With the New Year upon us, we all look to that adorable cherub, Baby New Year, to help us usher in 2015. With a reminiscing smile to 2014 and an eager eye toward 2015, we gathered together a list of some other babies, those making memorable appearances in horror. We give you the Top 9 Babies in Horror.
We know what you’re thinking, and no, we never thought we’d see this list either. But what better time to dig in and remember some of our favorite infants and toddlers than right now when we’ve got Baby New Year on the mind?
On our obligatory honorable mention list are the two unfortunate newborns who were killed and violated in the most heinous of ways in The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence and A Serbian Film. You know the ones. And if you don’t, go check those two extreme films out. Wow! Also, a little love goes to the young spawn of “Dexter,” Harrison Morgan. Since it’s the holiday season, we’ll mention Billy the yellow baby from Black Xmas (2006). Baby Oopsie Daisy (although probably technically a doll, but he does carry the Baby moniker) from Demonic Toys was unforgettable. The child born at the end of a two-woman war at the conclusion of Inside (À l’intérieur) may be the baby brought into this world via the most violent caesarian section ever. And one last pair of HM’s go out to Baby Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and Dren, the hybrid child from Splice.
And now, on to the…
It’s Alive (1974)
As the trailer below will tell you (repeatedly!), It’s Alive. Written, directed and produced by Larry Cohen (who also wrote and directed Q and The Stuff, as well as penning the Maniac Cop series), It’s Alive features the work of a pair of legends in the horror genre with none other than Bernard Herrmann composing the score and the incomparable Rick Baker working on make-up and puppet F/X. The story is about the Davis family and their infamous second child… the one that comes out a bloodthirsty killing machine. As far as babies go, this one is very difficult to get along with. This baby movie spawned two sequels, It Lives Again (aka It’s Alive 2) and the hilariously titled It’s Alive 3: Island of the Alive. Classic.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
If finding out you’re carrying the spawn of Satan in your belly isn’t enough to give you a case of the Mondays, then the fact that a creepy group of curmudgeons is watching over you to be sure the baby is safely delivered into this world for purposes of pure evil definitely has to get you down. As memorable as they come, Rosemary’s baby, the one with the chillingly demonic eyes, is an incredibly haunting entity. Based on the 1967 novel by Ira Levin and written and directed by the infamous Roman Polanski, and with Mia Farrow as its mother, Rosemary’s baby may be the most high-profile infant on this list due to the sheer fame of the players in this movie. With an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay and an Academy Award win by Ruth Gordon for Best Supporting Actress, Rosemary’s Baby was as appreciated by critics as it was by fans and remains a staple of the horror genre to this day.
House of 1000 Corpses/The Devil’s Rejects (2003/2005)
Okay, maybe not completely on topic, but you can’t talk about the Top Babies in Horror without mentioning the sexiest Baby of them all…No, we haven’t crossed some kind of pervert line here; we’re talking about Sheri Moon Zombie as Baby Firefly, the beautifully brutal violent vixen of The Firefly Clan. Baby Firefly may look like a harmless hottie, but she is right up there with Otis Driftwood and Captain Spaulding when it comes to downright viciousness. She was introduced in House of 1000 Corpses as a sultry, mysterious member of a murderous family. But in The Devil’s Rejects Baby Firefly really came into her own and became just as hardened a member of her family as any of the other killers. As horror movie babies go, this is certainly the sexiest and may very well be the deadliest as well.
Delivery: The Beast Within (2014)
Is there anything worth watching on reality TV? Let’s be honest; we cut our teeth on reality programming decades ago when “COPS” hit the FOX airwaves. And we were all literally glued to our screens as one domestic dispute after another got resolved by our cities’ finest police officers. But today anyone can get a reality show, and that is the premise behind Delivery. It’s the story of Kyle and Rachel Massy, a young couple who, for some inexplicable reason, agree to have their first pregnancy documented for a reality TV show. And, as this is a horror movie, things go completely off the tracks, making Rachel believe an evil spirit has possessed the unborn child. And that, my friends, is the makings of a fantastic reality TV series!
Pet Sematary (1989)
He’s not necessarily an infant in swaddling clothes, but Gage Creed was young enough to be considered in this category. An aggressive little scamp if there ever was one, Gage gave audiences one of the great toe-curling moments of 80’s cinema when he sliced Jud Crandall’s Achilles tendon. Much like the hobbling of Paul Sheldon by Anne Wilkes in Misery, this was another of Stephen King’s great moments of stunning an audience with just the damaging of a body. Not murder, not rape, but the maiming of a body part that was certainly quite beloved by the owner. Gage Creed certainly goes down as one of horror’s most nefarious toddlers. “And now I wanna play with yeeeeeew.”
Alien (1979)
Here we move into our non-human portion of the list. The Alien chestburster is, without a doubt, the cutest version of the xenomorph that exists in the Alien universe. Sure, his birth into our world is a bit bloody and violent, but once he emerges from Kane’s chest and checks out his surroundings (sporting a set of teeth that look like he’s wearing one of Flavor Flav’s grills) and heads for the hills, the baby xenomorph had already become part of horror/sci-fi history. But, unfortunately, as cute as he was upon being born, there was the fact that he would grow to be a towering, slobbering, violent alien creature that took away a bit of his childish innocence. But good lord, he was a cute baby, wasn’t he?
Hellboy (2004)
Based on Mike Mignola’s story and directed by Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy was an action-packed thrill ride for audiences. Ron Perlman was the perfect stout-chinned actor to play Hellboy himself. But our first looks at the demonic scamp were much more cutesy than anything else. A scant little red monster that somehow made it through an interdimensional portal on October 10, 1944, in Scotland during an Allied attack against Nazi forces led by Obersturmbannführer Karl Ruprecht Kroenen. Headed by Trevor Bruttenholm, the Allied forces were able to squash the Nazi’s plan and, at the same time, gain a tremendous ally in the form of the infant Hellboy. Bruttenholm would go on to adopt the young demon, who grew into one of the most unique superheroes of our time.
“The Walking Dead” (November 4, 2012-present)
Little Asskicker. Born in a bloody delivery to a mother who would not survive the procedure, living in a prison or on the run for every day of her short existence, Judith Grimes has seen some shit. Even at her infantile age, she’s already survived more than I know I personally could have… the prison invasion, threat of strangulation by a stranger in the woods while Tyreese wrestled with his conscience… Lizzy! Simply put, as babies go, Judith has to be one of the most hardened little ones ever. In fact, we’ve heard that she insists on getting some of Bob’s hooch in her milk, which she drinks exclusively out of broken Jägermeister bottles found along the road.
Dead Alive (1992)
The Dead Alive (or Braindead for those of you out there who prefer that title) baby takes perhaps the most punishment of anyone to ever wear a onesie onscreen. In one scene, which you can enjoy below, after biting a woman in the face, and in the space of about 40 seconds, he gets a chair smashed over his head Cactus Jack-style, kicked in the face, springboarded off an ironing board before getting smashed in the face with a frying pan hard enough to leave a perfect imprint of his face on it. From there he is threatened with an electric blender/chopper, hung precariously over said blender/chopper by a shoddily hung light fixture before landing his ass in the blender/chopper, only to be launched out of it and then unceremoniously punched in the face, which launches him through a window. Well done! Peter Jackson just doesn’t make ’em like that anymore.