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.
The home video market used to be a chaotic industry wedged neatly between theatrical releases and television productions. It was where indie filmmakers could experiment with and profit from low-budget bangers while big studios could also squeeze extra money out of beloved properties without necessarily investing in blockbuster sequels.
There were plenty of cinematic duds during this time, and you never really knew whether you had just picked up a legitimately fun low-budget endeavor or a quick cash-grab from the rental store, but I’d argue that the good outweighed the bad because these flicks were allowed to be weirder than their big-budget counterparts – especially where sequels were concerned.
In honor of these home video hidden gems, today I’d like to recommend five underrated direct-to-video horror sequels that are still worth tracking down!
For the purposes of this list, I’ll be defining direct-to-video productions as films that were exclusively released on video/DVD, so no limited theatrical releases or TV movies that later made it big on home video. That means avoiding popular recommendations like Curse of Chucky and Wrong Turn 2 in order to focus on less-discussed horror flicks.
That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite sequels if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)
The success of Ron Underwood’s original Tremors was lightning in a bottle that can’t ever be replicated, so as much as I understand the love for the second film and its campy thrills, Tremors 4 remains my personal favorite sequel simply because it dares to do something different with the franchise.
Directed by series co-creator S.S. Wilson, The Legend Begins is a surprisingly effective prequel that tells the story of how the town of Perfection earned its name after a terrifying 1889 encounter with the graboids. This horror western may not live up to the original, but it doesn’t really have to, with the period aesthetic and fresh story making it one hell of a standalone adventure.
4. Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)
There are those who argue that there are no good Children of the Corn films, but I think the series has something to offer for every kind of horror fan if you’re willing to deal with low budgets and strange creative decisions. In fact, I’m of the opinion that the initial trilogy of Children films only got better over time, with the third entry being the most entertaining despite having the least to do with Stephen King’s original story.
In this urban horror romp, we follow a pair of siblings who enter foster care after their abusive father is transformed into a scarecrow by He Who Walks Behind the Rows. What follows is an effects-heavy descent into madness as the kids bring their particular brand of religious fury to 90s Chicago – with deadly results.
If that’s not enough to convince you to give this flick a try, you should know that this is the only entry in the series that King himself has admitted to liking. Not only that, but it also marks Charlize Theron’s feature film debut.
3. Boogeyman 2 (2007)
Jeff Betancourt had his job cut out for him when he was first contacted to helm the sequel to 2005’s Boogeyman. Not only was the first film a critical bomb, but the sequel was set to be produced for a mere $4.5 million – less than a fourth of the budget of the original flick.
Yet, Jeff decided to use this direct-to-video sequel as an opportunity to improve on the generic aspects of the flick’s predecessor by making the monster more uncannily human and focusing more on the script than elaborate set pieces. The best part is that Boogeyman 2 isn’t limited by a PG-13 rating, meaning that the deaths are more interesting in spite of the lower budget.
2. Maniac Cop 2 (1990)
The original Maniac Cop is a legitimately entertaining slasher even if it can’t compete with some of the other great franchises from the 80s, but fans know that the direct-to-video sequel is way more fun to revisit despite its shoddy production value and rushed script.
In fact, this rental store hit features more elaborate death sequences while also exploring more of what it means for a community when a police officer goes rogue. Director William Lustig also looks back on this project fondly, claiming that he considers it his personal favorite film of his career and a “terrific B-movie”.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
1. Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993)
More of a middle part of a sprawling trilogy than a standalone horror romp, Ted Nicolaou’s Subspecies II is still the pinnacle of the auteur director’s vampire series and a great example of why it was often worth diving into the bargain bin in order to pick up a Full Moon Features VHS tape.
This fast-paced sequel takes place immediately after the events of the 1991 original, meaning that Subspecies II wastes no time in getting to the lovable practical effects that likely motivated you to purchase the flick in the first place. Nicolaou and Anders Hove (who plays Radu, the iconic vampire) are also much more sure of themselves in this sophomore effort, and that’s why I’d argue that it’s worth watching even if you’re not a fan of the first movie.
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