Kids in Scary Movies

Kids in Scary Movies

  Here, I am looking at the portrayal of young children as the antagonist in a supernatural horror film.

The first one that I looked at was the young boy from The Grudge:

  The young boy's skin tone is clearly a lot paler than it should be, so that it gives off a deathly feeling, which adds to the supernatural horror of the film. There is a lot of heavy eye makeup used to emphasise the eyes, and also make them seem a lot bigger than it should be. Normally, larger eyes would make a person look cuter, but due to the dark circles around the eyes, and the pale skin, it makes it look very scary and weird.
  He wears only boxers or shorts, because it shows that he is still a child, because children are socially accepted to wander around near naked, meanwhilst, if it was an adult wandering about half naked while haunting someone, it will gradually shift into the comedy genre.

The next child is from 'The Orphanage':

  What is really obvious here, is the weird potato sack mask which the boy wears, which gives the boy a sense of mystery, because you do not know what his face looks like under there. He seemingly looks very innocent, due to his clothes and the way that he is standing alone, makes him seem almost harmless. The mask may also mean that he is very different from other children.
  Compared to other children, they seem to be very secluded, and not as outgoing. This is probably due to there being past trauma or they have a weak ego, so that they are usually bullied by other children.

The last child that I looked at, was Samara Morgan from 'The Ring':

  Samara Morgan's dressing is extremely simple, as it only consists of a plain white, over sized T-shirt. This is like the child from The Orphanage, as this makes them seem very innocent and childlike due to the excessive bagginess from the T-shirt.
  Comparing these two versions of Samara Morgan, there is a clear difference between the appearances, because in the top picture, she looks very introverted, but there is still an innocent to her. However, in the bottom picture, she looks almost demonic, with the same hairstyle, but with wrinkles and blood stains underneath her eyes. Her eyes give off a very deep hatred in the form of a glare.

Some conventional traits I found during this investigation is that, even though the children has a demonic presence within them, they are still portrayed as a child with the way they are dressed. Their skin colour is also abnormally white, which gives them a supernatural feeling. The eyes are also an important factor, as they are highlighted in different ways, either with very dark makeup or emphasising it with blood.