20 Things We'd Never Do Thanks To Horror Movies

15. Adopt A Blonde Child

The creepy child motif is one of the most effective in horror films: powerful because of our belief in the innocence of youth and shocking because of how it reveals that belief to be unfounded (you only need to remind yourself of the cruelty of playground games to realise how true that is). There are many creepy children in horror cinema €“ the siblings Miles and Flora in The Innocents; Damian in The Omen; the twin sisters in The Shining; innumerable young Japanese girls in practically every J-horror movie €“ but for me the band of silver-haired psychics on The Village Of The Damned are a paragon of evil youth. From the mysterious circumstances of their inception (which touches on the rape-conception terror of Rosemary's Baby) through what must have been the slowly horrific realisation that something just isn't right with all those identical, emotionless kids (and the obvious denial that follows), the sheer creepiness of that film has made it impossible to feel comfortable around unnaturally blonde kids.
Contributor
Contributor

I'm a completist. I love platformers, indie games, bad horror movies and Joss Whedon. You can find me over on Twitter at @ejosully, where I talk about largely unrelated things.