Have you ever watched a horror movie where in the end, the main villain turned out to
be a little kid?
Or perhaps a horror film where the villain was clearly the child the entire time?
It’s a truly chilling idea- but just why is that?
As we’ve come to learn, scares come in many different shapes and sizes, and in the last
episode of Darkology, we explored the psychology behind why old people are scary.
So now I'd like to explore what makes children in horror so effective.
I’ll be adding onto some points that I made in the last episode, so if you happened to
miss that one, I suggest going back to that video first, then returning to this one.
Go on, I’ll wait.
Now then, I suppose to get a good start, I’ll just list some movies that feature a creepy,
rotten or evil kid.
Let’s see, there’s: Children of the Corn, Village of the Damned, The Good Son, The Omen,
The Ring, The Grudge, The Unborn, The Bad Seed, The Exorcist, The Boy, The Shining,
Orphan, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Pet Sematary, Sinister, Poltergeist,
Silent HIll, Toy Story, Insidious, and Halloween.
Oh and I suppose The Babadook counts right?
Yeah.
Definitely.
Jokes aside, part of being a child is the immaturity and naivety that comes with having
no experience in the world.
Children are expected to be bratty and throw tantrums when they experience a cognitive
dissonance or frustration with not getting their way.
They are supposed to still be learning everyday about the world around them and over time
mature accordingly into adults.
It’s this imperfect nature that goes in harmony with that inherent sweet innocence.
Together, they make up what we call children.
In contrast, a young character who seems to be nothing BUT sweet and angelic raises an
eyebrow to any experienced individual.
There’s something not quite right about a child who seems too calm, too knowing.
It’s almost as if they’re aren’t really children anymore- not at heart anyway.
I think it has something to do with how children are believed to be inherently good- innocent
and naive.
And for the most part, they generally appear to be.
But in the rare case of a pint-sized sociopath, “appear” is the key word.
As we learned in the last video, we generally tend to react negatively to unusual social
behavior.
In the same way that an old woman who doesn't look away is unsettling, so too is the similar
unusual behavior from a child.
Children are supposed to be screwing up.
They should be innocent and in need of guidance and protection from adults.
There’s something wrong in a picture where this is switched around.
Inverted.
As if they don't need adults.
Perhaps it sparks a deep-rooted primal fear of our offspring turning against us?
A creepy child might not be physically dangerous, but the unnatural manner in which they behave
is chilling.
In the same way that there is an inherent creepiness about someone in clown makeup,
behind a mask, or in an animal suit, this disguise of innocence can be an unsettling
idea, especially when it is hiding something much more insidious.
We are now approaching The Uncanny Valley.
The Uncanny Valley is a matter I briefly covered in the Creepy Commercial episode of Darkology,
which I highly recommend checking out later if you haven’t already- but it’s relevant
here.
It’s a hypothesis that basically proposes that there is a specific drop off point where
our perception of a human-like entity suddenly becomes very powerfully negative as a result
of the entity seeming alike, and yet, somehow, being fundamentally different.
It’s the same idea behind why we find animatronics, androids, and people in masks unsettling.
They're not genuine.
They're trying to appear alike, but they're hiding something.
The Bad Seed was one of the first films to demonstrate this concept in the form of a
child.
Have you been naughty?
Why, no mother!
What would you give me for a basket of kisses?
I'd give you a basket of hugs!
Rhoda seems innocent and says all of the correct things, but her actions speak to a completely
different agenda- one more cruel and inhuman.
She has a lot of adults fooled with her kind mannerisms and sweet appearance, though it’s
all just a front.
There’s a scene where two characters discuss the plausibility of sociopathic tendencies
being more of a result of nature rather than nurture.
Tell me,
Do children ever commit murders?
Or is crime something that's learned gradually
and grows as the criminal grows so that
only adults do really dreadful things?
Oh yes, children often commit murders
and quite clever ones too!
Some murderers, particularly the distinguished ones
who are going to make great names for themselves
start amazingly early.
In childhood?
Oh yes!
LIke mathematicians and musicians!
Despite the mother’s best efforts to raise her daughter in a wholesome environment, Rhoda
still turns out to be a morally blind killer.
Perhaps the reason this is so effective, is the idea that one day, we might find ourselves
at the mercy of not only someone close to us, but by an individual whom we raised to
be good.
Fear of betrayal has found a new term on the internet.
It's called proditiophobia and it's defined as the fear of being betrayed by a loved one.
I should mention this IS a definition that I found on urban dictionary and there doesn’t
currently seem to be much else on the term just yet.
It first surfaced in early 2015 by a guy who calls himself the doom overlord and it has
yet to appear in any studies so for now, we’ll call it a placeholder.
Fear of trust is known as pistanthrophobia.
It stems from the concept of how opening oneself up, emotions, dreams, passions, the whole
lot, is one of the most vulnerable things a person can experience.
Trust is not something taken lightly in this case, and with regards to children being raised
by parents, the betrayal by a child might seem unfathomable.
Just the same, to many the idea of a typical child’s less gracious behaviors is enough
to strike fear and repulsion.
Kids can be sweet, but they're often sour as well.
They're us, minus our societal inhibitions.
Lacking any strong understanding of social norms and consequences, they are potent representations
of human desires.
They say and do what they want, whenever they want, and act out, sometimes violently in
protest to the concept of “no”.
And while this often is manifested in many adults who are simply confident, free-thinkers,
perhaps somewhere in there, is the thought that just maybe, this stems from our children
being capable of thoughts and actions much darker than anything we could ever imagine.
Though not from a horror film necessarily, Joffrey Lannister from Game of Thrones is
a prime example of this.
And then there's the concept of children who become bad as a result of something paranormal
or demonic.
This is where movies like The Exorcist, Insidious, and Poltergeist come into play.
Adults are generally experienced and are more physically and mentally capable than the young
and old.
They embody strength.
It's a concept prevalent in folklore- the young are often easy and weak targets for
entities from the unknown.
Though inherently good, children are potential vessels, human gateways that might lead to
a demonic encounter or worse.
In Insidious, Dalton has the ability to astrally project, that is to say, his soul leaves his
body and enters another dimension while he sleeps.
His spiritual absence leaves an empty body, which becomes a target for a host of malevolent
spirits.
At one point in the film, an entity actually does take control of his body and it's this
very idea that someone who looks like your loved one, but isn't- rather, a stranger,
is walking around in their body, looking to cause pain to others.
When it comes to how they’re portrayed in stories of the supernatural, children are
most often pawns.
Perhaps this is why as children, we’re often told not to mess with ouija boards or dabble
in darker things.
Not just for our safety, but for those around us.
But this fear would really only apply if you believed in such things, right?
So there you have it.
Three very different reasons for why children are so effective in horror.
They can be dreadfully immature.
They can be easily possessed.
And they can just be inherently evil, disguised as good.
Which do you find the scariest?
Let me know in the comments below!
Seriously.
I need the engagement activity.
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say hello.
And as always, thanks for watching!