youtube=425,350] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5GEMuuyejM

The little girl in the original NIGHT of the LIVING DEAD.
.The dog gets zapped in MARS ATTACKS!
.A dog gets zapped in the ASTOUNDING SHE MONSTER
.A dog is killed in the first the HILLS HAVE EYES

In SABOTAGE (1936) Sylvia Sydney's little brother is killed when a bomb he's unknowingly carrying (in a film can!) explodes on a bus. THe audience reaction to the death of a child was so negative Hitchcock said later it was the biggest mistake he ever made in a film.

A few more:

Kid thrown into sacrificial fire in The Beastmaster.
Kid (member of royal family) killed in the beginning of The Sword and the Sorcerer.
Baby eaten by octopus in Tentacles.
Kid killed in back seat of car by monster in Rawhead Rex.
Baby eaten by giant rats in Deadly Eyes.
Kid thrown against wall by assassins in Caligula.
The famous sleeping bag scene in Prophecy.


Wasn't there a kid killed by David Cronenberg's character in Nightbreed?

Lots of great stuff mentioned here.

At the moment the only one I can think of, that hasn't been mentioned, is in the second Plaga Zombie.  There is a small boy in a minivan who is crying for help.  A zombie eventually breaks into the van and eats the kid and takes his sucker.

The scene is played for laughs btw.  I can't say that was the best idea in the world.

Body Snatchers (That one from the early '90's)
That scene in the end where they find out the kid brother is "one of them", and they toss him off the helicopter.

Also, I've only seen the editted for television version, but doesn't Double Team start out with the villain's son getting killed, followed by him bombing a hospitle nursery?

Isn't there a boy who gets run over by a steam roller in Maximum Overdrive?

A baby in a stroller gets hit by a car in Truth Or Dare: A Critical Madness. I'm kinda surprised RCMerchant didn't mention that one yet.

Yes! Plus another that was killed by his walkman.

And the kid in the pool in Alligator. GULP!!

BTW, don't forget that the Alligator special edition DVD streets on September 18th!   :teddyr:   

I think that the walkman death is a teenage girl, hanging out her bedroom window?

Multiple kids are gunned down by the crazy Coca-Cola machine at the little league field.

Karloff apparently kills a little girl named Freida coming home from communion in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) although the last-minute editing by Universal makes it a bit unclear. TRIVIA ALERT! The little girl who discovers Freida's body under a bush is none other than Marilyn Harris, who played little Maria in FRANKENSTEIN.

Karloff had decidely murderous intentions against Basil Rathbone's son in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) but is knocked into the sulfer pit right in the nick of time. Later that same year Karloff made up for it by murdering two little boys by smothering them in TOWER OF LONDON.

On of the most disturbing child deaths in a film is in Jacques Tourneur's THE LEOPARD MAN (1943). A little girl is sent by her mother to the store to buy corn meal. The girl is chased home by what seems to be a leopard. Her mother refuses to open the door, thinking she's lying. You hear the girl screaming and see blood begin to slowly flow under the door.

In order to comply with the Production Code Ape Law that nobody in a movie can get away with murder little Rhoda Penmark is struck by lightening and killed at the end of THE BAD SEED (1956). In the origial play the mother dies from the sleeping pills and Rhoda is just fine at the end.

.A baby gets thrown outta window in Andy Warhol's BAD
.Dam! Whatta my thinkin? A girl gets shot buying icecream in John Carpenters ASSAULT ON PRECIENCT 13

 One of the most brutal,cold murders put on screen-
[youtube=425,350] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9VqlvPT640

Anyone mentioned Eddie from The Blob yet?

Pumpkinhead- Little boy run down by bike.

Burial Ground- Younger kid killed by zombie.

Creeping Terror- Boy eaten by monster (killed by the camera, no less).

Toxic Avenger 4- Little girl thrown at a wall.

Cello- Little girl plummets to her death.

Monster in the Closet- Girl at the beginning of the movie killed by the monster.

The Being- Kid decapitated at the beginning.

Pet Sematary 2- Boys friend killed by vehicular homicide.

Dead and Buried- The little boy who came with the couple.

The Descent- The little girl at the very beginning.

Don't Torture a Duckling- Um... It's the basis of the movie...

Eaten Alive (Umberto Lenzi)- Little boy shot at the very end of the film.

High Tension- Alex's little brother is shot and killed halfway through the movie.

My Girl- Macaulay Culkin's character stung to death by bees.

Godsend- Hell, kids die in both films that share this name, particuarly in the original.  I'll still say that girl that played Bonnie is one of the creepiest kids ever. 

