As if kids aren't scary enough anyway...

10. Lonnie – Deliverance (1972)

‘If you go down to the woods today, you’re in for a big surprise…’ Never have truer words been rung than these for a small band of city boys, led by Burt Reynolds, as they decide to take one last canoe trip up the river. Their first sign that something wasn’t quite right should have been banjo-picking hillbilly boy, Lonnie (Billy Redden). With a face only a mother/sister could love, this walking deformity is kind enough to offer us a friendly smile when we first encounter him – it’s a gift we soon regret as pure revulsion is revealed in the young one’s toothless, inbred grin…

What did we learn?: The next time a woodsman tells you you’ve got a pretty mouth… run!

9. The Grady Twins – The Shining (1980)

You know how it is – you’ve got psychic issues, your mum’s a bit ‘fragile’, your dad’s a recovering alcoholic and he’s just upped sticks with you and your mum to a deserted and spooky hotel where rivers of blood ride the lobby elevator. Nothing out of the ordinary there (well, maybe the rivers of blood). Desperate to fill your time, you take to riding your trike around the hotel hallways. Everything’s going just fine until you encounter these two – the Grady twins. Dressed in matching blue, this terrible twosome are permanent residents of the Overlook Hotel and send more than a few chills our way as they ask young Danny Torrance to come and play with them ‘forever… and ever… and ever’. Portrayed by real-life twins Lisa and Louise Burns, these two are among the more memorable spectres inhabiting Kubrick’s interpretation of the classic Stephen King novel…

What did we learn?: When trike riding, you should always be accompanied by an adult - especially one who can ward off dead ghosts dressed in blue…

8. Gage Creed – Pet Sematary (1989)

It’s another entry for one of King’s kids here, with one of the most terrifying, and disturbing, performances ever given by a child actor (Miko Hughes). In the movie adaptation of the book by the same name, distraught dad Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) buries his young son, Gage, in the nearby pet cemetery, hoping that the mystical burial site will yield similar results to that of recently deceased pets and bring him back to life. Mr Creed’s efforts are not in vain, and his fresh-faced son soon makes a death defying return. The only thing is, Gage isn’t quite Gage, he’s 'evil Gage' and he’s just discovered a new toy – the scalpel. Turning in one of the scariest performances of all time, little Miko Hughes’ Gage proves that ‘sometimes dead (really) is better…’

What did we learn?: ‘Not everything that comes back is the same…’

7. Danny Torrance – The Shining (1980)

We’ve already encountered the Grady twins in our list, but it’s Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) who stands out in this Kubrick classic as the telepathic toddler with an axe-wielding dad. Apart from riding his trike, writing words backwards and having highly personal conversations with his imaginary friend, Tony, little Danny Torrance also has a knack for seeing bad things coming his way and is soon using his ingenuity to evade his unhinged dad as he stalks him around the Overlook Hotel. Scared stiff by the visions he encounters in the haunted hotel, Danny Torrance remains to this day as one of the scariest youngsters in cinema history…

What did we learn?: ‘All work and no play make Jack a dull boy!’

6. Danny and Ralphie Glick – Salem’s Lot (1979)

The Glick boys mark our second double entry as the Salem’s Lot siblings who fall victim to Stephen King’s blue-headed vamp, Kurt Barlow. Joining Barlow’s army of the undead, the Glicks are soon making the rounds at the homes of their childhood chums, knocking on bedroom windows and asking to be let in, all in the hope of satisfying their newly acquired blood lust. Both Dannie and Ralphie Glick (played by Brad Savage and Ronnie Scribner respectively) prove to be truly terrifying incarnations as the fang-toothed kids who want stay up all night and sleep all day…

What did we learn?: Smartly dressed Englishmen, who bare an uncanny resemblance to James Mason, should be avoided at all costs…

