Brett Petersel | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd

A little known fact about me is that I was a schoolteacher a number of years ago. During that period of my life, I worked with children who would misbehave in class, from using vulgar language to bullying other students. You can brush this off as "kids being kids", but there were times when I thought it would lead to more, such as the time that a number of my sixth grade students were arrested mid-class for armed robbery (ARMED ROBBERY!).

While that was an eye-opening experience, horror films have portrayed children as evil beings (sometimes, rightfully so) who do far worse things, such as torture, murder, and kidnapping. We think of children as being these innocent beings, but horror has allowed us to see what they are very much capable of, just like adults, especially with social media and them posting everything they do online 24/7. The lesson: You can't judge a book by its cover.

Brett Petersel | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd & Sarah Stubbs | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd

Valentine and Urban Legend director Jamie Blanks passed away unexpectedly at 54. May his memory be a blessing.

Since it's almost April, it's that time of the year again: HALFWAY TO HALLOWEEN! Shudder's preparing for another frightening (in a good way!)year ahead, with releases hitting the streaming service such as Dolly, Night Patrol, The Plague, Somnium, and Deathstalker. When the full schedule is announced, we will share it here.

Karen Kusama's Jennifer's Body has many fans worldwide, and has maintained its (well-deserved) cult classic status since its release in 2009. Now, it has been announced that Diablo Cody will write the untitled sequel, but will we get both Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried back?

The International Horror and Sci Fi Film Festival is returning this April as part of the Phoenix Film Festival from April 9th to April 19th. The schedule is online now so if you're in the Phoenix area, get your tickets while they are available!

Director Peter Webber whips up an AI dystopian nightmare with DRAGN, starring James Paxton. Yes, that's Bill Paxton's son, who turns in a strong lead performance in a grim reality when an AI robot goes rogue in the Serbian forest. Bee Delores had the chance to hop on a Zoom call with the pair to discuss location challenges, most difficult scenes to shoot, and if AI really is our inevitable future. Press play on our conversation!

DRAGN is now available on VOD from Cineverse.

John Carpenter's remake of Village of the Damned is a quintessential piece of '90s horror. Here are some recommendations from the Horrorverse team if you enjoyed it.

We've all seen the fake Tom Brady and Michael Jordan images where they say, "Fuck them kids", right? Well, for these killer kids in horror films, that statement rings true. The Horrorverse team dug deep and compiled a list of films showcasing the evil that a child or children possess. Check out the list on Letterboxd here.

Candi Norwood | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd | StoryGraph | Website

It’s Spring Break in my part of the world, meaning there are children everywhere I go, even though I don’t have any human children of my own, so this week’s theme feels appropriate. If you prefer your evil, creepy, murderous, or just plain wrong children on the page instead of in the world, here are some recs.

Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward- Riley and her brother Oliver are rescued from their abusive uncle by Noon, a Peter Pan-like figure, who takes them to live at an abandoned ranch called Nowhere with a group of lost children – who will stop at nothing to protect their own, putting them in the “killer kids category”. Nowhere Burning, though, has several threads being weaved together at once, so we also follow a timeline where Nowhere is lived in by actor Leaf Winham and another where a documentary is being produced about the place. It’s filled with Ward’s signature literary prose, strong characterizations, and thoughtful, complex storytelling. Also - like any self-respecting Peter Pan reference - there is a crocodile.

The Unseen by Ania Ahlborn- The Unseen is a story of loss - loss of unborn children, loss of family, loss of control - in the trappings of a creepy-kid horror story told from the perspectives of the family of seven whose lives are disrupted by the appearance of an apparently abandoned child at their home. This was an engaging read that I did not want to put down, and, Ahlborn’s decision to tell the story through the eyes of each of the characters made them distinct and their fates equally important.

The Other by Thomas Tryon- This book is older than most of us, but you should check it out, though plot points that were probably quite surprising to readers at the time are almost tropes now. Even as I was predicting some events, there were still enough surprises, and Tryon's writing effectively creates a sense of dread. At the same time, it's very approachable and easy to feel as if you know and understand the characters, which makes their fates all the more horrific and heart-wrenching.

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Bee Delores | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd & Sarah Stubbs | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd

Evil kids are a horror staple. One of the benchmarks for the subgenre is 1956's The Bad Seed. Patty McCormack stars as Rhoda Penmark, a seemingly well-mannered child who harbors a deep, dark secret. Well, she hides the sadistic side of herself for awhile, until her mother realizes the truth. You see, Rhoda is a spoiled child and always gets what she wants. When another child dies out at the lake during a picnic event, things quickly escalate, and Rhoda begins a murderous rampage to cover it all up. If you watch it for the first time, you'll likely pick up on all the references and influences other evil kid movies have fused into their own story. The Bad Seed is iconic for a reason. [written by Bee]

If I am honest, I'm not a biggest fan of films featuring killer kids. I'm a child-free millennial for a reason, I don't need horror movies to remind me why I don't have kids of my own. That said, there are some good film picks out there. For this week's Double Trouble, I chose a film that was new to me, The Good Son. The film features a young Elijah Wood and Macauley Culkin. An interesting backstory to this is that Culkin's father wanted him to get roles that were darker to show Macauley's acting prowess. A deal was made for him to get the role of Henry and in return he'd do Home Alone 2. In The Good Son, Elijah Wood's character Mark's mother dies and he goes to live with his aunt, uncle, and cousins while his father goes on a business trip. He learns that Henry (Culkin) had a brother who drowned and notices that Henry isn't exactly nice. Similar to The Bad Seed, things escalate and Mark has to try to convince everyone that Henry is up to no good. The experience of this movie is like sitting in a '90s time capsule. It's not the best movie I've ever seen, but it's worth seeing at least once just for the campiness of it all. [written by Sarah]