A really bad habit that horror movie makers have picked up in the past few years is trying to make small children scary.
The Ring.
The Grudge.
The Omen.
Hell, even the narator for the tv spots for "Lady in the Water" was some whispering kid.
NOT SCARY. Just REEELY annoying. And this isn't a new concept. Look at that scene in "The Shinning". 2 little girls holding hands saying "come play with us" isn't even MILDLY unsettling.
I miss the good ol' days when people thought super natural monsters and other beasts were scary and made movies out of those.
Little kids work for less money than stuntment in monster suits. (At least, in their debut movies.)
I thought Samara was scary in "The Ring" because she was ... something ... but not really a little girl.
There ARE exceptions!
Regan McNeil...the EXORCIST(1973)
The killer baby from IT"S ALIVE! (1974)
The mommy killing zombie girl in NIGHT of the LIVING DEAD(1968)....and the little basterd in BURIAL GROUND (1979)
(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/870/untitleddb0.png)
I found the twins from "The Shinning" VERY disturbing.
I find all children to be quite frightening.
Kids are the black hole.........
Quote from: Shadowfyre on February 27, 2007, 10:41:06 PM
I find all children to be quite frightening.
Glad to know that someone else realizes the truth...
Really, the "ominous child" has been with us for quite some time --
You get waves & ripples -- after "The Exorcist" debuted in 1973, there were a plethora of imitations & "scary kid" movies to follow --
See "The Innocents", 1962, for a really really GOOD "ominous child" film.
peter johnson/denny crane
There needs be more awesome creature and mutated freak movies, slimy ones without any CGI. Stupid CGI pale skinned kids, they should get shot in every movie from now on.
:buggedout: :buggedout: :buggedout: :buggedout: :buggedout:
Really scary kids? Try Village of The Damned aka Children Of The Damned ~ the 1960's version, b.t.w.
QuoteVillage of The Damned aka Children Of The Damned
No, the latter was a sequel.
I like John Carpenter's version as well. I really can't understand why it is so reviled.
Children are scary. To adults, and other kids.
Because they are animals.
And the attitudes of children are varied. Its the preditory one we fear.
That, and the idea that something smaller and weaker then us, can harm us. Yet, a snake is small compared to a man, but who wants to be bitten by a black Mamba?
No, not a black mamma! Lets leave Martin Lawrence out of this!
Quote from: Neville on February 28, 2007, 07:06:24 AM
I like John Carpenter's version as well. I really can't understand why it is so reviled.
I thought that the direction was fine, but that movie was woefully miscast IMO.
Children of the Corn. . Creepy kids for sure. . .
How could I forget "Children of the Damned", by John Wyndham, the same guy who gave us "The Day of The Triffids"?
One of the very great British Horror films ever made -- it has George Saunders in a very sympathetic role, after decades of playing faggy/sort-of Vincent Price-type cowardly villians.
Nah, the original black & white British original is superior to the Carpenter film, as much as I do enjoy Carpenter. See numerous "remake-argument" threads here.
"The Midwich Cuckoos" is the title of the really superior book, in case anyone appreciates a good scary read here.
* * *
"Children of The Corn" I saw on the Big Screen when it first came out. Something that has been cropped out of the VHS and DVD versions of the film, currently available, is the highly-visible camera crew following the car in the opening sequences. Everyone in the theatre I sat with laughed out loud at that, and we are currently denied the pleasure.
All we have to laugh at now are puberty-ridden redheaded boys saying "Outlander! Outlander!" over and over again in a throaty voice . . .
peter crane/denny johnson
My fave will always be The Children (1980). Those little black fingernails, turning all that touch them into recently thawed Jimmy Dean sausage, were both hilarious and disturbing at the same time.
The scary little ghost girl...who's very appearance means Death to all who see here,is oooooooone of the creeoiest if not THEE creepiest kid I ever saw in a movie,in Mario Bava's KILL,BABY,KILL.
For me, children make better victims than villains, because they are yet unseasoned in villainies, but, having said that, here are a couple of films, where I found the children to be scary.
"The Lord of the Flies" (the British version)
"The Paperboy" (the title character)
And we should probably mention Patty McCormack in "The Bad Seed" and before her Bonita Granville in "These Three" or Karen Balkin in the remake of "These Three," "The Children's Hour."