5. Ringu (1998)

Turns out video killed a lot more than the radio star, as this Japanese horror proved in 1998. In one of the most original horror stories to come out of Japanese cinema in the late-90s, Ringu tells the tale of a cursed video that, once watched, kills the viewer within one week. Desperate to uncover the truth and break the video’s curse, reporter Asakawa Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) eventually learns the terrifying truth behind the cryptic cassette – the ghostly, and child-like, incarnation of Sadako Yamamura (Inou Rie) is taking interactive entertainment to a whole new level. In one of the most startling scenes to ever grace the screen, we watch in horror as Sadako literally climbs through the television set and into our lives. Disturbing, shocking and an exercise in sheer terror, Sadako remains one of the horror genres most frightening creations…

What did we learn?: Too much TV is bad for you…

4. Cole Sear – The Sixth Sense (1999)

You’d think having an absent father, an overworked mother, a streak of grey in your hair and generally being considered as something of a weirdo by your contemporaries would be more than enough for most eight-year-old kids. Not so for Cole Sear (Hayley Joel Osment). Despite everything that’s wrong in this young man’s world, he’s got the added burden of being just a little too popular with those other social outcasts - dead people. Delivering a fear-ridden and haunting performance, Osment’s Sear made the movie, put director M. Night Shyamalan on the map and gave cinema goers one of the best twist endings of all time…

What did we learn?: He sees… oh you know the line.

3. Carol Anne Freeling – Poltergeist (1982)

‘They’re heeerre!’ They most certainly are… When it was released in 1982, this Steven Spielberg/Tobe Hooper collaboration proved both a critical and commercial success, and one that still stands up today. This MGM classic finds The Freeling family more than a little disturbed when they wake one night to find their eerily angelic daughter, Carol Anne, deep in conversation with the ‘TV people’. It seems the blonde-haired, blue-eyed toddler has caught the attention of a few wayward spirits. Using the bedroom TV to leave their world and punch a hole into ours, the restless spooks are at first playful and just a little mischievous. It isn’t long, though, before their real intentions are revealed and they indulge in a spot of supernatural child abduction. Cue a spine-tingling score by Jerry Goldsmith perfectly coupled with Carol Anne’s ethereal voice echoing around the Freeling household. Spotted by Spielberg in the MGM cafeteria, the late Heather O’Rourke was perfectly cast as the all-American girl with a penchant for spooky playmates, and would reprise the role in two sequels before her untimely death in 1988…

What did we learn?: Too much TV really is bad for you.

2. Regan McNeill – The Exorcist (1973)

Finding new and imaginative ways to use a crucifix is a sure sign that not all is well with your teenage daughter. As is head spinning, a sudden inclination for language that would make a sailor blush, green vomit and even a spot of backward spider-walking (in the extended edition of the movie). Yes, something was definitely up with young Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. And, after a house call from a whiskey drinking, chain-smoking priest, we soon learn that poor Regan really is a child possessed. Linda Blair’s Regan was horror at it’s finest and most disturbing. The film’s shock value may have diminished somewhat over the years, but Blair’s incarnation is still a sight to behold for horror fans everywhere…

What did we learn?: You’re mother sucks cocks in hell… apparently

1. Damien Thorn – The Omen (1976)

If there was ever a kid who had a dad to be afraid of, it was this one. Damian Thorn was, in every way possible, quite literally a devil child, and he racked up an impressive body count to prove it. Making his daddy proud with a series of violent and gruesome murders, this Prince of Darkness proved he truly was worthy of succeeding Satan himself. With a stare that could freeze the warmest of hearts, Damien (Harvey Stephens) struck fear into the movie- going public of 1976 and would inscribe the number of the beast (666) into popular culture, and our terrified imaginations, for generations to come…

What did we learn?: There’s a new kid in town…

THOSE WHO DIDN’T MAKE THE CUT:
Eli (Let the Right One in); Toshio Saeki (Ju-on); The children (Village of the Damned); Rhoda Penmark (The Bad Seed); Kyra Collins (The Sixth Sense), Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13^th); young Michael Myers (Halloween); and Claudia (Interview with the Vampire).

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