History Main / CreepyChild

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

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

* The little girl in the video for Music/{{Skrillex}}'s "First of the Year" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cXDgFwE13g]] looks super-creepy but less scary than the usual because [[spoiler: it's implied that she only lures child molesters into the abandoned car park to be killed by a demon she controls]]

* 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. I love the illustration on that chapter in the rulebook.

* 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".

* 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. I love the illustration on that chapter in the rulebook.

* 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.
-->Not all Abyssals are creepy little girls.\\
1. Except when the focus of the game is on the Dowager, that is.\\
2. Even then she Exalts creepy little boys too.
* In ''The Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor'', an expansion for the RPG ''TabletopGame/MonstersAndOtherChildishThings'', the ''players'' are creepy orphans with a mysterious past and terrible powers.
* 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.]]
* 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 "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 sister series to ''Higurashi'', ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', features Maria, the protagonist's nine year old cousin who has a creepy fixation with the occult and a tendency to start [[EvilLaugh laughing whenever someone's murdered]]. She's much worse in the anime than in the original sound novels thanks to {{Flanderization}}. However, despite her strange behaviour she isn't actually evil, just ''very'' [[NoSocialSkills socially maladjusted]], and [[spoiler:her obsession with the occult is a way for her to cope with being bullied and her mother's [[AbusiveParents abusive treatment]]]].

* ''VisualNovel/FaultMilestoneOne'' has [[spoiler: the original Rune, who gets pleasure, [[EmotionlessGirl or something similar to pleasure as she's incapable of feeling emotion]], from stabbing Marcos with a tree branch and mutilating small animals]].

* The unnamed girl in the notorious Quicktime animation ''[[http://www.vansowerwine.com/installation/playwithmeint.htm Play With Me]]'' goes beyond merely creepy and right into nightmarish.
* The kids from the ''VideoGame/NickelodeonClickamajigs'' game ''Black Licorice''. In the game you're supposed to give them candy but you CAN'T give them black licorice because it causes them to [[TransformationTrauma transform into horrible grotesque monsters]].
* Vendetta from ''WesternAnimation/MakingFiends'' is an elementary school kid who isolates herself from the rest of the class and makes fiends to sic on anyone who makes her mad...which is everyone. Her name should give you a clue. She also speaks in a weird, gravelly voice that has what is likely a Bulgarian accent.

[[folder:Podcast]]

* 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 child}}ren with pure black eyes who are said to mean humans no good at all.

!!Example subpages

!!Other examples

Creepy children are frequently female, and often {{Emotionless Girl}}s. They can be, among other things, a RobotGirl, an OracularUrchin, a [[ChangelingTale changeling]], a WaifProphet, or [[EnfantTerrible Evil]]. As prophets, they emanate otherworldliness; as [[DarkIsNotEvil heroes]], they may elicit distrust and contempt from the rest of TheTeam sans the one female who wants to be surrogate mother, and as villains they [[CuteIsEvil remain cute even while the bodies pile up around them]]. They usually have an IronicNurseryTune theme.

* Lilo from ''Disney/LiloAndStitch''. She says things like "My friends need to be punished" in a monotone while placing spoons decorated as her Hula Halau-mates from a previous scene in a pickle jar and watching them, all while sitting next to a book titled "Practical Voodoo". She gets better, this being a Disney movie. Completely ''justified'', considering that the movie takes place shortly after her parents are killed in a car crash and this is her way of coping with the loss.

'''Bart:''' ''[turns head to the window. In monotone:]'' ''[[http://youtu.be/Xwwm8NDH9Ls Hello, mother dear.]]''

* 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]].

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Greta Thunberg
[[/folder]]

May be holding a CreepyDoll. A girl who is a WomanInWhite is usually the Creepy Child. If a Creepy Child is shown drawing, it will usually be a NightmareFuelColoringBook.

* One [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNDkTbadF3E cellphone commercial]] played with this trope, featuring loads of Creepy Children (including a pair of white-kneesocks-wearing twin girls sing-songing, "We want a cellphone"). It ended with a message to parents that they shouldn't be scared to buy cellphones for their kids, although if you had kids like that, wouldn't ''you'' be wary about giving them what ''they'' want?

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'''Bart:''' ''[turns head to the window. In monotone with lidded eyes and an eerie smile]'' ''[[http://youtu.be/Xwwm8NDH9Ls Hello, mother dear.]]''

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[[quoteright:325:[[Franchise/TheAddamsFamily https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_addams-cartoons-2_9174.jpg]]]]

!!Examples

----

* CreepyChild/{{Literature}}
* CreepyChild/LiveActionFilms

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur9vl95IdAQ This TV spot]] for the 2006 Fantasia Film Festival features a creepy little girl.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dXRsnWGkUs This nerf gun commercial]] featuring a young Devon Sawa.

