The Ramblings of Guise Dugal » schoolgirls http://www.rogues.1me.net/blog I'm always asked for my opinion...Once! Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:01:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 We’re Scared of Creepy Little Children http://www.rogues.1me.net/blog/2008/were-scared-of-creepy-little-children/ http://www.rogues.1me.net/blog/2008/were-scared-of-creepy-little-children/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:46:40 +0000 Guise Dugal http://www.rogues.1me.net/blog/?p=403 One of my favourite tropes in horror and thriller productions – be it in a film, television show or even video game – is the use of Creepy Little Children. Granted, this has at times been overdone, especially where companies try to reproduce the success of a story in either a shoddily made sequel or rival product, however amongst the tide of mediocrity there is often a prime example of the trope.

The trope itself tends to play on the feeling of uncomfortableness when something is not as we would assume. The natural assumption towards children, especially girls, is usually towards an acceptance of implied innocence, tending to see them as things which are delicate and must therefore be protected. Children tend to be perceived within set patterns of behaviour and are expected to react to situations in ways we understand. 

Taking a child and placing them in control, especially taking control from an adult and removing any form of authority, is therefore unnerving. 

There is, as it happens, a lot of variety in the world of Creepy Little Children and categorising them can be quite difficult. 

For one thing, age tends to be subjective on gender: Creepy Little Girls tend to be creepier the younger they appear and stay solidly creepy until their mid-teens, whereas the typical Creepy Little Boy tends to have only be creepy in pre-teen years and then resumes semi-creepy behaviour in their late teens, whereupon they are less creepily and more brutally sadistic. 

My theory on this is that it either leans towards the voice breaking of boys not seeming creepy when compared to the continued song of a girl, or the tendency for boys to spotty, hairy little Herbert’s during the teen years. 

The main aspect of age seems to be that as long as they are portrayed and seem reasonably to be young, then they are children. In truth, the ‘child’ may actually be several thousand years old in a child’s body, but because of its outward appearance, it would still seem to be a child. Where childhood ends is 

Another aspect is what defines "creepy", as this is inherently a loaded term. In my view, creepy does not always require the child in question to be evil, villainous or even slighty naughty, although this does help their case. "Creepiness" should be at times subtle, whereupon before learning why some child is a major force of evil power, the audience should feel unsettled by their actions. For example, the children in Village of the Damned are more unsettling because they can be compared against other children in their surroundings, and their appearance, mannerisms and speech identify them as being ‘different’.

There are several common traits for Creepy Little Children that are used in their character, usually consisting of a selection from:

  • Speech Anomalies. Character may speak in a manner different to their surroundings and family, may never speak or may use a sing-song voice from time to time.
  • Dialogue Delivery. Character may deliver lines in a manner that would not be expected for the context, for example a joyful death-threat or emotionless delivery.
  • Creepy Lines. Character may have a few lines that combine with Delivery or Anomalies to increase creepiness rating, for example: "They’re here", "Leave. Us. Alone", "Are you my mummy?"
  • Sings Nursery Rhymes. Primarily used in movies and television where a young girl or group of girls will sing a nursery rhyme slowly and in a minor key. The usual song is "One, Two, Buckle my shoe", however any song can have the same effect. The cartoon "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" played a humorous take on this, with the chanting of "Daydream Believer" by The Monkees by a group of boys as the means to summon a snake-demon.
  • Enjoys Skipping. Characters that partake in activities that would be perceived as childhood innocence tend  to be using it to cover for something, usually as a play on confirming innocence.
  • Appears Helpless. Characters may appear helpless or as surviving victims in a deadly environment, making people sympathise and want to ‘protect’ them without first asking how they survived so long.
  • Inappropriate Reactions. Similar to Dialogue Delivery, when confronted with a situation there reaction may appear out of character for what might normally be expected. Reacts to the suffering of others with indifference or glee, or takes a fascination-based interest when bad things happen.
  • Styled Hair. Typically, and for some reason likely linked to youth, Western movies tend to give the creepy child fair or blonde hair, with either a page boy/bowl cut or short hair cut (though rarely a crew cut), whereas creepy little girls will normally have shoulder length hair, usually held neatly behind the head or framing the head (only to become wavy and oily during freaky scenes). Whereas Eastern films usually see the girls sporting long dark hair that appears straggly and obscures the face.
  • Dress sense. Mostly neat and conservative, and for greater effect school uniform. Sometimes period clothes are worn.
  • Psychic or supernatural powers. Sometimes the revelations of these powers are left until mid-way or late in to the story and may take several forms, including telepathy, mind control, telekinesis and additional senses. These powers usually manifest with some physical reaction on the child’s part, from glowing eyes to expressionless features. The source of the power can also range greatly, including demonic possession, alien origin, a twist of biology or random freakiness.
  • Murder or Torture. Whether directly or indirectly, the character will lead to the death of someone else, usually to the child’s delight. Some characters may use mental powers, while others are simply sadistic knife-wielding psychopaths. Sometimes their actions are implied, rather than shown. 
  • Religious. Lets just face it, if they’ve been bought up to mention anything religious or with ‘strong religious morals’ there is a very good chance that they are going to turn psychotic at some point in their life. If they actually start being zealous themselves, then there is usually something much worse out there and that’s what they love.
  • Highly Logical. Character knows much more than expected for a child that age, and will often display that knowledge in ways that may seem unempathic.

