Editorials
The 12 Creepiest Kids in Horror!
Horror has always had a way of turning the most innocuous into the most terrifying, and the innocence of children is no exception. Creepy kids in horror has been a long-running archetype, turning out iconic characters like Antichrist Damien Thorn in The Omen, the Grady twins in The Shining, and possessed Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist. Yet that only barely scratches the surface of the terrifying children that have terrorized both their victims and audiences over the decades. These 12 kids in horror are the epitome of creepy.
Mercy and Jonas – The Witch
Twins Mercy and Jonas are obnoxious children in their own right, taunting protagonist Thomasin with glee at nearly every turn despite the family’s hardships. But their taunting becomes downright dangerous when older brother Caleb is delirious and at death’s door. They accuse their eldest sibling of witchcraft, sealing Thomasin’s fate. The callous way in which they doom their sister is made even more chilling with the realization that their favorite plaything, Black Phillip, is more than just a family goat.
Charlie – Hereditary
There’s something off about 13-year old Charlie from the moment we meet her. She’s far more aloof than is usual for her age, and the only family member she seems attached to at all is her recently deceased grandmother. Then there’s that weird clicking sound that she makes. Her affinity for found art figurine making reaches disturbing levels when she snips the head off of a bird that crashed into her classroom’s window. The reveal that Charlie was never truly a normal child isn’t surprising, but the devil’s in the details and just what exactly Charlie is, well, it’s horrifying.
Ralphie Glick – Salem’s Lot
Sometimes a kid doesn’t even have to be a main antagonist or character to elicit chills in horror. Sometimes they just have to have an iconic moment of horror. Such is the case of Ralphie Glick, a child kidnapped and offered up to vampire Kurt Barlow. Little Ralphie in turn lures his older brother Danny to his own vampiric demise, and it’s how he does it that’s so memorable. Ralphie taps at Danny’s bedroom window, an unnatural grin on his face as he hovers in the air. It’s so creepy.
Santi – The Devil’s Backbone
With Guillermo del Toro’s works it’s the humans that are the true monsters, but you don’t immediately know that. Especially not with one of his earliest films, The Devil’s Backbone. For protagonist Carlos, arriving at a remote orphanage amidst a war-ravaged Spain is intimidating enough, but he’s then visited by the ghastly apparition of Santi. Santi spooks Carlos, and us, over and over again before we finally learn he’s an ally. That still doesn’t make his appearance any less nightmarish.
Lilly – Mama
Being raised in the woods for five years by a monstrous entity will do a number on anyone’s mental state, and for young Lilly, it makes her feral. Though Mama is the actual thing to be afraid of, that doesn’t make Lilly’s behavior any less creepy. Her slow animalistic crawl in the dark hallways in the middle of the night is pure nightmare fuel.
Sadako – Ringu
This vengeful ghost kickstarted the cinematic trend of the long-haired ghosts in Japanese horror, and with good reason; Sadako is freaking scary. Born with psychic powers, Sadako’s own father murdered her and shoved her down a well. Not before she imprinted her wrath on a cursed VHS tape, though, dooming any that watch within 7 days. Her slow, inhuman crawl from the well with her face almost always obscured by unruly black hair is an unsettling reminder that though she’s technically just a child, she’s actually wrathful vengeance incarnate.
School Kids – Them
Also known as Ils, this intense entry in French horror begins with a title card that states the film is based on real events. What transpires is one of the most suspenseful, harrowing home invasion thrillers for couple Clementine and Lucas. Their hooded intruders eventually are revealed to be a group of kids, ages 10-15. And, based on the opening sequence, this wasn’t their first time to toy with people’s lives. As for why? They chillingly explained, “They wouldn’t play with us.” It’s easily one of horror’s most frightening motives.
Frau Brückner’s son – Phenomena
Though lead character Jennifer Corvino has an unusual ability bond with insects, she’s not the creepy kid at the center of this Dario Argento film. Sent to a remote Swiss boarding school, Corvino’s communication with bugs proves to be key in solving a series of murders in the area, eventually discovered to be connected to Frau Brückner. It’s the reveal of Brückner’s son, though, that’s the creepiest of all, catching both Corvino and us completely off guard. Leave it to Argento to create such a monstrous, murderous boy.
Michael – Burial Ground
This Italian zombie film, also known as Zombie 3 and Nights of Terror, is bonkers for many reasons. The biggest reason, though, is that of young child Michael. As part of the group of people stuck inside a mansion while zombies are closing in, Michael inexplicably becomes sexually attracted to his own mother. Yes. While people are getting devoured, Michael really wants to get up close and personal with his mother, who’s just as appalled as we are. It doesn’t help that Michael was played by 25-year old actor Peter Bark, which only further exacerbates Michael’s creep factor.
Offspring- The Brood
One of David Cronenberg’s most personal films also happens to be one of the most terrifying, thanks in large part to the eponymous mutant children. They’re strange-looking and very homicidal, which alone would mean they’re utterly creepy, but the reveal of exactly what they are and where they come from further shoves them into the spotlight of the creepiest kids ever to grace the big screen. Patient Nola Carveth unwittingly and psychically bore a brood of children who act as murderous weapons of her rage, and how she births them is pure Cronenberg madness.
Michael – Halloween
The first-person perspective opening in John Carpenter’s seminal slasher puts the viewer in the driver seat as the masked killer who grabs a knife from the kitchen and calmly walks upstairs to stab a teen girl to death. It’s a shocking scene and one of the most overt moments of violence in the entire film, which makes the unmasking of that killer even more alarming; the killer is the 6-year-old younger brother of stab victim Judith. Sam Loomis put it best, “I met this six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes – the devil’s eyes.”
Kevin – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Told from the perspective of Kevin’s mother, Eva, We Need to Talk About Kevin plays with the concept of nurture versus nature as Eva struggles to bond with her son throughout his life. The film toggles between the harrowing present and the disturbing past, and no matter the age, the creepiness of Kevin remains a constant. Both Eva and the viewer watch, helplessly, as Kevin grows from defiant to stone-cold sociopath, exploding into a terrifying climax made even scarier by the realism in its possibilities. Kevin isn’t just a creepy kid in horror, he’s someone that could be your next-door neighbor.
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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