10 Horror Movies That Will Make You Terrified Of Children

3. Carrie (1976)

Based on a novel by Stephen King, Carrie is a supernatural horror directed by Brian De Palma, starring Sissy Spacek and John Travolta. In the film, Carrie White (Spacek) is bullied at school by her classmates, and traumatised at home by her fundamentalist mother. Slowly, she begins to develop superhuman abilities, which manifest themselves most prominently during moments of extreme agitation. Publicly humiliated, Carrie unleashes her frustrations on her schoolmates, resulting in untold carnage and numerous gruesome deaths.

Carrie herself is pretty terrifying, but her classmates are vindictive, unsympathetic monsters without even a shred of human compassion. In the closing moments of the film, you almost feel as though the character’s actions are justified, and while plenty of innocent bystanders are caught in the devastation, those guilty few suffer the harshest consequences. In the end, despite the supernatural tendencies of the principle protagonist, the film’s more interested in the cruelty of ordinary schoolchildren, like the ones you see on the bus on your way home from work.

Verdict: Carrie White is a supernatural character with remarkable abilities, but her classmates are the real monsters. In fact, they’re almost inhuman, proving that children can be cruel, and watching them get murdered in movies is incredible cathartic.