[[folder:Films – Animation]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* ‘’Comicstrip/InSecurity’’ has Roy and Charlene’s baby daughter Gabby due to her [[BigOlEyebrows eye]][[EvilEyebrows brows]].

[[folder: Pinball]]
* Wednesday Addams from ''Pinball/TheAddamsFamily'', who's seen relaxing in the graveyard.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Professional Wrestling]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder:Theater]]

* [[CreepyChild.AnimeAndManga Anime and Manga]]
* [[CreepyChild.{{Literature}} Literature]]
* [[CreepyChild.LiveActionFilms Live-Action Films]]
* [[CreepyChild.LiveActionTV Live-Action TV]]
* [[CreepyChild.VideoGames Video Games]]
* [[CreepyChild.WesternAnimation Western Animation]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* The Cuckoo from the ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman Sandman]]'' arc "A Game of You," arch-enemy of the Narnia-like dream-fantasy "Land". Despite her name (and true nature), she mostly appears in the form of a young, pig-tailed, freckled blonde girl -- in fact, the childhood form of Barbie, the arc's protagonist.
* Lenore from ''ComicBook/LenoreTheCuteLittleDeadGirl''.
* Innocence (a.k.a. the Child) is part of a malevolent and extremely powerful living tarot arcanum called The Basanos in the ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'' comic book. She takes the form of a young, barefoot blonde girl and appears most often as their spokesperson. Her power is the ability to make people "see the world with fresh eyes" - that is, in a harsh light without illusions, delusions, or rose-colored glasses. As an added bonus, this power is exhibited as she walks down a seedy avenue in Amsterdam's Red Light district, causing everyone from hookers to cops to street people to come subtly repulsed at what they're doing.
* ''ComicBook/ThirtyDaysOfNight'' had a little girl vampire.
* Layla Miller of Creator/MarvelComics' ''ComicBook/XFactor''. Also an OracularUrchin. [[spoiler:Not anymore, though, since she underwent a PlotRelevantAgeUp]].
* Valeria "Val" Richards, daughter of [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]]. She has [[TeenGenius genius level intelligence]] [[ChildProdigy at just 2 years old.]]
* Ariel Chylde in ''ComicBook/{{Darkchylde}}'' isn't stoic and her voice isn't a harsh monotone. Adults find her creepy because at roughly 12 years old she's smarter than most of them and she reacts to everything with open hostility and condescension.
* Cassie Hack battles the Undead SlasherMovie SerialKiller who [[YourMindMakesItReal Kills People In Dreams]] variety in ''ComicBook/HackSlash''.
* In some incarnations, Franchise/{{Batman}}, particularly [[OrphansOrdeal after his parents' death]]. As an adult, he is also sometimes confronted by creepy children [[{{Irony}} who killed their parents]].
** And Damian Wayne, who first appears around age eight and attempts to murder the current Robin so he can take his place. A result of being raised by crazy ninjas, and also possibly the combination of Al Ghul and Wayne genes. Living with Bruce helped somewhat, but it's actually Dick Grayson who's really helped him into a solid HeelFaceTurn.
** Talia accepted this and started to work on a replacement, eerily telling Damian "He'll be ten years younger than you when he's born" So, taking the above into account, when Damian hits 18, there's going to be trouble (or sooner, since there might be a PlotRelevantAgeUp for the clone).
* Little [[MoralityPet Keiko]] in ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo''. Her only relative was robbed and killed by bandits, and they were about to kill her too when Jei, the book's most [[ImplacableMan stubbornly recurring villain]], appeared, declared them to be "evil" and killed them. Keiko almost got the same treatment, but he randomly decided she wasn't evil. She's been traveling with him since then, calling him "uncle", and her ability to remain [[CheerfulChild cheerful]] through massive bloodbaths is [[DissonantSerenity chilling]]. What's also chilling that if this is a result of Jei's evil spirit suppressing her emotional development, the resulting emotional whiplash that is bound to happen if and when that suppression is lifted might likely traumatize her into insanity.
* The ''ComicBook/XWingSeries'' arc "The Warrior Princess" has Plourr flash back to her brother, [[http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/728104.html Harran]], when they were both children. Very definitely RoyallyScrewedUp, he was sociopathic, and the flashback shows him torturing an animal. Then Darth Vader, on a visit, used mental manipulation to transform his hot-blooded sadism into something cold and calculating. When a faction of nobles slaughtered Harran's family and one sister escaped, he tried to stop her so he could watch her die. She killed him and left his body to be eaten by scavengers. That's how she knows that the revolutionary calling himself Harran can't be her brother.
* ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'' has recently introduced us to the Literals and the Genres. Among the Genres, Horror is represented by a little blond girl in a pink dress.
* The child incarnation of ''Comicbook/XMen'' foe [[spoiler: ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}]].