The Pit- Well, after reading the interview with the writer, I still don't know if you can count the child deaths in this movie or not. 

Night of the Living Dead- Little girl who is bitten by, and subsequently turned into, a zombie.

Premonition- Litlte girl killed when car explodes.

Silver Bullet- "My son was torn to pieces!"

Daimajin 2 (I can't remember if this is "Return" or "Wrath")- Little boy drowns. 

Devil's Backbone- Lots of kids die, actually.

Elfen Lied- Okay, so this is actually a 12 episode anime, but a good number of kids die later in the series in horrible, bloody ways.  If I remember correctly, one of them gets her head sliced clean off.

I saw a zombie movie eons ago in which a mother's 9 or 10 year old boy had his head ripped off by a zombie right in front of her.  Can't remember the title though.

Wow, there was a lot more than I expected

And I'm kicking myself for forgeting FRANKENSTEIN

First nearly every episode of south Park, Kenny dies. (Those bastards)

An IMDB keyword search of "Death of Child" yields 298 results. That's just the movies that's been tagged there are likely 100's more.


http://www.imdb.com/keyword/death-of-child/ (http://www.imdb.com/keyword/death-of-child/)

Didn't the kid die in the movie too?

RAWHEAD REX has one of the scariest "killed kid" scenes I've seen, but I haven't seen all those Italian ones people are bringing up. SNAKES ON A TRAIN supposedly has a little girl dying.

In PHANTASM, Mike is pulled through the mirror to uncertain fate, we see he is fine (but "insane", as insane means in horror movies). PHANTASM 3 has Tim being pulled through a window and not coming back in part 4.

And of course the FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise all begins with a kid dying.

I guess it depends upon at what age you define "kid," but, and I have been jumped on for this, as I define "kid," as someone who is younger than eighteen, the following films, which have yet to be mentioned, are included.

"Arachnophobia"
One of the high school football players.

"Blood on Satan's Claw"
At least one dead boy.

"Brotherhood of the Wolf"
An young goatherder is killed.

"Cemetery Man'
A whole troop of boy scouts are killed--twice.

"Children of the Damned"
At least a half dozen--four boys and two girls--are killed in the sequel to "Village of the Damned"

"Cry of the Banshee"
A young boy is knifed in the stomach, and then his sister is shot and killed.

"The Descedant"
At least one dead boy and one dead girl.

"Fright Night"
"Evil Ed," who was apparently in the 11th grade when the story takes place.

"Hocus Pocus"
At least one dead girl.

"The Hunger"
A girl has her throat slit by an ankh.

"Interview with a Vampire"
Claudia

"it's Alive"
The baby

"Lair of the White Worm"
In a most inappropriate manner possible, the boy scout picked up while thumbing a ride in the rain.

"The Lord of the Flies" (American)
Piggy and Simon

"The Lord of the Flies" (British)
Same

"Lost Continent"
"El Diablo"

"Macbeth" (the Polanski version)
Macduff's young son, and at least one of his daughters

"The Nanny"
The baby girl drowned in the tub

"The Return to Salem's Lot"
An unknown number of vampire children, when the town is set on fire, including Jeremy's girlfriend.

"The Sixth Sense"
The girl killed by her mother, and a boy hung fron the ceiling.

"The Swarm"
At least five boys and three girls, maybe more, killed by the swarm of bees.

"Vampire Circus"
At least two boys and one girl killed by the vampires.

"The Village of the Damned" (British"
At least a dozen children (six boys and six girls) killed.

"The Village of the Damned"
Nine. Four boys and five girls. Interestingly enough, unlike the British version, one of the boys is allowed to walk away at the end.

"28 Days Later"
An young zombie, male, is beaten to death with a baseball bat.


And that is just in horror films. Tomorrow we will take up kids killed in war films.

Actually, he has one of those last minute life-saving coughing fits so popular with movie characters that by all rights should be toast. That kid went on to star with Tony Danza in TV's Who's the Boss?. He later posted obscene photos of himself on one of those internet dating sites. A friend thoughtfully e-mailed me the pictures.  :buggedout: :hatred:

Klassics Korner :
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) features the death by pony of Rhett and Scarlett's daughter Bonnie Blue Butler.
In CITIZEN KANE (1941) the death of Kane's young son in an auto accident is metioned briefly in the opening newsreel.
LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945) has one of the most outrageous screen deaths of a child when Gene Tierney calmly watches her fiance's crippled little brother drown in a lake.
ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM (1946) has school teacher Missus Anna's young son killed by yet another rogue pony.

