Aussie horror The Babadook, which is currently in UK cinemas and reaches the US next week, is one of the scariest films of the year. Like a lot of the best fear-flicks, much of its ability to terrify comes down to one truly creepy kid.
In director Jennifer Kent's harrowing debut, six-year-old Samuel (Noah Wiseman) discovers a book called Mister Babadook, which just so happens to coincide with creepy occurrences at home that his mother (Essie Davis) blames on Samuel's overactive imagination. If we reveal any more, we'll ruin the film's surprises, but suffice to say that Samuel's behaviour is every bit as unnerving as the monster that could be lurking in his house.
He's not the only movie kid putting us off parenthood for life. Also responsible for giving Digital Spy a severe case of paedophobia (or fear of children) are these terrifying tots...
1. Gage Creed (Pet Sematary, 1989)
Both the youngest on this list and the down-and-out scariest, two-year-old Gage Creed (Miko Hughes) is every parent's worst nightmare. After bumbling into the path of an oncoming truck, he returns from the dead as an ashen-faced corpse, a consequence of having been laid to rest in an old Indian burial ground (yep).
The trauma doesn't stop there. Undead and loving it, Gage proceeds to exact revenge on his inattentive parents by wrapping his tiny mitts around a scalpel and, well, demonstrably not playing nice. It sounds horrific because it is, and thanks to an insanely talented Hughes, it's also creepy as hell. (No cringey child acting here.) If ever there was a reason to not have kids...
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2. Regan (The Exorcist, 1973)
Infamous for her venomous slurs, pea soup-spewing and questionable use of a crucifix, Regan (Linda Blair) gives a whole new meaning to the term 'devil child'. What's most chilling is her transformation from sunny 12-year-old to scarred abomination, which is prompted by her inadvisable purchase of a ouija board. It's no wonder her mother (Ellen Burstyn) becomes a howling mess at the mere sight of her - in fact, Regan's so terrifying that Blair herself has admitted to having "a lot of difficulty living with the aftermath of The Exorcist".
If you find yourself becoming too pant-wettingly terrified while watching, sling on the edited-for-TV version instead, in which Regan's foul mouth is censored in hilarious ways. "Your mother knits socks in Hell!" just doesn't have the same menace as the bloodcurdling original...
3. Damien (The Omen, 1976)
Son of Satan. Devil spawn. Both apply to this cap-wearing creep, an orphan who's adopted at birth by diplomat Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) when his wife loses their baby during labour. As Damien (Harvey Stephens) matures, things start to go wrong. Horribly wrong. Damien's nanny kills herself ("Look at me, Damien. It's all for you!"), baboons go mental, Thorn discovers a sinister birthmark and bloody portents of doom abound.
It's even more impressive that Damien's so creepy given he doesn't really do anything (on screen, anyway). Relying on that inscrutable stare for his menace, he's the perfect embodiment of evil: quiet, insidious and totally unsuspecting. The Thorn family never knew what hit them.
4. Carol Anne (Poltergeist, 1982)
"They're heeeeere." Hard to imagine two scarier words in the English language, even if they are uttered by a blonde-haired, blue-eyed moppet in a onesie. Signalling the arrival of an entire graveyard's worth of spooks (plus the Devil himself), Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) is all about delivering skin-crawling bombshells with the optimism of a kid who's just rooted the freebie out of a cereal box.
The youngest member of the Freeling family, she's targeted by unquiet spirits who are attracted to her purity - and want her for themselves. Cue Carol Anne talking to the TV, skidding joyfully (and unaided) across the kitchen floor, emerging from The Beyond covered in goop... the creepiness never ends. And even though you're rooting for Carol Anne and her family, you definitely wouldn't want her anywhere near your house.
5. Danny (The Shining, 1980)
It's not hard to understand why Danny (Danny Lloyd) is so creepy when you consider who his dad is. Gifted with 'The Shining', Danny's a burgeoning telepath with the ability to see the dead in all their gory glory. Unluckily for him, the hotel he holes up in with his caretaker pops (Jack Nicholson) during off-season is positively creaking with dead things desperate to be seen.
There are decomposing women in bathtubs, axe-murdered little girls, even elevators that spew blood. And that's even before we get to the bit where Danny talks to his index finger and croaks "Red rum" until we're parched with fear. In fact, Danny's so creepy that even a shot of him pedalling around the Overlook Hotel has our hair standing on end.
6. Dylan (Wes Craven's New Nightmare, 1994)
Miko Hughes again, older here than he was in Pet Sematary but still exhibiting an unnerving ability to switch from angelic whippersnapper to menacing miscreant in the blink of an eye. That he's able to almost out-scare a rejuvenated Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is testament to Hughes' penchant for going to really dark places.
Here, Hughes plays Dylan, the six-year-old son of Heather Langenkamp (playing a version of herself in Wes Craven's pre-post-modern brain-blender). At once adorable in his jim-jams and then terrifyingly taping knives to his fingers, Hughes hits a scary high point when he hisses that infamous Elm Street warning: "Never sleep again." Don't worry, we won't.
7. Cole Sear (The Sixth Sense, 1999)
He sees dead people, as if you needed reminding. (But what calibre of dead people they are, including Bruce Willis himself and a vomit-y young Mischa Barton.) Equipped with that eponymous gift, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is a haunted, fragile thing, all puppy-dog eyes and trembling lower lip.
He's sent to Willis' child psychologist in M Night Shyamalan's stellar debut, which leads to all manner of nerve-shredding occurrences ("I'll show you where my dad keeps his gun"). And even if the line has been parodied to death, Osment's delivery of "I see dead people" still has us quivering behind a cushion.
