Horror movies have gotten maximum mileage out of spooky children over the years. Seeing a tot with a grim visage and no fire in his or her eyes is a quick way to give audiences the willies, and Let Me In (new this week from Anchor Bay Entertainment) effectively uses young Chloe Moretz -- giving a grim, chilling performance -- as a centuries-old vampire in the body of what appears to be a pre-adolescent girl. (Moretz is following in the capable footsteps of Lina Leandersson from Let Me In's superior predecessor, Let the Right One In.) Who are some other movie kids you wouldn't want to babysit without garlic, holy water, and an AK-47? Glad you asked!
· Those creepy Aryan Village of the Damned kids, and their descendants, the Children of the Corn.
· Harvey Stephens as Damien Thorn in the original The Omen. Or the equally homicidal (if less Satanic) Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son or Jacob Kogan in Joshua. Not to mention Isabelle Fuhrman in Orphan, although...well, I'll shut up, in case you don't know the twist on this one.
· Daveigh Chase as the creepy girl in the well in The Ring -- or Daveigh Chase as the creepy girl from the compound on Big Love, for that matter -- as well as her own predecessor, Rie Ino'o from the original Japanese Ringu.
· These days, she comes off more ridiculous than menacing, but Patty McCormack's treacherous Rhoda Penmark in The Bad Seed is a murderous moppet for the ages.
· I've never actually seen the controversial Island of the Damned (1976) -- aka Who Can Kill a Child? -- but it's about British tourists on holiday who find themselves on an island where the kids have gone berserk and are murdering all the adults. Is it as bonkers as its reputation?
· She plays it for laughs, but there's definitely a gravitas to Christina Ricci's pallid and pernicious Wednesday Addams in the two Addams Family movies.
You've no doubt got favorites of your own -- share them in the comments.