I don't know if anyone has ever written about this, but, sometimes it seems to me like horror movies just show us how society finds children sort of eerie. In almost every horror movie, there's always a creepy child at the center of it. For example, The Haunting of Hill House, or The Bad Seed had either cursed or evil children. And the many contemporary movies that come out usually have some kid who has some mysterious connection to the demon who takes the form of a child or the murdered kids in the house. Somehow, a lot of horror movies boil down to mistreated or strange children.
I'm not sure why children are presumed to have this strange connection to dead people. It definitely seems like films regard these kids with a mixture of anxiety and suspicion. Also I think they try to blur the line between cute kid and creepy kid frequently these children start out as being cute and sweet and then as they get further involved with some evil power, they get more and more powerful and equally creepy
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I think that horror films tend to use the perceived "weak" of society. Namely children and women.
Part of it might be that the subjugated status of those members gives them more of an element of drama and intensity when they usurp what is moral and what is right. Like witchcraft!
In any case, great question!
-Michelle
Children may be perceived as purer, in the sense that they haven't yet learned the proper way to see and to think in a "realistic" way. So they're more receptive to things that adults either can't pick up on anymore or brush off as nonsense if they do. Anyway, that would explain Cole in The Sixth Sense and the little brother in the X-Files "Conduit" episode. Kids could be more vulnerable for that reason, too, while adults are protected from manipulation by their obtuseness.
As for the creepy kids...I don't know. The Bad Seed girl is like the boy in The Good Son - inexplicably evil, down to the genes.
also it seems like horror movies make heroes of people who are least likely to be believed. Women and children.
And since women are treated as more emotional, maybe that makes them childlike (or childish) in terms of being less credible. But as you say, in these movies, the insights of children and women are often proved right. (Except when they decide to open that door or go up or down those stairs or wear high-heeled shoes when you know they're going to have to run through brush to get away from the pod people...)
They know stuff, but people don't take them seriously.
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