8 Films About Freaky Youngsters to Stream After ‘Weapons’

Weapons topped the box office this weekend, which is improbable information for followers of authentic horror films. The film follows a city grappling with the unbelievable reality that a complete classroom of children has vanished en masse—and the invention of the sinister motive behind their disappearance. If Weapons has you within the temper to absorb extra tales of freaky kids, the horror style has many to choose from. Listed below are 10 cult classics that includes that very same theme, which stays as evergreen as it’s constantly terrifying.

Who Can Kill a Baby? 

This deliciously grim 1976 Spanish movie follows a vacationing couple who drifts onto an island populated solely by kids—hostile, homicidal kids. The film’s title units you up for its central dilemma, although the reply shortly turns into, “Anybody who desires to outlive this hellscape higher begin capturing.” There’s loads of horror baked into this idea even earlier than you think about the lady is pregnant… and the kill-crazy affliction extends to unborn kids as properly. Even worse, the children discover a method off the island on the finish, suggesting adults of the world ought to begin watching their backs instantly. (Obtainable to hire or purchase on Prime Video.)

There’s One thing Unsuitable With the Youngsters

This 2023 chiller follows two {couples} on a glamping getaway. The pair with two younger children brings them alongside, and whilst you hate in charge that alternative for turning a soothing trip into nightmarish terror, it’s undoubtedly the foundation trigger. When the younger ‘uns go briefly lacking, they return alarmingly reworked, and There’s One thing Unsuitable With the Youngsters does an admirable job wringing frights from that truth whereas it digs into the methods the adults react to this sudden dreadful change in circumstances. (Streaming on Prime Video)

Youngsters of the Corn

It wouldn’t be a gathering of scary children with out some Stephen King taste, and 1984’s Youngsters of the Corn stays the best adaptation on this unnecessarily extended cinematic franchise. It’s the scariest and the best: Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton (The Terminator got here out just a few months after this) star as a married pair whose highway journey takes a malevolent flip in rural Nebraska. They’re quickly stranded in a group the place no one appears to be over 18—John Franklin, who was really in his 20s on the time, is memorably eerie as their chief, Isaac—and everybody worships a demonic, bloodthirsty presence that lurks within the cornfield. Or else. (Streaming on AMC+ and Tubi.)

Citadel

This 2012 Irish movie (to not be confused with the same-named Prime Video spy collection) is filled with disturbing imagery that may linger lengthy after you end watching it. Director Ciarán Foy went on to make Sinister 2 and assist with episodes of Candy Tooth and The Haunting of Bly Manor, however even when he’d by no means made anything, he might be assured about creating loads of nightmares together with his function debut. It’s a couple of man who struggles to place his life again collectively after his pregnant spouse is attacked by a mob of mysterious, hoodie-clad teenagers of their run-down residence constructing. After he strikes to a different run-down constructing, he quickly comes to appreciate there’s one thing terribly off about these “teenagers.” (Hire or purchase on Prime Video)

Village of the Damned

The Nineteen Nineties John Carpenter remake is okay, however the coldest chills come from the 1960 authentic, which faucets into post-war fears to discover what occurs when a city first experiences an unexplained cosmic occasion, then just a few months later all the ladies of the precise age understand they’re pregnant. The weird kids are all born on the identical day and have the identical eerie look, in addition to the ability to learn and management minds, particularly in relation to adults who query simply what within the (alien in origin) hell is happening. (Hire or purchase on Prime Video)

The Omen, The Unhealthy Seed, and Pet Sematary

Whereas the remainder of this checklist focuses on teams of youngsters—and certainly, more often than not, freaky children are scarier in numbers—there are some horror-movie tots who just do tremendous menacing adults on their very own. These embrace Devil’s personal spawn, Damien, in 1976’s The Omen (baby-swapped at beginning to torment a diplomat whereas ladder-climbing towards world domination); Rhoda Penmark, the murderously aggressive moppet of 1956’s The Unhealthy Seed; and, for another dose of Stephen King, resurrected toddler terror Gage in 1989’s Pet Sematary. (The Omen is obtainable to hire or purchase on Prime Video, additionally on Tubi; The Unhealthy Seed hire or purchase on Prime Video; Pet Sematary streaming on Paramount+)

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