Quite often, to instill suspense, there is usually a risk to another innocent from the Creepy Little Child, which itself amplifies the creepiness factor. For example, in The Exorcist, Regan MacNiel is a Creepy Little Girl possessed by the Devil, however there is also the risk to the innocent Regan who is a victim of the possession; in Silent Hill, a missing young girl is at risk in the town controlled by a Creepy Little Girl; in Elfen Lied, a split personality separates the psychic killer from the pure and innocent. 

A few examples of Creepy Little Children:

Regan MacNiel from The Exorcist

    12 year old Regan has all the problems of what could by considered a typical young girl. Her mother is famous and a work-a-holic, her parents are getting divorced, she has poor bladder control and a case of Tourettes, and she very much enjoys crucifixes. See parents, this is why letting kids play with toys from the basement is a bad idea. 

    Compelling viewing: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ewu1laA2nmI 

 

The Children from The Children

    Never seen it, but I really want to based entirely on how awful it looks. The kids are creepy even before they become zombies. It’s being distributed by Troma, that should give you an idea of the kwality of the product.

    The movie is about five children in a small town who, thanks to a yellow toxic cloud, end up being turned into bloodless zombies with black fingernails who microwave every living thing they put their hands on. The surviving adults of the town have to try to put a stop to them. The film is rated R for language, nudity, drug use, and gory violence.

    Trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=UFhzyxs66vo  

Charlie from Firestarter

    Charlene “Charlie” McGee is a young girl who possesses many potential psychic abilities, most notably pyrokinesis; the ability to create fire with her mind. She was born with her abilities due to her parents participating in a mysterious government-funded experiment during college. Both parents had been injected amounts of a drug known as Lot Six, which, among other things, had been proven to alter the subject’s chromosomes and pituitary gland. As a major effect of the Lot Six, her father developed telepathic hypnosis and her mother developed extremely minor telekinesis.

    TV Spot: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9CuvL64JT_8  

Carrie White from, well, Carrie

    We all knew someone like Carrie at school. Socially inept, fashion sense not extending past burlap sacks, hair looking like it never saw conditioner in its life and a family life that you always suspected was filled with either freaky-Jeebus or the bottle. Of course, when you give her a pigs blood shampoo, she’s ungrateful and will try to massacre the whole bloody lot of you.

    2002: http://youtube.com/watch?v=O60xLw64ufU  
    1976: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y_K_qCIJeoQ 
 

The Singing Kids in Nightmare on Elm Street 

    There is something about sing-song voices in horror and the perversion of innocence that makes things that much more scary. When I first saw Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors when I was little, before they even got to Freddy, I can remember being freaked out by this singing of “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”.

    Now, I can’t guarantee a good video, because even after all these years Freddy freaks me the fuck out and the thought that some bastard might pop a ‘screamer’ at the end of the video fills me with a child-like dread.

    Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOf1AsaJWXY 
 

The Twins AND Daniel Torrance from The Shining

    Ok, the twins were freaky, there is no doubt about that, and they should get a bonus point for being two creepy girls, but let’s be honest and admit that when little Danny started talking out of his finger with that affected voice, he was unnerving too.

    The Hallway Scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmn6FRgYwBQ 
 

Carol Anne from Poltergeist

    Ok, this one had to be here. It’s unnerving because she actually is innocent, there is very little to be disturbed by her and much more by what affects her, however her awareness and acceptance of the supernatural is worrisome and very few things are as memorable as the line “They’re here”.

    Where are they: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsjf1AsxgDA 
 

The Midwich Cuckoos in Village of the Damned

    The 1960s movie version of the book by John Wyndham deserves to be recognised as a classic and as the inspiration for many later stories and pop culture references. Aryan telepathic children who speak in clear cut English. Children who stare with glowing white eyes that can penetrate the strongest of minds and drive people to take their life.

