Innocent looking children who are actually super frightening have been around going back to The Shining or Children of the Corn, but in recent years, there has been the highest concentration of creepy kids in the genre's history. It's evolved from an occasionally used, interesting plot device to yet another lazy trope included far too often. Sinister played with this as a major part of its storyline, and it looks like the sequel will double down on that and involve the kids even more. There's the Tom Shankland film The Children, which is all about scary kids who murder their own parents. Insidious has the little boy dancing to Tiptoe Through The Tulips. In Trick 'r Treat, not only does Sam kind of fit this trope despite not being human, but there's also the psychopathic child Billy Wilkins who helps his father slice up bodies, as well as all the zombie kids from the school bus accident. Even the Halloween remake made use of this cliche, following Michael Myers as a scary young kid for the first act. When young Michael was shown in the original movie, he wasn't all that scary, but here, he's suddenly the most ridiculously evil kid of all time. Like most of these cliches, creepy kids have their place, but when misused it just comes across as cheap.
