History Main / CreepyChild

* The "Double Life" UsefulNotes/PlayStation advert, back in the late 90s/early 2000s featured a memorably creepy, world-conquering, Scottish child of indeterminate gender. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bqq38WZctA Check it out, 43 seconds in.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'': The Ghost Children. Especially the one with her mouth frozen open in an expression of perpetual horror. Its exactly their victimisation that makes them feel creepy even though they wish nothing but the best for Coraline.

* Many of the children from ''WesternAnimation/{{FrankenWeenie}}'', especially E.Gore and Weird Girl.

* ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' plays with this trope quite a bit. It's deconstructed throughout the film, peaking at [[spoiler: adults willing to kill children because they're terrified of them. But then it's reconstructed.]]

* Sid in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' especially to toys, due to his destructive behaviour and make-believe sadism. A point of view likely shared by his camp's human counsellors given that they couldn't wait until the end of the season to get rid of him.

* This one UrbanLegend, in which people claim to have encountered "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-eyed_children black-eyed children]]" (also known as "black-eyed beings" and "black-eyed kids", or just BEK), which are pretty much [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what you would expect]] -- creepy children with pure {{black eyes|OfEvil}} who are said to mean humans no good at all.

* The children of the resort in ''Shut Your Teeth'' are [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior strangely cynical]] and play disturbing "games" with the other resort residents. Sometimes these games become fatal. [[spoiler: The children are under the thrall of a Kuman Thong, the ghost of an unborn child.]]

* "Kids With Guns" from Music/{{Gorillaz}}' ''Music/DemonDays''.

May be holding a CreepyDoll or a BalloonOfDoom or enjoying EntertainmentAboveTheirAge. A girl wearing an EtherealWhiteDress is usually the Creepy Child. If a Creepy Child is shown drawing, it will usually be a NightmareFuelColoringBook.

* Sid in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' especially to toys. A point of view likely shared by his camp's human counsellors given that they couldn't wait until the end of the season to get rid of him.

Compare and contrast PsychopathicManchild and the usually much more proactive and physically dangerous EnfantTerrible. See also UndeadChild and AmbiguousInnocence. Also compare CreepyCute.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'': The Ghost Children. Especially the one with her mouth frozen open in an expression of perpetual horror. Depending on your point of view, the other Wybie could qualify in the beginning. There's just something creepy about his constant smile.

[[caption-width-right:290:"I'll clean my room… in exchange for your soul."]]

[[folder:Film — Animation]]
* In WesternAnimation/TheBossBabyFamilyBusiness we have an unnamed pale skinned red headed little girl who speaks in a very raspy voice who always says she likes ponies in a sinister manner, she likes to pop up out of nowhere to startle people.

* Kari from WebAnimation/MariKari Mari's undead twin sister who murders anyone who makes her upset.

* Kari from WebVideo/MariKari Mari's undead twin sister who murders anyone who makes her upset.

Children ''should'' be [[ChildrenAreInnocent innocent]] and in need of adult protection. By inverting this, the trope arouses deep-rooted fears. The Creepy Child might not be physically dangerous, but their [[UncannyValley profound unnaturalness is just as chilling.]]

* The video to Music/{{Portishead}}'s "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vozNQX6Ye1A All Mine]]" features an extremely [[UncannyValley unnerving]] little girl lipsyncing the song.

* Sid in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' especially to toys. A point of view likely shared by his camp's human counsellors given that they couldn't wait until the end of the season to get rid of him.

* The three children in the video of "Boys Don't Cry" by Music/{{TheCure}} have a bit of this. Especially their shadows.

* Younger Fetch Children in ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' (the better of the two results of a [[EvilTwin Fetch]] successfully conceiving a baby) are explicitly mentioned as being slightly autistic, which gets ''really spooky'' when [[GlamourFailure they start asking about a Changeling's Mien]] and open gates to [[EldritchLocation the Hedge]] by being in the general area. [[TheCharmer They get better, though]], and what's more, [[HolyHandGrenade they're inherent weapons against the True Fae]]. Thus, if you see a Fetch Child, keep him alive, [[EnfanteTerrible and breathe a sigh of relief that he wasn't a Fetch Spawn.]]
* The "Death House" KaizoTrap section of the ''TabletopGame/CurseOfStrahd'' module starts when you see two children asking you to help them because there's a monster in the basement, and the nursemaid is alone with the baby. Sufficient exploration of the house will reveal [[spoiler:the corpses of the same children, along with their ghosts]]. You can help them by [[spoiler:carrying their corpses down to the family crypt and burying them properly,]] as they'd been left in their room [[spoiler:and forgotten about, leaving them to starve to death]]. {{Downplayed}} in that the both are also rather normal even with the spoiler information, just in an unusual situation.
* The predilections of the Deathlord known as the Dowager in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}''...well...we'll let [[http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/index.php?title=Things_one_is_not_allowed_to_do_in_Exalted Things One Is Not Allowed To Do In Exalted]] spell it out.

* In the French game ''TabletopGame/InNomineSatanisMagnaVeritas'' ([[TabletopGame/InNomine the English version]] isn't a straight adaptation, more a remake) children of a demon and a human can be either normal kids, demons, or official creepy children. You gotta love the illustration on that chapter in the rulebook.
* The card game ''Lunch Money'' features monochrome pictures of a young girl with nursery rhymes and other sayings having vaguely to do with the cards' intended effects. The artwork is fairly surreal, but becomes truly creepy when one considers that the cards represent the character's actions in a brutal street fight (i.e. Punches, Kicks, hitting a guy with a chain, etc.).
* TabletopGame/{{Malifaux}} being Malifaux, this pops up several times. The main contenders are from the Neverborn: Candy is the Woe of Innocence Lost, who takes the form of a small girl with pigtails and a basket of (poisoned) sweets; Baby Kade is a wild eyed baby with a knife and a penchant for killer teddies. There are also more sympathetic examples, The Stolen are [[Literature/PeterPan Lost Boys]]-style pre-teen boys lured into The Breach and [[PoweredByaForsakenChild used ruthlessly as meat shields or sources of power]].

* The TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness game ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'' has "Striplings", a title given to Spectres (evil ghosts of Oblivion) who died before the age of ten and have corpuses (ghost bodies) resembling children. They exist among all of the Spectral castes (including at least one Malfean, the God-Kings of Oblivion) and form a society unto themselves. Other Spectres (even Malfeans) find them to be completely ungovernable and "creepy".

May be holding a CreepyDoll or enjoying EntertainmentAboveTheirAge. A girl wearing an EtherealWhiteDress is usually the Creepy Child. If a Creepy Child is shown drawing, it will usually be a NightmareFuelColoringBook.