    1960s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MBresWP9MY 

    Unfortunately, the John Carpenter remake seemed a lot less sinister. Partially I blame the Americanisation, in that without the ability to show a contrast between regular children and the Cuckoos, you don’t get the unnerving factor throughout the movie. Also, without the accent it just doesn’t seem threatening.

    Remake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WzcW9haPto 
 

Angela Baker from Sleepaway Camp

    Ok, this is one of those really messed up ones that, quite frankly, I don’t blame the child for being totally psychotic and freaky. 

    Angela and her cousin, Ricky, are sent to summer camp one summer. She was living with Ricky and her Aunt Martha, after her father and brother, Peter, were killed in a boating accident. Angela gets bullied at the camp by campers and counselors (because, if there is anything to be established from horror movies it’s that at least one child will be bullied by absolutely everyone) and begins to go a little bit (more) fruitloop. Oh, yeah, spoiler time, Angela is actually Peter. The real Angela died in the accident. Aunt Martha wanted a girl and chose to raise Peter as his dead sister. Because that won’t affect your mental state.

    Trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=zM5CjOy2sJk  
    Robot Chicken version of the end: http://youtube.com/watch?v=igEGxsiPWTo  
 

Sadako/Samara in The Ring

    Ok, really we have to hold the Americanisation of the Ring series responsible for most of the more recent saturation of creepy children in movies. That isn’t to say it is solely at fault for the influx, as has been shown already there have always been plenty of creepy children, but The Ring was a success and many other people have tried to take a piece of the action. 

    As for the girl herself, well we’ll use Samara. Psychic girl, thrown down a well and curses video tapes to let her kill people. See, this is what would have happened to little Timmy if Lassie hadn’t got help all those times he fell down the well.

    I’ve fallen and I can’t get up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw70E71G8Z8 

 

Toshio Saeki from Ju-on/The Grudge

    Another part of very good Japanese movies being passed in to Western audiences with a, some may argue ‘questionable’, remake by Hollywood. In the Ju-on films, Toshio is six years old at the time of his death, in The Grudge, he was either seven or eight years old. He and his mother were murdered and so a curse rests on their household, which they remain as ghosts to fulfill.

    Japanese vs American: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ5cdyWHjwU  
 

Damien in The Omen

    Oh, come on. He’s the fecking anti-Christ. It’s in Revealations, people!
 

The kids in Children of the Corn

    Horror-story religious folk are always scary, because they tend to have some twisted view on the religion that they worship. Children, as I hope we have established here, have an ability to be creepy. Now, if you combine creepy children with zealous religious belief – including the need for sacrificing people – and the knowledge that something unseen exists in a cornfield. 


    Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzU0eya6vyk 

 

The ghouls of The Brood

 

Young Michael Myers from Halloween

    Perhaps one of the more unnerving traits of Michael Myers is that, even as a child, he has an emotional detachment and eerie silence during and after his hunts. The very fact that not only does he show no remorse, but he shows no reaction at all. The 2007 portrayal, though ‘interesting’ did show a rather freaky side with the leg stroking.

    1978: http://youtube.com/watch?v=EHz7vlk9zYs 
    2007: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7FG2DVgL7cA 

 

GoGo Yubari from Kill Bill Vol.1

    This one I deeply pondered about the inclusion of, as GoGo isn’t that creepy as much as a psychotic dervish, and she isn’t exactly that young to fit in to the ‘child’ category. However, I decided that I like her too much to care on creepiness and that as she is noted as 17, that works just dandy. 

    Basically, she’s psychotic, she’s wearing a schoolgirl outfit, she’s on any damn list she wants to be.

    Fight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2azHdicqEiI 

 

The Winner from Battle Royale‘s opening

    Battle Royale features entire classes being taken to kill one another. They are slightly more child-like, and for the most part slightly less psychotic (more desperate to survive). For the most part they aren’t really that creepy, with one exception. 

    In the opening minutes we see a young girl, the winner of the last Battle Royale, as she is driven in a jeep by the army, covered in blood, smiling and clutching a ragdoll. Sure, she has no psychic head-exploding powers, no demonic possession, but she’s just become the sole survivor of a massacre she participated in, and is smiling with a freaking ragdoll in her hands, you just know some serious shit has gone down.

    Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNLH-QXggX0 

 

River Tam in Firefly/Serenity

    River was born highly intelligent and throughout her childhood only seemed to increase her genius, to the point of feeling slowed down by the education system, and her love of ballet dancing. Her parents enrolled her in to a facility called The Academy, expecting it to meet her educational needs. While at The Academy, she was subjected to tests and operations which would leave her a graceful killer. River has also displayed psychic abilities, akin to mind reading and knowledge assimilation, being able to instinctively know details about a person.

