Let us know if you still want to have kids after watching this video. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at memorable instances where film antagonists or sources of danger happened to be underage.
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00:00Did you kill Richard?
00:04What if I did?
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at memorable instances
00:08where film antagonists or sources of danger happen to be underage.
00:13We exclude characters who were possessed or victims of circumstance,
00:17a la Reagan McNeil from The Exorcist.
00:20You're one of the only people in the world that knows how special I am.
00:25But someday, they will all know.
00:3010. Malachi and Isaac – Children of the Corn
00:34I am the word and the giver of his laws.
00:36Disobedience to me is disobedience to him.
00:39Do it now or your punishment shall be a thousand times, a thousand deaths,
00:43each more horrible than the last.
00:44There have been a lot of films within the Children of the Corn franchise over the years,
00:48but it's the first entry from 1984 that sticks in our memories.
00:52This is due largely to its shocking opening sequence,
00:55which sees the deaths of all of the adults in Gatlin, Nebraska.
00:59The Children of Gatlin are led astray by a religious cult headed by Isaac Krohner
01:04and his second-in-command, Malachi Boardman.
01:07Make sacrifice unto him. Bring him the blood of the outlander.
01:11Praise God! Praise the Lord! Praise God! Praise the Lord!
01:16This scenario might have devolved into parody
01:19were it not for the acting of John Franklin and Courtney Gaines.
01:22The pair exude legit malevolence,
01:25making it easy to see them as demagogues for their young peers.
01:28The end results, meanwhile, are classic terror,
01:31as both Malachi and Isaac serve He Who Walks Behind the Rose.
01:35He wants you too, Malachi.
01:43He wants you too.
01:469. Psychoplasmic Offspring – The Brood
01:49The thing has no belly button.
01:51That's right. And that means this creature has never really been born.
01:56At least not the way human beings are born.
01:59David Cronenberg is the master of body horror cinema,
02:02with his 1979 effort The Brood especially chilling.
02:05Memorably, the villains here are anthropomorphic,
02:08childlike representations of abuse that are physically willed into existence.
02:13These psychoplasmic offspring are tethered to their mother, Nora Carvath,
02:18via a psychic connection and commit violent acts upon their creator's behalf.
02:23They're her children, Frank.
02:25More exactly, they're the children of her rage.
02:28The end results are truly disturbing.
02:30And this isn't thanks only to the idea at play.
02:33The practical effects also lend these psychoplasmic creations an insidious life,
02:37planting them forever into the subconscious of our deepest and darkest nightmares.
02:458. Henry Bowers – IT Franchise
02:48The Losers Club.
02:50Yeah, yeah, the Losers Club.
02:52The fiction of Stephen King possesses a number of constants.
02:55One, which is the near-omnipresent character of an abuser or tormentor.
02:59Henry Bowers definitely fits this bill,
03:01as this local hoodlum and gang leader is already pretty terrible,
03:05prior to his possession by Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
03:08This is what us locals call the kissing bridge.
03:10Same as for soothing.
03:12Sucking face.
03:14And carving names.
03:16Bowers may be caught within the cyclical nature of domestic violence,
03:19but his choices remain his own.
03:21And he takes delight in tormenting the Losers Club at every turn.
03:24This antagonist's already violent and cruel nature
03:27makes it easy for Pennywise to take control of Bowers,
03:30effectively amplifying what's already there at the start of the story.
03:34Make it a wonderful day.
03:36Kill him.
03:38Kill him.
03:397. The Island – Who Can Kill a Child?
03:43Hello?
03:45Hello?
03:47This film from director Narciso Ibañez Ceredor
03:50asks a very blunt and very difficult question.
03:53There are no easy answers to be found in 1976's Who Can Kill a Child?
03:58Instead, the film pontificates about the horrors of war,
04:01at home and abroad,
04:02and the effects an early exposure to violence has upon a child's psyche.
04:06Why have you done this?
04:09Why have you done this?
04:13Why have you done this?
04:19The island children in this film have become homicidal,
04:22yet vacationers Tom and Evelyn do all they can to stay their hand in retaliation.
04:27The pair's torment on the island pushes them to the brink,
04:30yet by the film's climax we are left with an even more depressing question.
04:34Will this vicious cycle ever end?
04:36Is them!
04:38Help me!
04:41It's them!
04:43Them!
04:496. Brett's Gang – Eden Lake
04:52So guys, do us a favour and turn the music down.
04:55On AM8.
04:57Turn your sounds down on AM8.
05:02The framing of Brett's Gang as antagonistic feels intentional,
05:05right from the group's introduction in the 2008 film Eden Lake.
05:09Critical analysis of the film has singled out how writer-director James Watkins
05:13underlines a perception of systemic social decay in the United Kingdom,
05:17one that was labelled Broken Britain by conservative voices.
05:20I never touched him.
05:26What, you didn't touch him, huh?
05:27Perception certainly dictates the veracity of such claims,
05:30but there's no denying how Brett and his mates viciously torment
05:33leads Kelly Riley and Michael Fassbender.
05:36Eden Lake also features an unsettling and disturbingly dark ending,
05:40where the gang effectively get away with their crimes,
05:43their sins covered up by all of the local parents.
