[[quoteright:283:http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheDevilsBackbone.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:283:Santi from ''The Devil's Backbone'' just wants to make friends. [[GhostlyGoals And kill people.]]]]

-->''I'm only doing this because there's an international banking convention in town, Little Miss I've-Been-Twelve-For-A-Pretty-Long-Time.''
-->-Jane Doe, ''NobodyScores!''

One of the {{squick}}iest things to come out of {{horror}} movies is the descending age bracket for TheUndead. It used to be only adults could be/were made into undead, and while children were presumably killed off screen during the ZombieApocalypse, they weren't turned into the living dead. Well, now it seems these [[InfantImmortality infants have found immortality]] of a decidedly unwholesome sort.

Whether it's zombie babies, vampire children, or the unsettling ghost child, audiences will feel revulsion on several levels. Let's count!

On the one hand, these are ''children'', the idea that an undead horror (especially a thinking one) would not just kill but transform an innocent [[TheVirus into another one of itself]] is so wrong [[MoralEventHorizon it's hard to quantify]]. That a child would stay on in this world as a ghost is no less cruel, since it implies the child is somehow being held against their will or has become a creature [[GhostlyGoals out for revenge.]] On the other, the body is still that of a child, and most people will instinctively try to help mistakenly thinking it's NotAZombie. Third, even if the child still has [[TheHeartless their own mind]] and [[TranshumanTreachery morality]] (slim chance, but present) you've now essentially got a ''[[TykeBomb bloodthirsty immortal Pinocchio]]''. And last but not least, when one is attacking you you have to work past all of the above ''and'' a natural instinct not to harm the former child. This can be made much easier if the little monster isn't just [[CreepyChild creepy]], but [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute deformed and scary]].

Lastly, if the form of undead is sentient, this may result in significant angst on the part of the child who [[CantGrowUp Can't Grow Up]] or physically mature.

Let's hope no parents [[NightmareFuel brought their kids to see this movie]].