* Gail Simone's run on ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' had the Crows, five immortal beings disguised as schoolchildren who brew up paranoia and hatred in D.C. both naturally (through the distribution of hate literature and phony terrorist threats) and supernaturally (through a HatePlague) [[spoiler:as revenge against Diana for the death of their father, Ares.]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Grendel}}'' has Stacy Palumbo, the adoptive daughter of Hunter Rose, who eventually learns that he murdered her real parents and thus manipulates him into a final confrontation with Argent, in a plan that includes murdering her governess to prevent her from interfering.
* This is what Kiden Nixon thinks about ComicBook/{{X 23}} in ''ComicBook/{{NYX}}''. Actually, ''everyone'' in the series finds her unnerving.
* Klara Prast of the ComicBook/{{Runaways}}, normally a {{Moe}} with a powerful GreenThumb, was suddenly transformed into a creepy child after a particularly traumatic accident during the last arc. While in creepy-child mode, she damn near destroyed the Runaways' house by summoning a small forest worth of vines and dispatched an entire squad of heavily-armed men. The latter feat was made even more disturbing by the fact that she had a [[DissonantSerenity completely blank expression]] while doing it.
* Franchise/EmilyTheStrange, a 13 year old goth girl with her own vocabulary of swear words, prefers rainy days and night time to daylight, and has an endless list of interests and hobbies that range from the silly to borderline gruesome. And the people she gets along with the best? Her four pet cats.
* In the Creator/NeilGaiman iteration of ''ComicBook/TheEternals'', the childlike Eternal Sprite is reimagined as a TeenIdol [[spoiler:who also deliberately depowered the Eternals and wiped their memories, and who is aiding the Deviants in their efforts to awaken the [[EldritchAbomination Dreaming Celestial]], all because the Celestials made him incapable of physically aging past age 11.]]
* In ''{{ComicBook/Violine}}'', some characters consider Violine is this because of her staring at them intently (she does this to read their minds).
* ''ComicBook/RachelRising'', an UrbanFantasy[=/=]horror comic, has Zoe, a cute little 10 year old who carries out murders with chilling skill and no shred of remorse. It's hard to say if TheReveal that [[spoiler:she's spent almost 50 years as the host of a FallenAngel[=/=]demon that wants to destroy creation and eventually use Zoe to be the mother of his version of the AntiChrist]] makes her more or less creepy.
* ''{{ComicBook/Crossed}}'' has a few of these. The first encountered are the Kindergarteners in Volume 1, who are uninfected, but still set traps for people who are passing through the town where they're holed up.
** Any children who become [[spoiler:or are born as]] Crossed are creepy by default, including [[spoiler:Patrick]] in Volume 1 and the (mostly unseen) [[spoiler:children of the breeding Crossed in the ''+100'' arc]].
** A particularly disturbing possibility gets brought up when discussing rumors about the "Super Crossed", humans who turn but retain some of their humanity due to brain abnormalities ([[spoiler:or in one case, being so evil that turning really didn't change much]]). Apparently, one of them living in Montreal is a child who had autism before C-Day.
* Jordan Borchardt of ''ComicBook/{{Revival}}'' is as emotionally distant as any of the other revivers but it hits harder since she's a tween girl. Worse, she takes her mother's disappointment at not seeing God during her death too literally and [[spoiler:slices off her own eyelids. She is unique among revivers in that her soul has not only been separated, it's destroyed. This allows her to imprison someone else's soul within herself, HorrifyingTheHorror.]]
* Mike of ''ComicBook/{{Plutona}}'' is a lowkey example. He plays his game boy constantly, almost never speaks, and is easily recruited to defiling a corpse.
* Carnage's host Cletus Kasady as a child from ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' his favorite past time was watching president John F. Kennedy's assassination footage over and over, he murdered his grandmother by pushing her down the stairs, he would often attack his mother and killed her dog with a drill, he played mean jokes on the orphans at the orphanage such as setting off firecrackers and smoke bombs in their rooms, and he murdered the orphanage headmaster and burned down the building.
* Since childhood Joker's Daughter has been unusual. She was [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness delusional]], made a mobile out of knifes and corsets out of barbed wire, and [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals killed her pet bird]]. As she grew older she began enjoying pain and {{Self Harm}}ing.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In the ''FanficRecs/TheLegendOfZelda'' Fanfiction ''Free as the Wind'' (On the Recommendation page), Toon Link, of all Links, suddenly switches between Creepy Child and CheerfulChild on many occasions, which almost never fails to shock the other characters around him (including [[TimeTravel two other Links]].) Him switching back into CheerfulChild-mode can sometime be really relieving, since his Creepy Child-persona's knowingness is very unsettling at times.
--> "Everybody's going to die. Just not now."
