Can you imagine living in an area where the children are feared and not to be trusted? This is what happened to a village in England, who encountered the odd and scary behavior of children that just didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the community. In this article, you will learn more about the movie depicting these children, as well as films that focus on really bad children.
The Children in ‘Village of the Damned’
Made in 1960, ‘Village of the Damned’ is a movie centered on a circle of children who were conceived in some sort of Immaculate Conception, where all of the women give birth to babies on the same day after a gestation period only lasting four months. Over the course of a few months, the children rapidly age ”“ quickly becoming ten years old. It seems that similar events were taking place in other places in the world, but the locals started killing the infants in their cradles. However, in England, the locals are interested in the scientific nature of this occurrence. In time, the adults learn that the children are extraterrestrials equipped with telepathic powers and have actually been sent on a mission to conquer the world. The children have the power to read minds and force people to do things against their will. In the end, plans are put into motion to destroy the children.
Rhoda in “The Bad Seed”
A picture-perfect housewife begins to suspect her loving young daughter might be a heartless killer. Rhoda is an 8-year-old child who has no conscious for the things that she does. She murders people without feeling any remorse and lies about her actions without giving it a second thought. When Patty McCormack first played the role on Broadway, she was eight years old. When the play was adapted into a screen play, McCormack was 11 years old when she played Rhoda. The way the child manipulates the adults around her is quite unnerving.
Henry Evans in “The Good Son”
The concept of the ‘bad seed’ was so good in 1956, it was revisited in 1993 with an over-the-top mischievous Macaulay Culkin who plays the role of a good child, but is really a terror both inside and outside of a household. With a tagline of ‘evil has many faces,’ we meet Mark Evans (played by Elijah Wood), who goes to stay with his aunt and uncle after his mother dies and his father goes on a business trip. While there, he becomes friends with his cousin that is the same age as he. The more time he spends with his cousin, he starts to learn that he’s exhibiting signs of psychotic behavior. He makes eerie threats, throws his sister on thin ice, and even kills. Henry is definitely possesses a violent streak that would lead to him murdering anyone he didn’t like or stopping anyone who finds out the truth about him.