Editorials
10 More Movies That Had the Balls to Kill a Child!
Last year I listed off ten horror films that had the balls to kill off kids. As I mentioned in that listicle, it’s kind of a taboo to kill a kid in mainstream cinema. That being said, if any genre is going to break the child-killing taboo, it’s the horror genre. Many, many horror films feature child death scenes. Here are ten more films that had the balls to kill off a kid!
Assault on Precinct 13
She asked for a vanilla twist, Mr. Ice Cream Man. I caught a lot of flack from commenters a couple of months ago when I made it known that I hadn’t seen about half of John Carpenter’s filmography, so I’m marathoning all of his films this month. I watched the original Assault on Precinct 13 for the first time earlier this week (I loved it) and what did I find? A child was murdered! That poor little girl just wanted her vanilla twist.
Clown
There are actually several child deaths contained in the Eli Roth-produced Clown (which finally saw a release earlier this year after years of delay), but one of the more memorable scenes is the one that takes place inside a Chuck E. Cheese-style play place. The river of blood falling into the ball pit is a rather gruesome image.
When a Stranger Calls
While you don’t actually see the children die in the opening scene of Fred Walton’s classic horror film, the description of what happened to them is no less chilling. In fact, it’s actually scarier to hear about it than to see it happen. After receiving several phone calls from the killer (Tony Buckley) asking her if she has checked the children, Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) discovers that the calls are coming from inside the house. She runs outside (and doesn’t check the children), only to learn that the killer had already murdered the children with his bare hands.
Sleepy Hollow
What’s more shocking about the fact that the little Killian boy is killed in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow is that it was the centerpiece of the teaser trailer for the film (I still remember it giving me the creeps when it played before my screening of The Haunting in 1999). Nothing like a decapitated child to make you want to see a movie!
Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds
Feast 2 is not a good movie (no movie with the subtitle “Sloppy Seconds” could really be classified as a good movie), but it does feature a rather hilarious instance of infanticide. Greg (Tom Gulager) attempts to go save a baby from the vicious monsters, only to realize that he made a huge mistake when the baby ends up slowing him down. He promptly tosses the baby up in the air and it splats onto the concrete before being eaten by one of the monsters.
Maximum Overdrive
This one is a bit cliché to include on a list of child deaths, but it’s a classic! Stephen King’s sole directorial effort is famous for its awfulness, but it’s such a fun movie to watch. One unforgettable moment comes when a steamroller bursts onto a baseball field and rolls over one of the pre-teen players.
Alice, Sweet Alice
Brooke Shield’s feature film debut was a brief one. She gets killed in the first twenty minutes of Alice, Sweet Alice. Her nine-year-old Karen is strangled by a mysterious person wearing the creepiest translucent mask ever made. It’s a rather intense scene for a film made in 1976, but it certainly merits a spot on this list.
Battle Royale
If you want to watch a movie where a bunch of kids die, look no further than Battle Royale. They’re all roughly 15 or 16 years old, so they may not technically qualify as “children,” but they’re young enough for all of the carnage to be quite unnerving. 42 kids (21 male and 21 female) butchering each other makes for a shocking (but highly entertaining) movie.
30 Days of Night
Maybe this one shouldn’t count since the girl in question is an evil vampire, but she is technically still a child. And she does get decapitated. So I’m going to say that it counts.
The Mist
The Mist features what is one of the most downer endings in cinema history, so the fact that a child is killed in the film’s closing moments is really just a fraction of the whole. Still, it’s incredibly unsettling to watch David Drayton (Thomas Jane) load his gun before using it on his only sun. It’s not even Billy’s death that is difficult to watch (his death is off-screen). Rather, it’s David’s reaction to murdering Billy and the other three inhabitants of the car.
Editorials
‘The Vampire Lestat’ Concert Event Launches New Season With The Ultimate Expression Of Fandom
There are thousands of passionate fans decked out in gothic chic and champing at the bit like feral creatures. They’re screaming for Lestat, a legendary vampire-turned-rock star, as if the entire crowd has been glamored into submission.
The entire experience is magic, but not because some supernatural thrall has been activated. What’s going on is even more special. It’s the power of the effusive fandom that’s been authentically assembled by AMC’s sublime Immortal Universe, namely Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, now, The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat is far from the first Anne Rice adaptation, and it’s not as if there’s been a lack of erotic vampire material for audiences to sink their teeth into. On June 2nd, during a one-night-only spectacle, New York City’s prestigious Beacon Theatre shook from Sam Reid’s bravado performance and an audience full of adoring fans who had already memorized Lestat’s songs.
It’s clear that The Vampire Lestat just hits differently than its predecessors. It’s become more than just a TV series at this point, and this opulent display of ego, swagger, and pure sex is the perfect way to premiere the new season and give back to the fans who helped make Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat such a breakout success. It’s exactly the sort of hyperbolized hedonism that would make Lestat cackle.
For all intents and purposes, AMC has successfully created the illusion that this concert/premiere is just one of the many destinations on Lestat and his band’s 54-stop tour that is simultaneously playing out on this season of television. It’s such a sophisticated and thorough level of interactive fan engagement that the audience doesn’t just understand, but also manages to accentuate through its involvement.
It’s a level of seamless synergy that’s not unlike the give-and-take relationship of vampire and victim.
Before the concert started, “LeStans” were sitting in the Beacon and flipping through a fake Rolling Stone issue with Lestat emblazoned on the cover, complete with interviews with the undead frontman inside. Other fans were admiring the vinyl pressing of Lestat’s EP as they walked past a section of undead band merch. Fandom and fantasy blur together, and it all becomes this elaborate, immersive experience. Fan celebration, erotic gothic fantasy, and a lavish rock concert transform into one beautiful thing.
To this point, AMC Global Media’s Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, Dan McDermott, introduced the event by reiterating to fans, “You are the heartbeat of the series.” That’s abundantly clear on nights like this as that heartbeat collectively pulses to this performance. In terms of how AMC engages with The Vampire Lestat’s fans, it’s as bold a reinvention as the season itself.
This intuitive gamble speaks to AMC’s creativity in this department and a fandom that is eager to seize such opportunities. It’s the same innovation that led to zombie walks for The Walking Dead and real-life Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant pop-ups from Breaking Bad. It’s a great way to pump up the audience for The Vampire Lestat and then maintain that enthusiasm for the whole season.
For most series, a rock ‘n’ roll concert just doesn’t make any sense as a promotional tool. The Vampire Lestat finds itself in a very unique position where it can deliver an excellent concert at an iconic theater, but also use it to showcase The Vampire Lestat’s music by Daniel Hart (who was shredding on stage alongside Reid and the rest of their band) and, more than anything, Sam Reid’s endless charisma.
The way in which Reid feeds off of the crowd’s energy, modulating his performance and giving different sections of the Beacon life, is a perfect distillation of the series’ thoughtful relationship with its audience and how it’s become such a breakout success for AMC. AMC Studios President Dan McDermott emphasized that the fans are the reason that the show is still here and why an event like this is even possible. It’s rare to see a series in which every single cog in the machine is so perfectly attuned to its fans. Reid’s fans already cheer whenever they see him, so why not translate that to a concert setting?
It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.
Now bring on the encore and get this show on the road!
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