There are a lot of child protagonists from movies aimed at kids that were awesome because they were somuch darkerthan kid protagonists usually were. When you were a kid, this is a really fun way to enjoy a good ole fashioned macabre kid’s movie.
As an adult, some of thesekid characters can come off a little creepyif you stop and think about it. These dark characters who have obsessions with setting traps for bad guys, torturing their siblings, and destroying their enemies in a truly brutal fashion makes you think that perhaps they won’t become the most well-adjusted adults. Some of them seem like real super villains in training. Here are ten of the scariest kids from kid-friendly movies.
10Kevin McCallister fromHome Alone
When you think of dangerous kid protagonists in movies, one kid’s image springs to mind faster than any other.That would, of course, be Kevin McCallisterfromHome Alone.Sure, it’s fun when you’re a kid to see Kevin set a series of underhanded traps to brutally dispatch a pair of would-be burglars, but as an adult, you notice just how much pleasure Kev gets when he sees the bad guys howling in pain. Though, to be honest, it’s still pretty fun to watch.
Anyone who has seen theSawfranchise and wants to know how someone could ever grow up to become as sick and twisted as Jigsaw needs only to watchHome Aloneto see a twisted fascination with traps and torture begin.
Related:Joe Pesci Recalls Getting Seriously Burned Filming Home Alone Stunts
9Matilda Wormwood fromMatilda
Matildawas pretty much a superhero movie for most 90s kids, and it’s not hard to see why. A young girl who is smarter than all the adults in her life plus she has psychic powers? That’s every kid’s dream! Yet, when you go back and watch Matilda use her telekinetic abilities to psychologically torture Miss Trunchbill into insanity, you have to wonder if this is a super villain origin story.
Remember that scene inHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Princewhere Dumbledore meets a young Voldemort for the first time, and the kid creepily confesses to using his mind to hurt people who are mean to him? Well, it’s easy to imagine a similar conversation happening with Matilda. Especially considering the fact that many believe this movie is in theHarry Potteruniverse.
8Wednesday Addams from everyAddams Familyadaptation
Honestly, Wednesday Addams would be furious if she wasn’t a part of this list. In a way, she was the original terrifying child from a family friendly program. Ever since 1938, whenThe Addams Familywas first introduced, Wednesday has been creeping audiences out in all the best ways. She is fascinated by all things macabre, twisted, dark, and terrifying. Every single adaptation of her has been terrifying from Lisa Loring to Christina Ricci to Chloe Moritz Grace to Jenna Ortega has perfectly embodied this creepy, kooky, monster with the flawless braids and the deadpan stare.
In fact, it’s kind of surprising that the newWednesdaywas the savior of Nevermore Academy and not the one to bring the school to its doom. Even she seemed pretty shocked over her heroic turn.
7Anakin Skywalker fromThe Phantom Menace
Anakin Skywalker is one of the most terrifying characters in film history. Mostly, when people think of his more terrifying scenes, they think of his time as the dramatic one-man-army Darth Vader, or the Tusken-slaying, Order 66 leading Hayden Christensen. What people often forget is just how scary thekid version of AnakinfromStar Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Mencacewas if you really think about it. He finds himself thrust into dangerous situations like the pod-race or the battle of Naboo, but never seems to consider it more than a fun time. Warfare and a death race are viewed almost as playtime to the kid.
Seriously, what child can claim to have destroyed a whole space station full of people and droids alike before even hitting puberty? Not many. No wonder this kid grew into one of the most iconic villains in film history.
6Harry Potter from theHarry Potterfranchise
TheHarry Potterfranchise was all about the titular wizard, so OF COURSE he seemed like the hero the entire time. While he does prove himself to be heroic time and time again in the movies, the audience is prone to information no one else in Hogwarts has. Imagine how it must be like for other innocent students from Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff who have no idea what’s going on. All they know is that every year there’s some new dangerous thing happening at the school, whether it’s a Basilisk offing students, Dementors floating above the grounds, or the literal body of Cedric Diggory appearing in Harry’s arms. Every single innocent bystander would be TERRIFIED of Harry Potter, and who could blame them?
No wonder everyone at Hogwarts was so quick to turn against him all the time. All they wanted to do was pass their exams and every year his Voldemort drama was making it so hard to study.
5Elliott fromE.T.
Look, it’s hard to ever side with the shady government organization in any movie, but inE.T. the Extra Terrestrialyou can kinda see their point. Elliot harbors a strange alien who could be carrying all sorts of diseases or sent to destroy the planet. Elliot decides to hide E.T. instead of telling anyone about his scary new discovery. E.T. even siphons energy off of Elliot, nearly taking his life.
In any other alien visitor movie, E.T. is only the first alien to visit before the fleet of warships arrives to destroy New York City. They always attack New York City for some reason.
4Louise Belcher fromThe Bob’s Burgers Movie
Louise Belcher has always been a bit intense. Things took on a whole new level withThe Bob’s Burgers Movie.Louise finds herself in the face-to-face with a murder investigation. Literally face-to-face. She looks straight into a corpse and then decides to solve the mystery herself. She leads her siblings and then her parents into some truly dangerous situations with a macabre fascination. This could potentially lead to her becoming some sort of detective, or she could be studying what mistakes other criminals have made so she doesn’t make the same ones.
When she grows up, Louise Belcher either solves grizzly mysteries every day or is the source of them. There is literally no middle ground.
3Boo fromMonsters Inc.
Monsters Inc.cleverly flips conventions on their head by showing a child as a thing of horror in a world full of monsters who think that she threatens their entire world. Boo runs escapes into the Monster world and then runs amok in their universe, literally turning the entire society on its head by the film’s end. What is a little disturbing in retrospect is the sheer joy she has as all the monsters run from her in complete terror.
The worst thing that could possibly happen to the Pixar universe is if she met Jack-Jack fromThe Incredibles,Pixar’s other terrifying child protagonist. If they grew up to become a power couple, they would take over the world with no problem. Maybe that’s what created the apocalypse in WALL-E.
2Andy fromToy Story
When you’re a kid, it’s easy to identify with Andy, the kid fromToy Story.It’s a simple matter of imagining that your toys are secretly alive when you’re done playing with them too. As an adult,Toy Storycan give you something of an existential crisis. Andy is not only the kid who plays with the toys, but he is basically their unwitting overlord. Every tiny decision he makes regarding his toys has a massive effect on an entire society of plastic people who live in his room. It’s really easy to twist the concept of a whole city of people living at the mercy of a kid’s playtime into an episode ofThe Twilight Zoneor a Jordan Peele movie.
At the very least, he’s a much kinder overlord than Sid is. He at least finds a new home for them inToy Story 3instead of ripping them apart and putting them back together in monstrous new forms. At least he’s not the worst child overlord out there…
Related:Why Sid From Toy Story is Not a Villain but Really a Tragic Character
1Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice
To be honest, there are a lot of things that are truly disturbing about Tim Burton’sBeetlejuice.As children, that was part of the fun. The movie felt like a film that shouldn’t be allowed for anyone of a young age. As an adult, there are several things about the film that are terrifying in a much less fun way. Lydia Deetz, for example, raises some serious red flags. She sees a world of ghosts, ghouls, and supernatural con men, and it doesn’t seem to disturb her all that much. Even in the end, she foregoes relationships with the living in favor of living with ghosts. She seems like the exact sort of girl who would grow into a Batman villain who controls ghosts in a few decades.
Though considering who her parents are, it’s really hard to blame her for turning out that way.
