When looking back over major trends in horror throughout the decades, it’s clear that horror, like most things, is cyclical. Usually, it’s the major success of a specific film that paves the way for a wave of similar themed movies hoping to achieve similar success, like Halloween heralding in the golden age of slashers or It kickstarting a new Stephen King renaissance. Sometimes it’s simply a natural manifestation of current social fears, and since those fears are often timeless, we see them resurface again and again. Take a tried and true staple of horror; the creepy kid. There’s something inherently terrifying for a parent in discovering that their offspring might have a sinister psychopath lurking beneath their sweet façade. More so, it’s the corruption of innocence by evil that’s unnerving to watch. As we’re approaching the halfway mark of 2019, it seems as though the creepy kid has emerged as the current dominating trend in horror.
In February, screenwriter Jeff Buhler (The Midnight Meat Train, Pet Sematary) and director Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact, At the Devil’s Door) delivered The Prodigy. Starring It’s Jackson Robert Scott as Miles, The Prodigy centered its creepy kid around the concept of reincarnation. Miles happened to be born at the precise moment serial killer Edward Scarka died during a police raid. Miles soon begins to exhibit signs of intelligence far beyond his years. At first, his mother Sarah (Taylor Schilling) does everything she can to nurture his talents, but eventually realizes something is very, very wrong with Miles. If you’re familiar with creepy kid horror, then all of its familiar tropes and story beats won’t offer much in the way of surprises, save for one intense scene between Miles and Arthur Jacobson (Colm Feore), the reincarnation expert who offers Sarah help with saving Miles.
The following month brought The Hole in the Ground, an Irish horror film by director/co-writer Lee Cronin in his feature debut. Like The Prodigy, this one heavily revolves around a mother and her strange-behaving son. Only this time, it’s not reincarnation to blame, but the possibility that mom’s son might have been replaced with a changeling. The introduction of Irish folklore and the implications of being swapped for something inhuman makes for some genuinely unsettling moments in this underseen creepy kid horror movie.
While Jordan Peele’s Us, also released in March, isn’t a creepy kid horror movie, it’s worth mentioning because of the Tethered versions of Zora and Jason. The narrative centered around Lupita Nyong’o’s Adelaide and Red in a human against doppelganger fight for dominance, but Red’s children Umbrae and Pluto were scene-stealers in terms of pure dread and terror. The entire cast of Us were brilliant in their dual roles, but for young actors Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex, it’s next level genius. The otherworldly movement and expression of the pyro-obsessed Pluto and cunning Umbrae brought the horror unlike any other Tethered in the movie. Us might not be a creepy kid movie, but the creepy kids in it are extremely effective.
Keeping the trend moving at a consistent pace, April saw the release of Pet Sematary, a new adaptation of Stephen King’s beloved novel. Its major departures from the source material created a huge divide in viewer reactions, but most can agree that Jeté Laurence’s performance as Ellie Creed elicits chills. Grasping why this new take switched out Gage’s death and resurrection for the older Ellie became a lot clearer during the quieter scenes between undead Ellie and her father Louis (Jason Clarke). Mundane tasks like giving your child a bath or putting them to bed has never been as disturbing as it has here. Like Wright Joseph and Alex in Us, Lawrence deftly balanced the sweeter, innocent Ellie with the inhuman Wendigo using her broken body as a vessel for evil. It’s uncanny.
Next week brings BrightBurn, a creepy kid twist on a familiar Superman origin story. What if the alien child that crash-landed on Earth and was adopted by a good-natured country family didn’t grow up to be a hero, but something far more malevolent and destructive? That’s the question this creepy kid horror story presents. And if the trailer is any indication, BrightBurn might be the most brutal creepy kid horror film yet.
Annabelle Comes Home might be focused on the eponymous creepy doll and the entities residing in the Warren’s artifact room, but trailers seem to hint at least one of the young girls might find herself possessed- another type of creepy kid. The Turning, a modern adaptation of The Turn of the Screw that stars Finn Wolfhard as creepy kid Miles, was originally set to release in February before getting bumped to a 2020 release. February also marked the announcement for season two of Netflix’s The Haunting series, this one to be named The Haunting of Bly Manor; also based on The Turn of the Screw. It’s expected to arrive in 2020, which means that the creepy kid trend looks to continue into next year. But with just over half a year left of 2019, there’s plenty of room for more creepy kids to pop up and hold us over in the meantime.