Adults are dangerous, true, but the real threats come from the next generation. The concept of a little kid trained to end lives has been employed many times across films, games, comics and more. Little girls and boys raised from birth to slay are vicious beasts, bereft of the moral qualities that adults have. Here are some of the most violent, dangerous, killer children in pop culture.
Killer Children In Pop Culture
Hanna hits DVD this week, and to celebrate we thought we'd go back and take a look at some killer children in pop culture who have been trained to eliminate targets with no remorse.
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By K. Thor Jensen September 6, 2011 |
Damien
| 6 | Damien |
One of the O.G.s of the killer kid game, Damien Thorn has a very good excuse for being a murderous little bastard - he's actually the Antichrist, reborn in human form. In 1976, this was kind of a shocking concept! Accompanied by his ever-present watchdog, Damien doesn't get his hands dirty with murder directly. He much rather use his supernatural abilities to gruesomely off anybody who stands in the way of his global domination. The son of Satan definitely qualifies as one of the deadliest killer children, we'd say.
Credit: Warner Brothers
| 5 | Rhoda Penmark |
Let's go way back for this one - the 1956 sleaze classic The Bad Seed set the bar high for killer children in movies. Young Rhoda Penmark demonstrates exactly how far poor impulse control can get you when she beats a classmate to death with her tap shoes and throws him in a lake to steal his penmanship medal. Her mother finds out and is torn between protecting her child and making her pay for her crimes. Eli Roth is allegedly working on a remake, which should be fun.
Credit: Universal Pictures
| 4 | Alia Atreides |
Exposed to the Water of Life in the womb, the younger sister of Paul Atreides from Dune is plugged in to some deep cosmic concepts from birth. At 4-years-old, she poisons her uncle Baron Harkkonen with a needle loaded with meta-cyanide and takes out a bunch of other wounded soldiers with a crysknife. She's probably the youngest of the killer children on this list, but she's one of the most accomplished.
Credit: Marvel Comics
| 3 | X-23 |
Having claws in the Marvel universe can be a blessing and a curse. Using a damaged genetic sample from Wolverine, a team of scientists create a female version of the fast-healing X-Men. Unfortunately, the people funding the experiment aren't in it for the public good, and they turn her into one of the deadliest killer children at the age of six by bombarding her with radiation to force her power into activation, giving her adamantium claws without anesthetic and training her to respond to a "trigger scent" by flying into a murderous rage. They then use her as a sanctioned assassin, giving her her first kill at the age of twelve.
Credit: DreamWorks Pictures
| 2 | Tran |
Killer children exist in the real world, too, but who wants to live there? The character of Tran, the pint-sized Southeast Asian warlord from Tropic Thunder, was actually based on real people - Johnny and Luther Htoo, the leaders of the Karen National Union guerrilla group that marauded through eastern Burma. The Htoo brothers took over the group at the age of ten, claiming to be bulletproof and possess other magical powers. The fictional version leads the Flaming Dragon gang and doesn't smoke quite so many cigarettes, but he still means business.
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