10 Horror Movies That Will Make You Terrified Of Children

4. Eraserhead (1977)

From director David Lynch, Eraserhead is a strange and beautiful movie about the pressures of responsibility, and the realities of childbirth. In the film, Henry (John Nance) moves in with his girlfriend Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) after getting her pregnant inadvertently. Straightforward enough, right? Well, the resulting infant is far from normal, appearing more akin to a lizard, or a mutated calf, or some form of extra-terrestrial.

Throughout the film, several inexplicable occurrences transpire, but there’s a strange sense of logic that pervades the film. In fact, at a certain point, it even starts to make sense. After all, Eraserhead is about burgeoning parental responsibility and the pressures of adulthood, so the seemingly random, illogical realities of the movie are essentially symbolic of the overwhelming frustrations that come with being a parent. In that respect, the entire film is about children, and the anxieties that come with having to take care of them.

Verdict: I might be oversimplifying the movie, but the film is certainly dealing with the pressures of parenthood, if only in a secondary capacity. Henry’s infant son is abominable, but seemingly harmless. It’s the responsibility that comes with having a son that the film is really interested in, and it makes the whole process seem absolutely terrifying.