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has Diana, whose [[PsychicPowers empathic abilities]] make her uncomfortably knowing, which along with her purposefully calm demeanour, frequently creeps people out. Until they get to know her, at least.
** Harry himself, being thirteen, can occasionally come off as this. His demeanour during his apology/warning to the Ravenclaw Quidditch team following their collective discharge from St. Mungos (he'd put them there via [[DeadlyDodging creative flying and use of bludgers]] because of their bullying of Luna Lovegood) is considered by the team to be a) unsettling, b) slightly inhuman. He's also known to have intuitively mastered wandless fire magic, occasionally literally PlayingWithFire, be a powerful psychic, have intermittent SuperStrength and have a strange [[VoiceOfTheLegion 'double voice']], which he can use at will and is intimidating enough that it shuts up the Weasley Twins without so much as a smart remark. Being followed around by the wolves of Odin and, occasionally, his ravens, only exacerbates this. And then there's the frequent comparisons to ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, the warnings that he could just as easily go from a hero to becoming something horrific. Notably, he's aware of all of these and their effect. Except for Freki and Geri, who he treats like giant pet dogs, and the ravens, who he likes, they freak him out just as much as they do everyone else. That said, he isn't shy of using them and his growing reputation to his advantage.
*** By the sequel, ''Ghosts of the Past'', he's 14 going on 15, and has only compounded this reputation - he's a good deal more powerful, and thanks to his experiences with the Red Room, a slowly recovering ShellShockedVeteran ever in danger of going over the edge and [[spoiler: becoming the Dark Phoenix]]. He gets better as time goes by, but even so, his mildly inhuman grace tends to put people on edge.
* ''Fanfic/{{Sleepless}}'' contains several examples. The first instalment has Diamond Tiara [[spoiler: a nine-year-old serial killer with insomnia]], and a couple of residents of mental clinic for foals in Trottingham. The third story in the series, ''Manehattan Blues'' adds White Dove [[spoiler: who doesn't hesitate to burn a warehouse with her classmate inside]]. ''Children of Equestria'' gives us also [[spoiler: Diamond Tiara's hallucinations of Silver Spoon and Curtain Call]].
* In Chapter 22 of a ''Naruto'' Fanfic, ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3149411/23/Naruto_Altered_History Naruto: Altered History]]'', when Naruto meets Kyuubi.
-->''"Oh fuck," Naruto muttered, a chill sweeping through. He knew now, beyond any doubt, that he was in for it, only the most evil of demons pretended to be little girls. It was a fact of nature, the more innocent looking the little girl, the more evil the demon. This girl was the picture of innocence, which meant Naruto now faced a majorly gruesome end. ''
* In a relatively popular ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' fanfiction known as ''[[http://percyjacksonfanfiction.wikia.com/wiki/Whispers_in_the_Dark Whispers in the Dark]]'', the main character Taylor definitely qualifies. She's 4, and she knows more curse words than the average 10-year-old. Let that sink in for a minute.
* A chapter of ''Fanfic/ToyHammer'' gives us Emma, a creepy kid who appears and disappears out of nowhere, and gives the main character nosebleeds.
** Though she's not so creepy any more because she's [[spoiler: actually one of the Emperor of Mankind's reincarnations.]]
* In the ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Forward}}'', we have Inducer One-One-Nine, who becomes a retroactively creepy child when we discover it's [[spoiler: Katie.]]
* Fiona from FanFic/KiraIsJustice is this, complete with [[PaintingTheMedium bold dialogue.]]
* In Creator/CoriFalls's fanfiction ''Where Angels Dare to Tread'', baby!James was supposed to come as [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Wise Beyond His Six Months]], but looks like this instead. Seriously, '''which''' baby deliberately cries in his christening and then looks all "I did it to screw my parents's plans for me!"?
* So very many [=Super!Harry=] Franchise/HarryPotter fanfics, a result of trying to get him off to a good [[FixFic fixit]] start while following the books' timeline. Often due to time travel, but also to various weird upbringings and instances of becoming a ChildProdigy. Both {{lampshaded}} and not.
* "[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7126756/1/Escape_From_Never_Never_Land Escape From Never Never Land]]", a Harry Potter fic, has a sort of subversion. On the surface she's a creepy child. But really [[spoiler: she's really 14, trapped in the body of a child by magic]] which makes it worse....
* Cream is seen as one in ''Blog/AlwaysHavingJuice'', having a difficult time discerning the real from the imaginary due to her special power, and being diagnosed as mentally ill before being adopted by Vector.
* Both Gabrielle and [[spoiler:Chaos]] in the ''FanFic/TamersForeverSeries'', ''especially'' the first one.
* ''Webcomic/ItSucksToBeWeegie'' has [[VideoGame/{{Mother 3}} Lucas]]. It says something when quoting lyrics from ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' isn't out of character for him.