    The River Tam Sessions: http://youtube.com/watch?v=g6n1PMZ-TBs
    River and the Bible: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xNhzjzH5XBE
    River in a Fight: http://youtube.com/watch?v=R4UG4VJhiqU 

Claudia in Interview with the Vampire

    When Louis, a vampire, feeds off a plague-ridden young girl one night – whom he finds next to the corpse of her mother – his companion and sire, Lestat, then turns her into a vampire “daughter” for them, naming her Claudia. 

    She takes to killing easily, but once she begins to realise that as a vampire she can never grow up to become a woman, she begins to hate Lestat. Throughout her time with Louis, her mind and personality matures, but to her displeasure her body remains that of a five-year-old girl. 

    Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0ygvYjLwio 

 

Chloe Webber in the Doctor Who episode “Fear Her”

    A girl, befriended by a lonely alien, who can trap people in her crayon drawn pictures. She hides out in her darkened bedroom all day, occasionally casting a shadow in the window and singing the Kookaburra nursery rhyme. Ok, so the episode itself isn’t actually scary, but isolating the singing and strange events can be quite disturbing. 

    Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4SDk3PyXJ0 
 

Blonde Haired Girl in the Doctor Who serial "Remembrance of the Daleks"

    The young girl is allied, via brainwashing, to a faction of Daleks searching for the Hand of Omega on Earth in the 1960s. The girl has a very striking presence throughout, even intimidatory in some scenes, but again it is the singing and skipping that is perhaps the most unnerving, especially as it is a corruption of a nursery rhyme, once again it is “One, Two, Buckle my Shoe”.

    Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxya3KShvhY

 

Jamie in the Doctor Who episodes “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances”

    A boy in a gas mask, wandering the streets looking for his mummy, calling out for her. A sad sight perhaps, unless you are in a Doctor Who episode and the boy in question possesses the power to communicate through unplugged phones and vinyl records, who can mutate a person in to an empty version like him and who will speak ever so gently while only asking “Are you my mummy?”

    Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC-9N3InL2U 
 

Anthony Freemont in The Twilight Zone‘s episode “It’s A Good Life”

    Think happy thoughts, smile and never, ever sing or else find yourself sent to the cornfield. Anthony has amazing psychic power, in that he’s trapped the entire rural town he lives in into a seemingly idyllic community of his design, anyone who doesn’t fit into this perfect design is punished with his reality warping power and, if they’ve been very bad, sent to the cornfield where they will never return. 

    Twilight Zone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfGWvexg90w 
 

Eve(s) from X-Files episode “Eve”

    Super-intelligent, murderous clone children who are able to plot a murder conspiracy without even meeting one another. They are expects on playing with emotions and deception. 
Kenny in Highlander (TV Series)
    Kenny is around 830 years old, but is trapped as an immortal in a 10 year old body after dying in England in 1182. He was found by the female immortal, Amanda, who took him as her pupil. Since then he survived by using his childish look to con other Immortals, who would try to protect him, and then he would take their heads to perform the Quickening.

 

Children in Silent Hill (movie and games)

 

Little Sisters from Bioshock (game)

    Someone get me an Xbox 360, k?

    Little Sisters are young human girls with the appearance of a disheveled girl with glowing eyes. They are actually normal human girls but with a species of sea slug implanted in their stomachs. They have the special ability to be immortal due to the sea slug in their stomachs regenerating any dead cells in their bodies combined with children’s cells dividing faster, and girls developing faster than boys. They are also protected by Big Daddies, mutated human behemoths wearing diving suits. 

    Introduction: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fTK9PjaHLT4  

 

Alma Wade in F.E.A.R (game)

    An 8 year old girl vs. a super-soldier special ops team. Oh, you know some serious shit is going to go down. She appears as a little girl in a red dress with a blank face almost completely obscured by long black hair. She’s also very psychic.

    Sightings of Alma: http://youtube.com/watch?v=I4NmNwKaHj8  

The Red Queen AI in Resident Evil / The School Children in Resident Evil: Apocalypse
    The Red Queen was the artificial intelligence system that governed the Umbrella laboratories inside The Hive. When the T-Virus outbreak occured she kicked in her containment protocols and became a homicidal bitch. She was modeled after the programmers daughter, has a holographic representation and affects the voice of a little girl as well as lapsing in to some, seemingly mocking, phrases (“I’ve been a bad, bad girl.”)

