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Evil Children - Autism & Horror Movies

Ember Green

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Y'know, I was something of a creepy kid myself...

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Check out ‪@themonsterandthechild‬ discussing "the intersections of monstrosity & childhood".
And this video about discrimination against children by my friends ‪@TheLeftistCooks‬ Why Does Everyone Hate Children?

Other disability in media videos:
Big Bang Theory - Is Sheldon Even Autistic?
Harry Potter is Also Ableist
Stop Lying About The Good Doctor
Ariel: Feminist. Iconic. Autistic?

Caelan's video I helped to write : "Psychic" Predators on TikTok

I love horror movies, despite the presence of questionable choices & lazy stereotypes. In this video essay, I dive into what makes kids so creepy?
Many horror movies portray “creepy” children who seem emotionless, detached, or too literal. All traits often associated with autism. I discuss how those portrayals echo real-world stigma and fear of autistic people, as well as looking at campaigns like I Am Autism from Autism Speaks & of course, RFK Jr's fearmongering speech. I also share my own story of being seen as a “creepy” kid and what that reveals about how society views difference.

Looking at a bunch of horror media, as well as some eugenics history, focusing on The Black Stork from 1917 featuring real doctor, Harry J Haiselden, a pro-eugenics activist who starred in one of the first movies to feature a child who is destined to do evil things, a propaganda movie designed to show the dangers of letting disabled people live. Moving on to The Bad Seed 1956, thought to be the first movie centered on a murderous child. We talk about classic movies, such as Village (& Children) of the Damned, The Good Son & Mikey, as well as modern offerings including Tin & Tina & Joshua. This is a casual (& haunted) analysis of the "Evil Child" trope, autistic-coded or not, from a former creepy kid.

20 Comments

@Ember_Green Creator 10 months ago Pinned

Obviously, I couldn't cover every single evil child in the horror genre...so maybe next year I'll do a part 2. What creepy/evil kids would you like to see me discuss?

@alicecordova-potter6251 10 months ago

People don't realize that part of why so many disabled/visibly impaired children are around nowadays is because healthcare doesn't routinely end their lives at birth anymore.

@britishscooby 10 months ago

This is why I love the Addams Family so much. They embrace all these "creepy" traits and celebrate them.

@eb2470 10 months ago

The revelation of the adultification of disabled children and the view of disabled adults as children is amazing

@Pentirin 10 months ago (edited)

In the black stork film, the kid is shown to grow up and almost kills his mom out of hatred. This is a reference to the fact that if you hate disabled people enough to kill them rather than let them live, your disabled child will not like you very much.

@Wonkydock26 10 months ago

Haiselden was so obsessed with trying to prove that disabled children would grow up to be evil that he never stopped to question if he himself was the evil child, that or he simply didn't care.

@Peregrina 10 months ago (edited)

The othering of neurodivergent children is a phenomena believed to have existed since the middle ages with stories about trolls or fairies exchanging human children with one of their own.

@EricaAnne2525 10 months ago

I saw an interview with a mom of an “indigo child” whose child told her he could see himself in her eyes and she thought it was so profound. Literal thinking me was like he probably meant “ I can see my reflection in your eyeballs “.

@awkwardukulele 10 months ago

Hearing Heiseldon made a film depicting the baby he killed growing up as a monster who would go on to kill him and his mother strikes me as a manifestation of his own guilt at killing a child. He seems to have projected his own murderous intentions on a baby to justify why him killing the child was a good decision and not the moral depravity it was.

@kierstenburtz8442 10 months ago

"They'll never write a poem" is the most sinister to me because it implies autistic people aren't capable of self expression so they should be ignored. I also find it the most ironic given I have a friend who's autistic and getting an MFA in poetry...

@aqfanatic 10 months ago

When I was little I was stoic, “adult-like,” talked to an unseen being way taller than the grown ups known as “the man,” drew bugs with my family members’ heads on them, and started calling my mom “mother” unprompted.
So yeah whenever i see an evil kid in a horror movie I’m like, “Oh so now we’re not allowed to be a little freak? It’s not cool to be artistic and not know how to talk to people?”

@HumorousConclusion 10 months ago

Beyond eugenics, it's amazing how many ideologies and pseudo scientific theories end up as justifications for how important it is that we murder or abuse whole groups of people. Not sure what this says about humans.

@no_genius 10 months ago

“Bent my spoon when she wasn’t looking” so then you do have the same powers as Uri Geller!

@idanilsson3464 9 months ago

Im autism, im at 2.5 higher risk of being abused by my parents. Im at higher risk of being SAd, for being bullied, lonely, ostracized, leading inreased risk of poor mental health. Im not the one putting others in danger, they are putting me in danger.

@ValeaAlvida 10 months ago

I always loved the "creepy child trope" and for a second I was unsure if I am being problematic here... and than I noticed, I don't usually empathise with the parent. I empathise with the creepy child. Thank you for connecting the dots for my spicy brain.

@nobellprizz2831 10 months ago (edited)

I grew up in a domestic abusive home, so I learnt from a very young age how to read people through their mannerisms. I became very good at discerning a person's mood based on the littlest things, like how the person stood, their breathing, where they placed their hands, etc.

My mother and father thought I was a "creepy child" because of this. They thought I was too weird, and so did a lot of schoolkids and teachers because of how quiet I was and how hard I observed them.

What I've noticed about a lot of evil children is how they're portrayed as manipulative; constantly observing their surroundings or sweet talking the adults, and it always urked me because I did that too, but it was to escape the abuse because I was scared.

It makes me angry honestly.

@cier_bear5875 10 months ago

that "I am autism" ad had my jaw on the FLOOR that is the most aggressively ableist and cruel commercial I think I've ever seen. who sponsored that???

@izzycurer1260 10 months ago

I remember reading a thing online where this guy was remembering a time when he was a kid where they watched a horror movie in class. Like the old Nosferatu or something. Well, there was one kid in class who had a genetic condition where his bones would grow too long. The kid spoke up about how he always hated the way skinny, skeletal monsters were depicted in movies because it made him feel like his own body was supposed to be monstrous, like that was the way society saw him. They basically shut the movie off and everybody had a talk. The op said he never forgot that.

@Mizarriz 10 months ago

So the eugenisist surgeon's real fear was being hated and harmed by people he hated....and harmed. The film he starred in revealed it was his ego that was under the most threat, if the disabled baby grew up to him the doctor specifically

@AnarchistArtificer 10 months ago

Part of why I was drawn to spooky stuff and alternative culture was because it felt like a space where it was cool to be the other. Even before I was diagnosed, I had a pervasive sense that I would never be able to be more than a failed normal person, so it felt liberatory to lean into being the weird outsider and relish in finding community with other oddballs and nerdy folk. I'm realising now that this was perhaps the beginning of me learning to unmask. It's cool to think that I was able to begin that long before my diagnosis.