* The daughter of Harry Potter and the Winter Queen in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3856581/21/The-Denarian-Knight The Denarian Knight]]''. When they first meet roughly a year after her conception (at which point she's seven or eight due to the differing passage of time in the faery realm) she says "Hello father" in the most deadpan voice ever and his response is "Okay, that's not creepy at all."
* Quetzalcoatl in the ''FanFic/{{Horseshoes and Hand Grenades}}'' story, ''A Month of Sundays'' who wants to find 'best friends' and think that the best thing about them is that they share...[[BloodLust blood.]] To amp up the creepiness, [[spoiler: he's a Serpent in a contract with Ankh and his human form is a child version of Ankh. The creepiness gets toned down after Jun gives him a TastesLikeFriendship moment and he becomes a shy, scared boy with abandonment issues.]]
* Taya in ''FanFic/DiariesOfAMadman'', whose lack of understanding of certain social conventions can make her come across as very creepy at times.
* [[spoiler: Ongetsu, Kurosaki Karin's]] zanpakuto spirit in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6902577/1/Phases-of-the-Moon Phases of the Moon]]'' and all its sequels and spin-offs, is this combined with BrattyHalfPint and CreepyDoll. It doesn't help that he manifests as a SinisterScythe [[spoiler: that happens to be AntiMagic]]. The doll is a stuffed black rabbit [[spoiler:that Karin owned before her mother died, and represents her inner weakness and repressed emotions.]]
* From ''Fanfic/Gensokyo20XX'', Reimu seems to be developing shades of this. Aside from the [[AmbiguousDisorder mental illness]], she is very unnerving for anyone who doesn't understand how sweet she can be but is unusually and very fatalistic for a child, along with easily and quickly accepting cruelty, along with giving it when she sees fit to. What's more to this is that a group of kitsune wanted to kill her for reasons unsaid and people tend direct their hostility to her.
* The ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' Fanfic/TranscendenceAU FanVerse is full of this trope, played in multiple different ways. Dipper gets this reaction from others (and sometimes from himself) because he's been turned into a demon, Mabel and later her children because they hang out with demon!Dipper. Then there are the assorted children trying to make deals with Dipper (some of which manage to creep him out).
** [[spoiler:Bill's]] reincarnations. Toby, a sweetheart with some...interesting personality quirks such as calling pain "funny feelings", is a good example of one. This is often subverted though.
* Tom in Fanfic/TomRiddlesSchooldays. Other characters find him charming and friendly, but the way he calmly considers murder…
* Tom, Bellatrix and Hermione in ''FanFic/FallBackNineteenForty''. Tom in particular does things that would nauseate many adults, and ''doesn't see anything wrong with them''.
* ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'': Shinji, Asuka and Rei can look like three traumatized but average fourteen-year-old kids... because they're hiding that they're borderline psychopaths. Rei's apartment is a trash-filled shrine to rot and decay, Shinji manipulates people for shits and giggles, Asuka is a murderous vigilante, and any of them is perfectly willing to kill whoever gets in their way.
* ''Fanfic/YesterdayUponTheStair'' has Izuku and Rei. Izuku has developed in some unsettling ways due to growing up with the ability to see ghosts, and Rei is dead.
* ''Fanfic/TheVirtueOfRevenge'' gives us Damian Wayne, who phones his adopted brother to lovingly detail how he murdered his latest tutor. It's due to his mother Talia enabling such behaviour - the phonecall to Jason was actually her rewarding Damian for his flawless technique.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films – Animation]]
* ''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.
* Lilo from ''Disney/LiloAndStitch''. She says things like "My friends need to be punished" in a monotone while placing spoons decorated as her Hula Halau-mates from a previous scene in a pickle jar and watching them, all while sitting next to a book titled "Practical Voodoo". She gets better, this being a Disney movie. Completely ''justified'', considering that the movie takes place shortly after her parents are killed in a car crash and this is her way of coping with the loss.
* ''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/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.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Trolls}}'': There's a wall-eyed child Troll. For one thing, he likes watching his parents as they're sleeping.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comic]]
* ''Webcomic/ScaryGoRound'' had a [[http://scarygoround.com/index.php?date=20050123 story arc]] based around such a character, known [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep simply as]] "The Child", who is a [[VaguenessIsComing harbinger of change]] and cause of discord. It turns out that The Child is being raised by [[spoiler: someone who looks like Michael Jackson]], turning it into a [[spoiler:FunnyAneurysmMoment]] that meant the end of the comic [[TooSoon had to be rewritten]].
* [[spoiler: Pandora]] is introduced in this form in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive''. She's notably somewhat an aversion since her form changes to fit her mood, so she only looks like a child when she's being playful and mischevious. [[spoiler: She's a lot creepier when she's pissed.]]
* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'':
** Zimmy is introduced as an over-the-top creep: she's verbally combative towards the protagonists, her science fair entry is [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=77 "an abomination"]] the reader [[TakeOurWordForIt never gets to see]], she seems to have [[BlackEyesOfEvil no visible eyes]], and a body-snatching demon is afraid of her. This gets thrown on its head in a later chapter, when [[spoiler:the revelation that she's been BlessedWithSuck turns her into a sympathetic character who abuses people so they'll avoid her, for their own safety. Which gets flipped on its head ''again'', with the revelation of [[LoveMakesYouEvil how Zimmy treats her best friend and why]].]]
** The main character, Antimony Carver, is an interesting example. The audience sees her when she's alone with her best friends, and thus sees that she's pretty well-adjusted for someone with such an unusual childhood (and the missing parents). Eventually, however, it's revealed that most of her classmates see her as a creep -- because all they see of Annie is her [[EmotionlessGirl impassive public facade]] and the fact that she never socializes with anyone besides Kat.
** Annie's father, Anthony, comes across much like Annie (in FlashBack): a normal guy to his best friend Donny, an emotionless robot-boy to everybody else. Apparently Annie looks like her mother and acts like her father. Must be torture for poor [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Eglamore]].
** Jack, when he's [[spoiler: under DemonicPossession.]]
* Chelsie Warner of ''Webcomic/{{Concession}}'' appears to be a cuddly anthropomorphic lamb-girl in a pink dress. On her first appearance, she stabs Artie Crowley in the eye with a crayon. Shortly thereafter, [[spoiler:she has sex with him when he's too delirious to realise what he's doing. When he wakes up, he is horrified not only because of what he's done, but because "Chelsie is actually a '''[[UnsettlingGenderReveal boy]].'''" It's recently been revealed that Chelsie's hypersexual behaviour is related to a form of childhood bipolar disorder. She became significantly less creepy with proper medication and hormone treatment, after being adopted by the local (quite definitely ''non''-paedophile) preacher. The WhereAreTheyNow epilogue shows her in her late teens, [[{{Transgender}} fully transitioned]], apparently recovered from her unfortunate past, and calling Father Tim "Dad".]]
* Charby from ''Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate'' is a perfect example of this.
** Mye, Hex, Tony, Claire and a large number of other characters qualify too.
* ''Webcomic/TheCyantianChronicles'': Quinn and Collin.
** Collin is a telepath who can walk through walls. He's experienced fear from come people due to this fact.
** Quinn is also a telepath. She can also walk through walls, teleport through another dimension that only she can reach. Quinn also has "Oulies" as friends, who are beings who are trapped between life and death in a realm that only Quinn can see. Quinn's invisible friends are real. And to top it all off, Quinn has been known to surprise/creep out Collin and the other members of her family.
* ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'': Parson Gotti suspects that Wanda was one of these. [[spoiler: Before he learns that Erfworld has no children.]]
* In ''WebComic/{{Sire}},'' Susan causes Anna to appear to be one of these, hijacking her body, sitting quietly on her bed, and pulling all the hair out of its head, slowly counting each one off. Her parents promptly send the innocent Anna off for help.
* [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/what-are-you/ Shelly's conscience]] from ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'' looks like one and [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/missing-the-poin/ she knows it.]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Memoria}}'': "Harriet, I've never been [[http://memoria.valice.net/?p=321 afraid of a little girl before]]."
* In ''Webcomic/{{Underling}}'', [[http://underlingcomic.com/page-one-hundred-eighty-three/ Lazarus, despite his horns and the company he has kept thus far, meets up with a truly creepy girl.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2346 the agents]] [[http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2347 of the]] [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2348 secret sisterhood.]]
* Mua, the antagonist, from ''Webcomic/KissWood''. She's enslaved a huge amount of the population and she wants Sul to become another. Her introduction involves her showing one of the slave camps to Sul, watching a slave trip and a guard killing him (believing he's no longer able to work and therefore useless); she laughs at the sight and says there's an opening place for him.
* Aradia from ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' is probably the most "classic" example of this trope in the comic, but most of the trolls can fall under it due to some rather TroublingUnChildlikeBehavior. [[spoiler:Caliborn]] is also pretty disturbing.