Related to CreepyChild, EnfantTerrible and FetusTerrible.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* The ''{{Hellsing}}'' anime has Helena, a girl vampire with the mind of a weary, ancient woman.
* ''BloodAlone'' has Higure; vampire elder, and Misaki; a newly turned vampire. Both are friendly; but Higure reveals that ultimately all undead turn into monsters. It's just a question of how many centuries (or in some cases, years or months) it takes. Kuroe is constantly watching Misaki for signs.
* In ''{{GreatTeacherOnizuka}}'', Fujiyoshi and Miyabi encounter one, but don't realize what it is until a few seconds later.
* ''MahouSenseiNegima'' has Evangeline A.K. [=McDowell=], who was turned into a first-generation vampire at the age of ten. Oddly enough - or perhaps not so oddly when considering the illusion magic she uses - no non protagonist really seems to even notice that she's a child and are simply terrified of her for [[PersonOfMassDestruction more normal]] reasons.
** It's also worth noting that she subverts the creepiness part of this; as "undead" seems to merely mean "can't die" in regard to her; she's pretty much physically indistinguishable from a normal child. Anyone who fears her, is afraid for [[PersonOfMassDestruction other reasons]] as mentioned above.
* In a chapter of HighSchoolOfTheDead, two of the protagonists are attacked by a gaggle of zombie preschoolers.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* One of the ''30 Days of Night'' graphic novels has a millenial vampire baby that has never aged. It's hungry.
* In ''TheWalkingDead'', [[CompleteMonster The Governor]] has a zombie "daughter"; later on, [[{{Squick}} he removes all her teeth so he can make out with her]].
* In one story from a comic collection of zombie stories ThisTroper read, zombiism is TheVirus, but, unusually, many (but not all) people recover from the initial infection. This leads to many people quarantining off their loved ones in the hopes that they will recover. In one household, this is seen happening through the eyes of a boy perhaps 4 years old, who sees his mother barricading his father in the basement and then crying by the door. Naturally, readers assume that the father is infected, until the boy finds a way into the basement. The story closes with the boy thinking "I can smell daddy. Daddy smells... daddy smells... delicious" and then leaping to attack his father, showing the boy's rotting face for the first time.
** [[FridgeLogic Wait. Why wasn't Mommy delicious? Why was Normal Human Daddy locked in the not-secure-enough basement instead of My Little Zombie?]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking What four-year-old would use the word 'delicious'???]]
*** Because [[ZombieInfectee Mommy was also infected]], the couple made an agreement for him to wait out the time until Mommy and Junior turned back by barricading himself in the basement with supplies, and in the meantime Mommy also took some small measures like constantly spraying the air by the basement with an air freshener to reduce the temptation from his scent. (Since OurZombiesAreDifferent and she's an intelligent one, she can do that and resist temptation). The last... you'll either have to chalk it up as an AcceptableBreakFromReality or not.
* The eponymous ''{{Lenore}}'' of Roman Dirge's comic is an undead child played for laughs.
* The ''Season of Mists'' arc of ''TheSandman'' featured the dead returning to what remained of their bodies. ''All'' the dead, apparently, including small animals and children.
* ''{{Casper}} the Friendly Ghost''.
* Leigh Gallagher really wanted to draw child zombies in ''Defoe'', so Pat Mills worked them in.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''DarkCity'' had one of [[StarfishAliens The Strangers]] inhabit a dead child's body. It wore black leather, was bald, whisper to other Strangers, would chatter it's teeth while wielding a knife, cut a spiral into a dead hooker, ''and'' gleefully intoned ''"Kill him"'' when the hero was captured.
* The 2004 remake of ''DawnOfTheDead'' has a zombie baby. Hearing it's "birth cry" was one of the creepiest moments of the film.