I just watched THE PATHFINDER last night, and several young Indian children are brutally butchered by the Vikings in that movie.

Yes, off camera though, but he does kill a child.  Also, in the story version of Rawhead Rex we find out that babies are the monsters' favorite food.

In Pan's Labyrinth the little girl dies also.

Jeff Bridges son dies in a self-induced car wreck in SEA BISCUIT.

Ones I've reviewed mixed with others that I can recall...I don't think these have been mentioned yet but I could be wrong...

Flesh Eating Mothers - A mother eats her son!
Mutant (aka Night Shadows) - A kid and a woman get attacked in bathroom and the kid gets sucked under by zombies.
Return Of The Living Dead 2 - The two kids who open the can containing the zombie.
Toxic Avenger - Kid gets run over by the punks who are emulating Death Race.
Mars Attacks - A parakeet gets blasted into oblivion. 

We'll finish with horror films than start with the war films in which a kid is killed.

"Descent"
A five-year old girl is killed in an automobile accident.

"The Innocents"
Miles of heart failure.

"Martin"
Martin.

"Primeval"
A girl swimming  in the river is eaten by a man-eating crocodile.

"Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight"
A boy falls out of a window and is killed. My mother told me something would happen to me, if I read horror comics. Now I know.

There is no greater shortcut to show the horrors of war, than to kill a kid. And here are, if not war films, than war scenes ,in which kids are killed.

"Back to Bataan"
A Filipino boy is killed by the Japanese.

"A Bridge Too Far"
A Dutch boy is killed in the crossfire, and his father adds the body to the growing barricade of dead bodys in the street.

"Charge of the Light Brigade" (Errol Flynn version)
When the British try to flee the besieged city, one of those killed by the enemy, is an Indian boy.

"Cross of Iron"
A Russian boy is captured by the Germans, then released, and when he tries to return to his own side, he is killed by the Russians.

"Doctor Zhivago"
A dozen young Whites are machinegunned by the Reds, as the Whites try to flee across a wheatfield. These deaths and the baby boy that dies on the train, equals the greatest number of kids I have ever seen killed in a film.

"The Green Berets"
A Vietnamese girl is raped and murdered by the Viet Cong.

"Intolerance"
One of those killed defending Babylon, during the siege, is an young boy.

"Linheart"
At least one member of the Children's Army, which sets out to free the Holy Land, from the Muslims, dies during the film.

"Luther'
A boy hangs himself, and then a crippled girl dies, when the German peasants revolt against the German princes.

"Man of Legend"
Peter Strauss's baby boy is killed, when a French aeroplane attacks his party.

"War and Peace" (Russian version)
One of the Russian prisoners executed by the French, before they evacuate Moscow, is an young boy.

"War and Peace" (American version)
Petya Rostov.

"Waterloo"
Two. One and one. A French drummerboy is killed by the Allied artillery. Then a Scottish bugler is killed by a French lancer.

"Zulu Dawn"
Three. One and two. A young Zulu cattle herder is killed by the British. And then two British buglers are killed. One, shot by his own side, and the other, when an ammo wagon blows up.

We'll continue next week, with a variety of other films, in which kids are killed.

 Scary as hell...Fritz Lang's "M"-

 [youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdG7onVzJgE

 Nothing is actually shown...but the audiance KNOWS what the little girl didn't know...brrrr!

 

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire - Cedric Diggory gets killed.  gasp!
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8ALQOSTkXU

Oh and the scene I was referring to in the earlier post for Flesh Eating Mothers can be seen around th 27 seconds into this clip.  Its funny in a rather disturbing way.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO3mItpZto4

I thought it was funny.



Heh.

I've probably mentioned it here before, but a LOT of Chinese movies have kids getting killed.  They don't routinely show it or anything, but they're far less worried about offending their audience than Hollywood is.

Tragic Hero has like 30 kids blown up by the villain
High Risk has a busload of kids blown up
The Untold Story has a bunch of kids murdered, mutilated, and eaten
Flaming Brothers has a kid shot in the face in front of the father
...as does From Beijing with Love


Here's a heavy spoiler for Gunmen.  Read at your own risk!




And while it doesn't have a kid being KILLED, Gunmen (which is basically a chinese remake of the Untouchables, BTW) does have one of those traditional scenes you see where the lead villain and lead hero are both injured and have to crawl towards a gun.  This is the climax of the film.  Only the daughter grabs it first, and shoots the villain.  Then the father holds his daughter (who's about 6 or 7) and together they shoot him a bunch more times.  Oh yeah, and this essentially makes them reconciled, as they were having relationship problems earlier.