05:46Police are going to be around here, they're going to ask questions.
05:48Doesn't mean they're going to get any answers, does it?
05:52We look after our own around here.
05:545. Brandon Brier – Brightburn
05:57Take the world.
06:02Take the world.
06:07What if Superman was a bad guy?
06:10The 2019 film Brightburn attempts to showcase one potential answer to this question,
06:14and does so with a young actor, Jackson A. Dunn.
06:18You know, sometimes when bad things happen to people, it's for a good reason.
06:24Dunn portrays Brandon Brier, whose origin story is similar to Clark Kent's,
06:29only with an entirely different outcome.
06:31Here, Brier's intentions are anything but pure, and he grows up to be a villain.
06:35Despite the best efforts of his adopted parents.
06:38I have never stopped loving you.
06:42I believe, I still believe, you were a blessing that fell to this earth.
06:50The tragedy at play here isn't lost on the audience,
06:53and questions can be asked about how far parental love can go when faced with pure evil.
06:58It's a moral conundrum that's been asked in cinema before,
07:01with Brightburn reframing it through a superhero lens.
07:054. Henry Evans – The Good Son
07:08Poor Mr. Highway. He's thinking about the end.
07:12He's had enough of this terrible life.
07:14What?
07:15Say goodbye.
07:17No!
07:18The career of child actor Macaulay Culkin took a new turn with 1993's The Good Son,
07:23which gave Culkin the opportunity to play a lead antagonist.
07:27The character of Henry Evans is troubled,
07:29and displays antisocial behaviour that's pushed into attempted murder.
07:33What are you trying to tell me?
07:34I've told you. I'm telling you.
07:37Connie didn't just slip. You don't know what he is.
07:42Culkin's performance is chilling,
07:44working off the innate likability of his co-star Elijah Wood in a fascinating manner.
07:49This can be seen not only during their early scenes together,
07:52but also at the film's climax,
07:54where Henry's mother is forced to make a heartbreaking decision.
07:57The Good Son has aged very well,
07:59while Culkin's work in the role remains some of his best to date.
08:03I guess you don't know me very well, Mom.
08:123. The Village – Village of the Damned
08:15People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ.
08:18What's important about them is whether they're good or bad,
08:21and these children are bad.
08:23The premise of the original Village of the Damned from 1960 is a memorable one,
08:28one also utilised by the 1995 remake.
08:31The abnormally born children within these films all seem to share a psychic link,
08:35operating as a hive mind with sinister intentions.
08:38You have to be taught to leave us alone.
08:44Leave us alone.
08:48The parents vacillate between feelings of love and fear,
08:51while struggling to decide what to do about the children's growing power.
08:54Both the original film adaptation of The Midwich Cuckoos,
08:57and its remake from horror icon John Carpenter,
09:00ask these questions, with somewhat different answers.
09:04All we do know is that these children of the Damned are dangerous,
09:07and demand ultimate power.
09:09You're thinking of...
09:14a brick wall.
09:16A brick wall.
09:18A brick wall.
09:20I must think of a brick wall.
09:23A brick wall.
09:252. Samara Morgan – The Ring
09:27Someone knows you've watched it,
09:30and what they say is,
09:33you will die in seven days.
09:35The Ring was a huge horror hit when it was released back in 2002,
09:39immediately creating a horror icon in the form of its antagonist, Samara Morgan.
09:44The soaking wet, dark-haired vision of Morgan
09:47was itself adapted from the 1998 Japanese film Ringu,
09:51and its character of Sadako Yamamura.
10:01Both of these young girls are cursed with a psychic ability they can't control,
10:05and this powerful instability winds up pushing both Morgan and Yamamura
10:09into dark places after their physical deaths.
10:13You don't want to hurt anyone.
10:17But I do, and I'm sorry.
10:21It won't stop.
10:23The cursed videotape is a product of their tragic yet malevolent evil,
10:27delivering death to anyone that views it within seven days.
10:38Seven days.
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10:581. Damien Thawne – The Omen Franchise
11:02From the eternal sea he rises, creating armies on either shore,
11:06turning man against his brother, till man exists no more.
11:12He's the literal spawn of Satan,
11:15a demonic offspring who is destined to bring on the end of the world.
11:19His earthly name may be Damien Thawne,
11:21but this young child will grow up to become the opponent, the Antichrist.
11:26The original Omen film, from 1976, succeeds primarily because it seems so improbable
11:32that this otherwise adorable child will rise to such unholy heights.
11:36Yet the signs are there, including mysterious Satanists
11:40who ingratiate themselves into the Thawne family to cultivate Damien's growing power.
11:44I have no fear, little one.
11:49I am here to protect thee.
11:51Animals quake and cower at the boy's presence,
11:54while the physical 666 that's present on the child's body
11:58forever brands Damien with the Mark of the Beast.
12:02He's the ultimate evil child, whose legacy continues on with films to this day.
12:07Yes, born in the image of the greatest power in the world,
12:12the Desolate One.
12:14Desolate because his greatness was taken from him and he was cast down,
12:18but he has risen, Mark, in me.
12:21What are your thoughts about films that feature underage antagonists?
12:25Let us know in the comments.
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