** The original film featured two zombie children, played by Tom Savini's niece and nephew.
* TheMovie version of ''30 Days Of Night'' has a disturbing example of this. While the group of survivors is in a grocery store, they encounter a vampire child who charges them with surprising power and nearly kills one of their group. In one of the most disturbing scenes in the entire movie, they kill her, only to discover that [[spoiler:she is the lead vampire's daughter.]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Revenge ensues.]]
* Santi in ''The Devil's Backbone / El Espinazo del Diablo'' is [[spoiler: not actually evil, however he is out for watery revenge on his killer, and scares the bejeezus out of the other orphans in the meantime.]]
** While we're on the subject of Guillermo del Toro, there are the ghost children from ''TheOrphanage''.
* The ghost child in ''TheGrudge / Ju-On''. So innocent. So evil.
* The film ''NearDark'' included a vampire child [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld stuck in the 10-year old body he had when he was turned, over 50 years ago]]. Who was MadeOfExplodium for some reason.
* This trope is [[OlderThanTheyThink pretty old]]; there's a little zombie girl in the original ''NightOfTheLivingDead'' that [[spoiler: eats her father after he staggers down into the basement after getting shot; then kills her mother with a hand-trowel and eats her too]].
* The Spanish film ''[REC]'' ([[ForeignRemake remade]] in the US as ''Quarantine'') has a poor little girl turn into a zombie... sorry, ''"She just has a fever!"''
* B movie ''The Hamiltons'' deals with a group of orphaned sibling [[spoiler:vampires]], and their attempts to survive in the world. It also concerns the mysterious monster in their basement called Lenny, who we see rip apart and devour several people over the course of the movie. [[spoiler:It's their littlest brother, who is only a few years old, completely feral, and craving blood ''all the time'']].
* A friendly version appeared in ''TheSixthSense'', a girl poisoned by her mother.
* Quite brutally subverted in [[TwentyEightDaysLater 28 Days Later]]. The main character deliberately goes hunting for a pre-teenager who is infected with TheVirus, and determindly beats it to death with apparently no qualms. [[spoiler: He is only disturbed by his behaviour when the BigBad points out that, having done horrible things to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, he and the main character are not so unalike as they might have preferred.]]
** Considering his experiences in the past several days with Infected, and how the "boy" was shrieking and snarling like a methed-up velociraptor, if anyone had any qualms about beating it to death, they are too stupid to live.
* [[LetTheRightOneIn Eli]] has been twelve for [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld a long time.]]
* [[TheShining Come play with us Danny.]]
* ''TheOthers'' has a couple of ghost children [[spoiler:but they're not the ones we think they are]].
* The second ''ResidentEvil'' movie featured the cast venturing into a school in order to rescue a girl in order to get a ride out of the city...one of the characters is killed when a mob of zombie children maul her.
* ''TheAmityvilleHorror'' remake has Jodie Defeo; though sympathetic to an extent since its implicated she's forced to do evil against her will she's still pretty damn creepy at points, especially in the scene where she traps the babysitter Lisa in the closet and forcibly jams one of Lisa's fingers into the bullet hole in her forehead.
-->'''Jodie:''' "Hi Lisa! Look what Ronnie did."
* In the bizarre Italian film ''Cemetary Man'', Rupert Everett's dimwitted sidekick, Gnaghi, keeps the zombified head of the mayor's 12 year-old daughter inside a broken TV. There's also a scene where Rupert kills a busload of zombie boyscouts, killed in the same accident as the girl.
* ''TrickRTreat'' has a busload of zombie kids in their Halloween costumes.
* ''TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' has the aptly-named Corpse Kid. And his parents, since almost ''everyone'' in Halloween Town is undead.
* And, of course, there is the gleefully psychotic Claudia from InterviewWithTheVampire, perhaps the only actually evil vampire we meet.


