Weapons topped the box office this weekend, which is fantastic news for fans of original horror movies. The movie follows a town grappling with the unbelievable truth that an entire classroom of kids has vanished en masse—and the discovery of the sinister reason behind their disappearance. If Weapons has you in the mood to take in more tales of freaky children, the horror genre has many to choose from. Here are 10 cult classics featuring that same theme, which remains as evergreen as it is consistently terrifying.
Who Can Kill a Child?
This deliciously grim 1976 Spanish film follows a vacationing couple who drifts onto an island populated only by children—hostile, homicidal children. The movie’s title sets you up for its central dilemma, though the answer quickly becomes, “Anyone who wants to survive this hellscape better start shooting.” There’s plenty of horror baked into this concept even before you consider the woman is pregnant… and the kill-crazy affliction extends to unborn children as well. Even worse, the kids find a way off the island at the end, suggesting adults of the world should start watching their backs immediately. (Available to rent or buy on Prime Video.)
There’s Something Wrong With the Children
This 2023 chiller follows two couples on a glamping getaway. The pair with two young kids brings them along, and while you hate to blame that choice for turning a relaxing vacation into nightmarish terror, it’s definitely the root cause. When the young ‘uns go briefly missing, they return alarmingly transformed, and There’s Something Wrong With the Children does an admirable job wringing frights from that fact while it digs into the ways the adults react to this sudden dreadful change in circumstances. (Streaming on Prime Video)
Children of the Corn
It wouldn’t be a gathering of scary kids without some Stephen King flavor, and 1984’s Children of the Corn remains the most effective adaptation in this unnecessarily prolonged cinematic franchise. It’s the scariest and the simplest: Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton (The Terminator came out a few months after this) star as a married pair whose road trip takes a malevolent turn in rural Nebraska. They’re soon stranded in a community where nobody seems to be over 18—John Franklin, who was actually in his 20s at the time, is memorably eerie as their leader, Isaac—and everyone worships a demonic, bloodthirsty presence that lurks in the cornfield. Or else. (Streaming on AMC+ and Tubi.)
Citadel
This 2012 Irish film (not to be confused with the same-named Prime Video spy series) is full of disturbing imagery that will linger long after you finish watching it. Director Ciarán Foy went on to make Sinister 2 and help with episodes of Sweet Tooth and The Haunting of Bly Manor, but even if he’d never made anything else, he could be confident about creating plenty of nightmares with his feature debut. It’s about a man who struggles to put his life back together after his pregnant wife is attacked by a mob of mysterious, hoodie-clad teens in their run-down apartment building. After he moves to another run-down building, he soon comes to realize there’s something terribly off about those “teens.” (Rent or buy on Prime Video)
Village of the Damned
The 1990s John Carpenter remake is fine, but the coldest chills come from the 1960 original, which taps into post-war fears to explore what happens when a town first experiences an unexplained cosmic event, then a few months later all the women of the right age realize they’re pregnant. The unusual children are all born on the same day and have the same eerie appearance, as well as the power to read and control minds, especially when it comes to adults who question just what in the (alien in origin) hell is going on. (Rent or buy on Prime Video)
The Omen, The Bad Seed, and Pet Sematary
While the rest of this list focuses on groups of children—and indeed, most of the time, freaky kids are scarier in numbers—there are some horror-movie tots who do just fine menacing adults on their own. These include Satan’s own spawn, Damien, in 1976’s The Omen (baby-swapped at birth to torment a diplomat while ladder-climbing toward world domination); Rhoda Penmark, the murderously competitive moppet of 1956’s The Bad Seed; and, for one more dose of Stephen King, resurrected toddler terror Gage in 1989’s Pet Sematary. (The Omen is available to rent or buy on Prime Video, also on Tubi; The Bad Seed rent or buy on Prime Video; Pet Sematary streaming on Paramount+)
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