* Disbelief the Shadow Child from ''{{Webcomic/Roommates}}'' is a barefoot creepy little boy wearing white (and having NinjaProp {{Living Shadow}}s). When he was introduced he basically [[MindRape KO]]d the cast with "[[ImNotAfraidOfYou I don't believe in you!]]"... when he [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil returned]] he [[http://asherhyder.deviantart.com/art/Roommates-Kings-War-82-455114603 gleefully]] [[http://asherhyder.deviantart.com/art/Roommates-Kings-War-83-455118648 offered]] to do the same with their enemies. He is an AnthropomorphicPersonification right out of the TimeAbyss so he quite possibly invokes and exploits the trope intetionally.
* There are a few examples in ''Webcomic/BookOfLies'', but The Girl in the Tower takes the cake.
* Posey in ''Webcomic/TheSanityCircus'' is a Scarecrow who embodies pediaphobia - fear of dolls -, and so always has a creepy, flawless, eternally-young appearance. Even though she's an EldritchAbomination and can consume people's souls with a smile.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/BenDrowned'': Ben thinks you shouldn't have put him here...
* ''Literature/{{Defection}}'': The roaming Fey, often seen outside school gates handing out lollipops to passing children.
* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''
** SCP-053 is a seemingly normal three-year-old girl. But there's a reason she's detained by the Wiki/SCPFoundation. Something about her is deeply unsettling to adults and older children. Unsettling to the point that it induces violent rages, usually directed at her. Then, the moment they inflict any harm upon her, they die almost instantly and she regenerates rapidly from any injury they managed to inflict. OmnicidalManiac SCP-682 seems to like her, though -- and, as the label suggests, he holds a murderous hatred for all other living things.
** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-899 SCP-899]] is a spatial phenomenon that ''kidnaps'' regular children and turns them into this. And they will ''kill you.''
** All child SCP items are this trope. Strangely though very few of them are an outright EnfantTerrible, even [[LittleMissAlmighty 239]], a [[PersonOfMassDestruction Keter-class]], isn't really evil, just naive and easily tricked into believing something is true/real and considering how her [[RealityWarper powers]] [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve work]].
* Katy Towell's ''WebAnimation/Childrinrskary'' IS this trope. One of the reasons she drew the art and made the animations was because she thought children were creepy.
* A staple in ''Roleplay/RedRover'', in which the protagonist has to save the children of The Royce Institute For Exceptional Children - the ones still living. All of the children in question are peculiar in some manner, and deeply disturbed and/or disturbing.
* ''WebVideo/ThereWillBeBrawl'': [[spoiler: Ness and Lucas.]] And ''How!''
* ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' v2 has Brandon Cuthbert, a 12 year old genius who skipped a few grades and is in highschool. Before getting sent to the island, he had a fascination with dissecting woodland creatures. And while on the island, he killed at least 3 different characters, including slicing one open after suffocating him to unconsciousness with an X-Box controller. It also happens in quite a few backstories for some characters.
* ''WebAnimation/ASDFMovie''. "I like trains."
* ''Franchise/TheFearMythos'' gives us the Cold Boy, who sits around, singing nursery rhymes. He'll cut you off from those you love, or he could just freeze you to death. Yet he never seems evil. Just creepy. Then there's the Unnamed Child, an UncannyValley child whose victims break away from their family and friends to pursue it after it leaves them.
* [[http://www.keiththompsonart.com/pages/daughter.html This little darling.]] Even if you ''don't'' read her [[spoiler:(or should that be ''[[GhostMemory their]]''?)]] backstory.
* [=MistBunny=] of ARG/DarkDreamChronicle is a cute little girl who has tea parties and everything. She also just so happens to work for a certain [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos tall, faceless gentleman]]. [=KarmA=] has stated that she really creeps him out.
* In Blog/{{LISDEAD}} [[spoiler: He appears to be one]]
* [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=violetta+draculette#/d4y6nkx Violetta]]. At times, she can fall into this, but she's harmless, and what mostly gets to people (namely Sunflower) is that she is of Transylvanian decent (her ancestors can be traced back to ancient Transylvania) and looks similar to an archetypal vampire, coupled with the fact that Toki adopted her from an orphanage in said region. Aside from some strange interests and the looks, she is a fairly normal kid.
* Parodied in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YYVXcRsNvw this fake advertisement]] for a casting company specializing in kids like this.
* [[spoiler:Tim]] from ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'' when he was a kid. He would habitually [[spoiler:go into bouts of panic and terror while he was being confined to the mental hospital, claiming that something was watching him even though his doctors could see nothing. He ran away from the hospital on multiple occasions in order to hide from it, ending up at Rosswood Park or in the maintenance tunnel from Entry #60. When the doctors locked him in his room after these escapes, he would scream and claw at the walls until he had to be sedated with his medication]]. In Entry #65, he appears to relapse briefly into this state.
