As has been discussed in countless 'cliche movie scenes" threads, one of the most overused cinematic devices is the ‘evil little girl in babydoll clothes’ in horror movies. Well, just how many of them have there been over the years? Let’s list 'em…
the Shining: twin little girl ghosts “come and play with us Danny, forever, and ever, and ever…”
Angel: the girl in Wolfram & Hart’s office’s ‘white room.’
the Bad Seed: One of the earliest, if not the original, bad little girl.
Ringu / the Ring: Samara, star of an underground (sorry, couldn’t resist) cult video.
Amityville Horror (the remake): Jodie (a demonic ghostly pig in the original flick) is a little girl ghost, who isn’t actually evil, but creepy.
the Exorcist: Regan McNeil possessed by Captain Howdy (a.k.a. Pazzuzzu)
And although not from a film, I’ll put a special plug in for the blythe doll. When I was growing up, one of the girls who lived next door to my family actually had one. I gave me nightmares.
Hehe, this is one cliche that makes me want to gag. The worst movie I’ve ever seen (The Grudge) employed that increasingly overused plot device too. The saddest part is … I think it was actually the only scary part of the film.
The makers of the PC game F.E.A.R. used the same plot device almost verbatim. A haunting, silhoutted, ghostly girl stalking you in the shadows and causing time to slow down while she moans and/or giggles at you in the dark. Very atmospheric and tense game, although the gameplay was as repetitive as the horror cliches it used.
I don’t know if the little girl in a recent episode of My Name is Earl was supposed to be creepy, but she was. She reminded me of someone who’d leave a toy on some dark stairs, and take her time dialing for the ambulance.
Have you seen the Fidelity “You Want Easy?” ads? The little girl playing ping pong with her dad didn’t appear to like losing. If I was her dad, I’d watch my step.
I wonder why Hollywood picked up this particular cliche? What is so creepy about little girls? They’re harmless, at least compared to, say, a masked psycho with a chainsaw, so why are they used so often to elicit fear in the audience, and why does it work?
Just my opinion, but I think the fact that they usually are harmless is what makes them so creepy. By using little things like, for example, dark makeup, they can make a child who looks vaguely threatening, and that is intensified by the human instinctive fear of things which don’t make sense. A frightening thing that is also a cute little kid messes with our minds because it’s so at odds with what we know.
Probably because their harmless. It’s ironic, you see. They take something completly innocuous and make us scared of it, and then we’re creeped out more because we’re afraid of something that in real life isn’t even scary. I mean, on one would blame you for running away from a Jason-esque killer, but they find out you ran away screaming from a little girl and you’re branded a wuss the rest of your days.
Nitpick: she’s Sadako in Ringu, Samara in The Ring.
In The Evil Dead one of the possessed adult female characters becomes infantilized and sings “We’re gonna get ya” in a child’s voice. Which is quite creepy.
Oh, and that scene with the old lady/young girl cross in The Others which made my skin crawl to bejaysus.
I agree that it is a fantastic performance and an underrated film. But, although Rynn, played by Foster, definitely does some terrible things, I never saw her as evil. And I certainly never thought she was creepy, like the rest of the examples in the thread. On the other hand, I never had as much sympathy for Rynn as protrayed in the novel.