Somehow, the whole father-daughter bonding through homicide thing is still pretty...  Stunning, in its way.




End.

SESSION 9 had a baby killed by his father.

In ENEMY AT THE GATE, Ed Harris hangs a boy who has been feeding him false info and to lure out Jude Law's character.

At the begining of Night Angel, when Lyth murders the publisher & his family.
They don't actually show the publisher's son getting killed, but at the time, I thought it really flew in the face of horror movie taboos/cliches with how the camera chases the little boy, then zooms in sharply as he jumps into bed & pulls the sheet over his head, then we find out the next day that pulling the sheets over your head doesn't work.

a HUGE one nobody posted yet is "JAWS" - kid gets eaten on raft

"Macabre"- little kid gets drowned by sister, little girl gets drowned by mother

"Feast"- kid gets eaten then regurgitated

"ichi the killer"- kid gets shot (i belive,i was rather numb after that flick, either way he gets killed)

Has A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE been mentioned yet?

The little girl in the motel in the beginning gets shot.

This thread makes me think this 'rule' is not really a rule....  :smile:

Both those were already mentioned. :)

s**t, sorry about that. I skimmed to fast, DENNIS posted 'em.

Speaking of war movies, in THE PATRIOT, Mel Gibson's young son gets killed by that nasty ol' Col. Tavington.

These were not mentioned:

THE OMEN II
THE OMEN III
TOXIC AVENGER (when the gym creeps run over the kid on the bicycle)
THE OTHER

The Good Son - M. Culkin falls off a cliff. 
Shindler's List - Doesn't a boy get taken out by a sniper riffle when that Nazi pardons him.  And of course that infamous little girl in the red dress. 

and since pets were mentioned...
Mars Attacks - Parakeet Get Blasted
Cabin Fever - Dog gets ripped apart in the beginning

Mention of The Burning in another thread brought this to mind.  As far as slashers go, The Burning would have been completely forgettable (and mostly is) if it weren't for it's absolute brutality on kids.  The actors don't always look as young as they're supposed to but Fisher Stevens could actually pass for a 15 year old in this movie and the infamous raft butchery scene cements this movie in the annals of horror flicks that go too far.

Here is a mixed bag of a baker's dozen of films in which kids are killed. And in alphabetical order . . .

"The Adventures of Huck Finn"
An young friend of Huck's is killed, when two families go to feuding.

"Anna and the King"
One of the young daughters of the King of Siam.

"Beloved"
Oprah Winfrey's character slits the throat of one of her children, rather than see her daughter become a slave again.

"Black Robe"
An young Huron boy by the Iroquois.

"Bridge to Terabithia"
The girl in the film.

"The Cowboys"
One of the cowboys.

"Gladiator"
When Russell Crowe returns to his home, he finds his home burned down, and his wife and young son hanging from the entryway.

"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"
One of the people Lee Van Cleef's characters kills at the start of the film, is an young boy.
 
"The Guardian"
The youngest crewmember of a ship that sinks in Alaskan waters.

"Hang 'Em High"
One of the prisoners hanged at Fort Smith is an young boy.

"Heavy Metal"
a pageboy

"La Bamba"
a friend of ritchie Valens is killed when an engine falls off of a plane and lands in the schoolyard.

"Lady Jane"
An heir to the throne of England is executed, when her father leads a revolt against Queen Mary, the current ruler of England.

To be continued next week . . .

Here is my final grab bag of ten films in which kids are killed.

"Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome"
Two. A boy is swallowed up by the sands trying to cross the desert, and another one dies of natural causes after reaching their destination.

"My Boyfriend's Back"
The boyfriend, at the start of the film.

"Nicholas and Alexandria"
The czar and czarina's two youngest daughters and their young son.

"Night Crossing"
A boys is killed while attempting to escape from East Germany to West Germany, before the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: at World's End"
A cabin boy is hanged for associating with pirates.

"Romeo and Juliet" (1968)
Romeo and Juliet.

"Simon Birch"
Simon Birch.

"Wizards"
An young elven prince.

"Young Sherlock Holmes"
Sherlock Holmes young girlfriend.

"2020 Texas Gladiators"
A boy is orally raped and then murdered.

Its not a Horror flick, but there a few instances of this in 300. One with the hill for the tossing of unfit babies. And the scene where the young king beats the other kid to death in a fight. Also, the Persians took out a few Spartan children in the village they found on the way to the pass.

Also,  can we count any of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies? Most of the victims there were supposed to be under 18. And the burned up poor Freddy for killing kids in the first place.