[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Half the plot of ''Breaking Dawn'' by Stephenie Meyer was based off of this... OrSoIHeard
* ''InterviewWithTheVampire'' has Claudia.
* ''PetSemetary'' by StephenKing.
* ''PrideAndPrejudiceAndZombies'' has a zombie infant. Elizabeth, despite being usually BadAss, can't bring herself to kill it.
* ''The Forest of Hands and Teeth'', by Carrie Ryan, also has a zombie infant, which has apparently been laying in it's cradle for years after the house was abandoned, restlessly kicking the footboard. The heroine chucks it off a balcony.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''BeingHuman'' has a vampire child, made when [[spoiler: Mitchell offers his mother, out of guilt from not being able to save him, the chance to bring him back as a vampire.]] The episode ends with the kid innocently telling his mom ''"I'm hungry."''
* The Anointed One from ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
* [[DoctorWho "Are you my mummy?"]]
* ''{{Supernatural}}'' has had a ghost child or two.
* In ''ForeverKnight'', the vampire LaCroix's sire was his own preteen daughter.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Oral Tradition ]]

* This is a ''lot'' OlderThanTheyThink. Philippine legends speak of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiyanak Tiyanak]], a monster made from the spirit of an unborn child. It takes the appearance of an infant to draw in unwary travellers then reverts to its true form to kill its kind-hearted victim. This makes the trope OlderThanPrint, if not older.
** There are actually a few of these in real world mythology. This troper recalls reading of one spirit from... pretty sure it was Inuit mythology. The precise name escapes this troper, but this troper belives it was called the Angyak; it was the vengeful ghost of a child that had been left to die of exposure after having been named, which gave it a soul, and so returned to its family to seek vengeance. It nursed from its mother at night to build up strength (possibly sucking the life out of her; am not sure), then used that strength to try and murder the members of its family who actually abandoned it in the wilderness. It would only depart after killing all of its family, or if a shaman banished it.
** And in Swedish oral tradition, if a mother killed her infant, the ghost would remain around the place where she had disposed of the body. For some reason it is normally depicted as a three-year-old, rather than as a newborn (when it doesn't appear as a bucket or box, supposedly what it was buried in). Sometimes it is said to demand vengeance on its mothers, sometimes it wants the body to be put to rest in a proper churchyard, and sometimes it just... hangs aroung and scares people.
** It appears in American folklore too. There's an Appalachian story about a ghost in the woods that looks like a small child and asks you to carry it on your back to safety. But as you carry it, it'll start getting heavier and heavier with each step. And if you look back over your shoulder to see what's going on... well, apparently nobody's lived to say what exactly they saw.
** Not sure if this counts, but there's a Japanese {{Yokai}} that takes the form of an abandoned baby crying on the roadside. If some poor fool actually picks it up, it suddenly grows huge, crushing them to death under its bulk.
** The Toyol of Malaysian folklore is a foetus that died after being born or was stillborn. It can be summoned by those who want to use the toyol for {{Evulz}}, but must be fed with blood by its summoner, or the toyol will turn nasty and kill its summoner.
** In the Carpathians, a stillborn child couldn't be buried in hallowed ground (as unbaptised), and (particularly if it had been born under a caul, or had teeth) was believed in danger into turning into a vampire spirit.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop RPG ]]