* Parodied by ''Website/CollegeHumor'' in "[[http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6841887/horror-movie-daycare Horror Movie Daycare]]", which unites many of the creepy, satanic, possessed, ghost, and alien children of horror movies in the same daycare.
* Buzzfeed's [[http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbellassai/the-creepiest-things-a-child-has-ever-said-to-a-parent "The Creepiest Things A Child Has Ever Said To A Parent"]].
* In ''WebVideo/BumReviews'', Chester A. Bum about a child actress Creator/DakotaFanning: "I ALWAYS KNEW THAT SHE WAS [[Literature/{{Twilight}} A VAMPIRE!]] [[NoIndoorVoice SHE ACTED LIKE SHE WAS THIRTY YEARS OLD WHEN SHE WAS FIVE!]]"
* Cameron in [[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj6IyOrMWnQ The Babysitter.]] He speaks seldomly, won't respond to the babysitter or his mother, watches the same Website/YouTube video over and over again, and has a nasty habit of showing up behind people. Additionally, when [[spoiler: he somehow summons the [[UncannyValley host of the show]] and his giant teddy bear sidekick, both dripping blood and sporting SlasherSmile s]], he has no reaction; in fact, he seems ''happy'', even after [[spoiler: his babysitter is killed before his eyes and it is implied his mother is next.]]
* ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' has several, although people don't view all of them as creepy.
** The City Council sends messages to Cecil through various mute, empty-eyed children. Cecil complains that he's never sure what to do with them once they've delivered the message by whatever means they're using this time, and asks if anyone wants one, before noticing he's disappeared.
** When two boy scouts are going to receive the highest rank, Eternal Scout, hordes of creepy pale children appear and watch people silently. As the ceremony gets underway they attack and try to drag people away to whatever place they came from. Speaking of which, the boy scout ranks also include Blood Pact Scout, Dark Scout and Fear Scout, and include badges like Invisibility and Advanced Siege-Breaking Tactics.
** Tamika Flynn is 12, and emerges from the Nightvale Summer Reading Program with a book well above a 12 year old's reading level and the severed head of the Head Librarian - thus saving the children from whatever ghastly fate was in store for them at the hands of the librarians. She proceeds to read at a very high level while forming the children of the town into a resistance movement against Strexcrop while wearing the hand of a librarian around her neck to prove that she has already overcome the most fearsome of foes, and Cecil is completely on her side.
* From Wiki/{{Killerbunnies}}, we have [[http://killerbunnies.wikidot.com/wiki:visceraline Visceraline]], who this also an EnfantTerrible. Going by her profile, she is a child with a fairly sadistic disposition and sees other people as "dollies" (Read: Toys for her do as she will) and is speculated to have had something to do with her parents' disappearance.
** While she is creepy, [[http://killerbunnies.wikidot.com/wiki:jeanne-thompson Jeanne]] is an unclear case in that we don't know if she is ''actually'' a child.
* ''Literature/{{Twig}}'' has Sylvester, who's creepy in the sense that he enjoys picking out the psychological weaknesses of the adults around him and taking a sledgehammer to them, and Helen, who's creepy in that she doesn't actually have emotional reactions and is just faking them all the time with the skill of a MasterActor.
* D from ''Literature/EntirelyPresentingYou'' is a young girl who knows how to drive, deals with drugs and gangs, and isn't above threatening others to get what she wants.
* Parodied in the ''Funny or Die'' sketch [[http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/78c7180f2e/scary-girl-with-chloe-moretz?_cc=__d___&_ccid=462c52f2-65b6-4ca3-873e-509c481a9aaa Scary Girl]], which stars Creator/ChloeMoretz as a child actress called Enid Krysinski who, no matter what the role, always plays a StringyHairedGhostGirl because that's what she's actually like. Her mother seems to find it adorable.
-->'''Enid's Mom''': Enid's always been very theatrical.
-->'''Enid''': [''creepy whisper''] I've been in almost EVERY...school play.\\
[''Cut to video of Enid's school production of Peter Pan'']
-->'''Peter Pan''': Clap if you want Tinker Bell back. [''sporadic clapping from audience''] Tinker Bell...wherever you are...\\
[''Enid as Tinker Bell pops up behind him, apparently out of the ground. Screams from the audience.'']
* NoNameGiven, but the abused son in WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic takes after his parents, burying Hyper alive, groping a Barbie doll and having fun at animal cruelty.
* ''WebVideo/TheHumanPet'': Sam as a child, thanks to the poor treatment he received from his parents, leading for him to be quite messed up in the head. When met by a child psychologist, he is found in his room singing a children's song, and after killing him, the audience hears creepy child laughter.
[[/folder]]

->'''Marge:''' ''[looking out the window to the front lawn]'' There's just something about flying a kite at night that's so ''unwholesome.''\\

* ''WesternAimation/{{Trolls}}'': There's a wall-eyed child Troll. For one thing, he likes watching his parents as they're sleeping.

* Sid in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory''.