    Red Queen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXG-MS-L3a0 
    Red Queen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dvh9YReYpE

    The schoolchildren in Resident Evil: Apocalypse are encountered while the survivors are trying to find a young girl, Angela, in a school in Raccoon City. Unfortunately, someone didn’t tell Terri that the lunchtime bell had rung.

    Schoolgirls and boys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKD8cVljdkw

 

Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

    Though originally rather a fanciful, light-hearted story with a young girl in an exciting twisted world, there have been many re-interpretations of the story of Alice in Wonderland that has taken the events and the characters, including Alice herself, in to the darker realms of imagination. 

    Probably the most unhinged version of Alice comes from the game American McGee’s Alice, where she is condemned to an insane asylum for treatment, until she is summoned back to a very macabre version of Wonderland.

    Trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lG_-3T1Tljw  

 

The Diclonius from Elfen Lied

    Diclonius are very similar to humans, however they posess two cat-ear like “horns” on the side of their head, which are said to relate to their telekinetic powers. Their powers involve the usage of invisible arms, known as “vectors”, which the dicolnius can use with great skill and manipulation, such as to dodge bullets and manipulate the movement of objects. 

    In Action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edjq8op7kmw 

 

The Boys from Bonnie Tyler‘s music video of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”

    Ok, the song is a classic rock ballad and it’s a karaoke night must hear, and I absolutely love the video. It’s very easy to mock, but it’s also very easy for some people to be disturbed by it. 

    You’ve got school uniformed boys with mopped hair and white glowing eyes, a young boy with a dove and lots of eye-shadow, tuxedo boys, angels…the school is freaky, but in a cool way.

    Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55nTwg5NIPM 

 

The Boys from Lord of the Flies

Ralphie and Danny Glick from Salem’s Lot (TV mini-series)

    A very iconic character that has been seen in quite a few references in TV shows over the years. Ralphie Glick was a young boy turned in to a vampire during the early stages of an infestation in the town of Jerusalem’s Lot. The scene that has captured the most attention has been the scene where Ralphie visits his brothers window, floating and scratching at the panes. Later Danny goes on a late night visit to see young Mark Petrie, who fares better than Danny did.

    Ralphie and Danny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK6yjAAFkp4 
    Danny and Mark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXL19IPjwR0

Reiko Mouryou, her family and her friends  from Contemplating Reiko (webcomic)

    I couldn’t leave Reiko out, as she is such a delightfully creepy young demon-girl. As the creator, Vincent Grisanti, describes her: Reiko is a perfectly normal red-eyed, pointy-eared, sadistic little demon girl. She spends most of her time in the first grade and hanging out with her enormous pet crocodile Lucy (short for Lucifer). Reiko is friends with a headless boy and conjoined twins, and her sisters have a wide range of interests (though mostly involving the delivery of gruesome death to other people). 

    The comic strips are single panel and manage to show a very twisted and deep story about a very creepy little girl that makes it addictive reading. Furthermore, and with great effect, the webcomic also comes with flash cartoons from time to time, which give a voice to Reiko that fits the character perfectly.

    I have to confess, Reiko is one of the webcomics I would most like to buy merchandise about. 

    Hopscotch cartoon: http://www.taintedink.com/reikoflash7.htm 
    "Heads or Tails" comic: http://www.taintedink.com/reikogallery171.htm 
    "Fingerpainting" comic: http://www.taintedink.com/reikogallery102.htm

 

Test Card Girl from the BBC Test Card F and Life On Mars

    Test Card F was created by the BBC as one of its line up of test cards for calibrating television distribution and receiving television signals and to troubleshoot any problems with alignment and colours. Test Card F was the first to be transmitted in colour in the UK and the first to feature a person. The central image on the test card was a young girl playing noughts and crosses on a chalk blackboard with a clown doll (Bubbles the Clown).

    Part of the cult status of the test card was down to its affect on people, with some viewers feeling disturbed by the picture and the players. This has been used to great extent in the BBC series Life On Mars where the Test Card Girl appears as a rather creepy spiritual guide. 

    One of the best parts of the portrayal is that the Test Card Girl speaks with the Received Pronunciation, which as well as being sinister is also extremely fitting as the Beeb at the time would have all been expected to use it.

    Original Test Card: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3-euNTw0RM 
    Life on Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS6UI3HG3zo

Of course, the list could go on for ages. I actually left out a few on purpose because they were fairly close to other subjects and I’m not sure on creepiness factor, but I’m open to thoughts on the subject.

Things I know I’ve left out and may come back to at some point:

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