One of the most reliable horror tropes around is a good old-fashioned creepy kid, whether they're a bit of a wrong'un to start with or just badly affected by a sinister force.

We've already looked back at what some of the classic creepiest kids in horror movies are up to now, including The Exorcist's Regan (Linda Blair) and The Shining's Grady Twins (Lisa and Louise Burns).

But creepy kids haven't gone away, and continue to pop up in horror movies year on year, so we thought we'd round up the seven creepiest kids in horror movies in the 21st century so far.

Sweet dreams...

1. Hereditary – Charlie

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Sure, it's not Charlie's fault that she was possessed by Paimon, one of the "eight kings of hell", from her birth, but even knowing that didn't stop us getting properly freaked out by her.

Thanks to a brilliant performance from Milly Shapiro, Charlie was a major part of what made Hereditary such a nerve-shredding experience. Whether she was chopping a dead pigeon's head off or doing THAT click, Charlie was unforgettable – until the telephone pole got in the way.

2. Samara – The Ring

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It was no easy task to live up to the terror of Ringu's Sadako, but Samara in Gore Verbinski's 2002 remake The Ring managed it – and not just when she crawled out of the TV towards the unfortunate Noah.

Before her adopted mother drowned her, Samara is seen to use her psychic powers to torment her parents – and their horses(!) – with disturbing imagery. Of course, we're not saying this meant she deserved to be drowned, yet even we might have had to stick Samara in the loft away from us.

3. All of them – The Children

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Underrated 2008 British horror The Children is essentially Children of the Corn with a virus, as four children on a New Year holiday go bad after becoming infected.

The virus makes the children super violent towards their parents and it's the nonchalant way that they carry out the bloody acts – like stabbing a crayon in someone's eye or shoving a doll into a corpse's stomach – that chills you to the bone.

4. Esther – Orphan

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Spoiler alert! Yes, we know that the nine-year-old Esther is actually a 33-year-old called Leena who suffers from a condition that stunted her growth.

However, we don't know this for the majority of Orphan and 'Esther' is seriously creepy throughout, bludgeoning nuns to death and breaking her own arm to frame her adopted mother, mainly so she can seduce her adopted father. What a delight.

5. Toshio – Ju-on: The Grudge / The Grudge

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Whether it's in the original Japanese movie Ju-on: The Grudge or in the US remake The Grudge, a ghost kid who sounds like a cat is always going to freak you out – especially if he's trying to kill you.

You see, Toshio was drowned by his father (there's a lot of infanticide in this list, sorry about that) along with his pet cat after he witnessed his father killing his mother. Still with us? So his cat wailings have an explanation, but knowing why he's doing it doesn't make it any less haunting.

6. Tomás – The Orphanage

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Poor Tomás. He just wanted some friends and all they wanted to do was mock him for his deformed face, stealing his mask that he manages to get back in death as he haunts Laura in The Orphanage.

As innocent as he might have been in life, Tomás is still terrifying as a ghost, popping up in that weird mask when you least expect him to. We can only hope he's now taken the mask off as Laura's around to look after him and the other children.

7. Janet – The Conjuring 2



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OK, like with Hereditary's Charlie, it's not Janet's fault in The Conjuring 2 that the spirit of Bill Wilkins possesses her.

That doesn't mean, though, that the scenes where Bill speaks through her in a growly, angry voice aren't deeply unsettling – possibly even more so than any appearance from Valak. Sorry Janet, but there's no way we'd stay in the room with you when you're doing that.

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