Manic Expression

Children in horror movies often provide a mixed reaction. Often, when they play the "creepy/evil child" archetype, those performances get regarded as classics, such as Linda Blair for the Exorcist or more recently, Isabelle Fuhrman for Orphan.

Good kid characters in horror movies, on the other hand, often get regarded as annoying, with only a few exceptions here and there. Today, I will be talking about the latter. These are my personal top 5 favorite hero kid character performances in horror movies.

Here we go!

5. Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O'Rourke)-The Poltergeist Trilogy.

They're heeeeeere. Starting with the original film in 1982, Carol Anne entered the hearts of horror fans with her innocence. We all were happy to see her escape and occasionally defeat the demons that haunted her. The actress' tragic early death in 1988 makes me look at these films and feel sad, knowing Heather could've had a succesful career after the series ended.

4. Eddie Kasbrek (Adam Faraizl)-Stephen King's "IT".

Probably the most surprising pick on this list, I was debating between Eddie and Bill but decided to go with Eddie. Out of all of the Losers Cub battling IT, I always found Eddie to be my favorite. He is probably my favorite example of the "kid dealing with an overprotective parent" archetype, and the "Battery Acid" bit during the first final battle I always found to be badass. Heck, even continuing into the 2nd half of the movie, Eddie had one of the better adult actors (Dennis Christopher) IMO. I wish Mr. Faraizl could have had gotten more parts.

3. Danny Torrence (Danny Lloyd)-The Shining

Possibly the most well-known good guy kid character in horror film history. The character is a nice mixture of innocene and creepy (though never being malevolent). Plus, the final chase in the maze features him performing one of the most succesful tricks on a horror villain ever. Props to him.

2. Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent)-Child's Play 1 and 2

Andy, like the NC joked about in his Child's Play review, is probably the most badass character of the kids on this list. Though with the possible exceptions of 3 and Bride, Child's Play was never really a "teen" slasher movie, Andy manages to outfight the villain more than most characters older than him. Part of me wishes they waited a couple more years to make CP3 after 2, so Alex could've reprised the part.

And my number one favorite heroic kid character in a horror movie (And what I had instantly pegged as the top spot when I began planning this list) is................

1. Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris)-Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

Jamie, simply put, was awesome. Though not as directly badass as Andy or creepily mysterious as Danny, Jamie managed to be one of my favorite 80s' scream queens despite only being 11-12 during the time of filming. You can really feel bad for her as her murderous uncle kills her friends and guardians (Especially in Halloween 5, which, in retrospect, is one of the more depressing slasher films in the sense she NEVER cactches a break). She was named after the actress who was made famous from the original film, and Ms. Harris did indeed lead up to Jamie Lee Curtis's legacy. (and, for one reason or another, the only actor/actress on this list to really have a career afterwards)

There's my list! Hope you guys enjoyed, and share your thoughts below!