10 Great Horror Movies With Terrible Concepts

You know what’s even less scary than a supernatural murderous babysitter?

A very non-supernatural babysat.

An antagonist who is just a kid (and life is a nightmare) is never going to be an effective horror villain.

And before you argue for the likes of 1976’s The Omen and 1973’s The Exorcist, it needs to be noted that the supernatural threat in both those films is the Devil, rather than the kid themselves. Reagan is an ailing victim and Pazuzu is the terrifying evil, whilst Damien is a blank-eyed cute kid who would be hilariously un-scary without legions of crow demons to do his bidding.

And yet 2016’s Better Watch Out managed to make a compelling villain, and an intense slice of survival horror, out of an entirely human kid.

And a precocious little s***, at that.

The sociopathic murderer/ babysitter kidnapper is played to perfection by Pan’s Levi Miller in a chilling turn which switches between Disney Channel smarminess and cold, junior American Psycho style breakdowns on a dime. The Visit heroine Olivia DeJonge proves a resourceful heroine, and so this twisty horror succeeds despite, well, despite the villain being all of twelve.