* One slightly positive example is a ''DnD 3.5'' supplement on undead with a half-ghoul template, where the mother, a ghoul, gives birth to a half-ghoul child that can grow up. Usually the child has to be rescued by normal humans to survive long though.
** ''DungeonsAndDragons'' also has the Atropal, a very powerful, ''very'' dangerous abomination that is basically a stillborn godling. They are [[NightmareFuelUnleaded just as nasty as they sound]].
** The ''Libris Mortis'' supplement has the [[IncrediblyLamePun slaymate]], the animated remains of a child who died of neglect or betrayal by a caretaker. It amplified necromantic magic in its vicinity, and the book said they are prized as pets of sorts for necromancers, who sometimes carry them on their backs papoose-style. Add in a creepy picture of an undead and slightly decomposed 7-ish year old girl with a ragged doll, and you have a winner. The book also has the atropal scion, essentially a remnant of a destroyed atropal.
** 4.0 and its ''Open Grave'' supplement gives us both child skeletons and the corrupted spawn, a child brought back by resurrection magic GoneHorriblyWrong. The latter is essentially an extended reference to ''PetSemetary''.
** Half-Ghul? And the mother is the ghul? How does the father - [[{{Squick}} wait, i don't want to know]].
***Woman was pregnant before she was turned?
****Ghoul-ism is transmitted by {{The Virus}} in D&D 3.5, after all.
** In a ''Mystara'' scenario the PCs run into a bunch of non-standard zombies created by the magical equivalent of radiation. They are senient and not neccessarily hostile. One of them was created from the body of a young boy and is a possible ally. Somewhat tragical, in that he thinks he can "grow up" like a living person if he just gets away from the zombie lair and into the normal world.
* ''WraithTheOblivion'' features the Striplings, a caste of Spectre. In the game, Spectres are ghosts who either lost themselves over time to Oblivion, or met such a violent end that they just wanted it all to go away. The Striplings are Spectres of children who died when they were younger than ten. Even the other Spectres are freaked out by them.
** There's a good reason one ruler of Oblivion set a law in place that any child wraiths would be made into soulsteel. FateWorseThanDeath? Maybe. But at least that keeps them from being Striplings.
* There's a bit of fiction in one of the ''VampireTheRequiem'' sourcebooks about a local hotshot who runs a betting event known only as "B vs. D." What does it stand for? "[Embraced] Baby versus Dog"; as the baby is practically brand new and barely fed, that means [[EnemyWithin the Beast]] is in the driver's seat.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* There are some very small zombies in ''EternalDarkness''. Optimistically, pygmies, but more realistically...
* The ''[[JojosBizarreAdventure Jojo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' video game has a level where Jotaro fights a horde of zombies, and some of them are babies.
** This is based off a chapter from the manga, where Enya Geil's Stand, Justice, turned an entire town into zombies. Including the kids.
* There's also the especially disturbing example in ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo8VPFhSbs4 Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006:]]'' baby zombies bursting from the bellies of the pregnant zombie mothers.
* ''ClockTower II: The Struggle Within'' has Stephanie, who chases you around for much of the first part of the game. To a lesser extent, her sister Ashley, who's still-living arm can be found on the dining room table and the rest of her body scattered across the house, and their brother Michael, who also stalks you in a suit of armor.
** There's also May from ''Clock Tower 3'', the 12 year-old pianist who was murdered by the first [[ImplacableMan Subordinate]] you meet in the game, Sledgehammer; you have to beat him in order for her to be laid to rest. Then there's the ghosts of children killed by Scissorman in ''Clock Tower'' (2) that sing [[IronicNurseryTune Little John from the Big Castle]].
* If memory of the LetsPlay serves, the first ''SilentHill'' game had ghost demon children things wandering around the school.
** The first game does have them. They are ghostly silhouette babies that walk around crying. For added creepy, they won't attack you and if you touch them they let out a cry then disappear.
* We've yet to see any ''human''(oid) children, but ''WorldOfWarcraft'' now has baby ''[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot zombie dragons]]''. You can even keep one as a [[CosmeticReward pet]] if you bought the Collector's Edition.
** There is an NPC in the plaugelands who serves as the center of a series of quests, and is the ghost of a little girl. If she doesn't break your heart then you sir [[TheHeartless have none.]]
*** ''"I never feel warm anymore."''
*** Said little girl's quest line actually inspired a quite rocking song about how a Warrior was haunted by the memory of seeing the ghost, and went on a quest to give her the means to rest peacefully.
* QuestForGlory IV has Tanya, a little vampire girl who, while not evil, is pretty darn creepy NightmareFuel. One of the main quests involves turning her back into a human and reuniting her with her parents.
* ''[[{{Touhou}} Embodiment of Scarlet Devil]]'' has the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Scarlet sisters]], who have been about ten-year old children [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld since the 16th Century]].
* The Infernas from ''TheSuffering.'' Particularly when they drop their disguises and [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel transform into charred, giggling corpses.]]
* How can we not mention the ghost children from ''Prey''?
* Edwina in the single-player mode of ''{{Timesplitters}}: Future Perfect''. In multiplayer, she's a very much alive possessed girl... but has an Undead Child version in Deadwina.
* {{Luigis Mansion}} gives us [[{{Enfant Terrible}} violent infant]] ghost Chaunsey, spectral twins Henry and Orville, and the creepy, eternally sleeping little girl Sue Pea.
* There are a number of zombie children throughout the ''ShadowHearts'' series. Thankfully, the specifics are only AllThereInTheManual.
* ''BaldursGate 2'' has a ghost halfling child in the graveyard who just wants his teddy bear and then he can be at rest. Probably a reference to ''TheTwilightZone''.
* ''{{Siren}}: Blood Curse'' has a NightmareFuelUnleaded scene [[spoiler:where a Shibito child pounds on the windows of a church, begging her still-human mommy and daddy to let her it.]]
* ''Left4Dead'' has this for the Witch, though she appears to be a teen/pre teen.
* ''DeadSpace'' has the commonly-encountered Lurker. A low-power enemy that attacks using three tentacles that either spit out some sort of acid projectile or start stabbing into you. The clincher? [[spoiler: They're actually the corpses of infants reanimated and mutated into Necromorphs.]] Appropriate, seeing as how you first see them when [[spoiler: they kill a surviving researcher by impaling his hand to a glass window with projectiles, then blowing his head off.]]
** Also, the room in which this all happens [[spoiler: is full of vats with babies floating inside. Makes you wonder what the hell that place is for...]]
*** It's a [[spoiler: body-parts farm. A mining ship that big is bound to have a number of industrial accidents.]]
*** Actually, "No Known Survivors" shows that bodyparts for transplants can be grown individually (the first "story" is set inside a barricaded lab used specifically for that purpose- well, that and grafting the new bones and flesh on). More likely, given how expensive simply running the ship must be, it's a way to avoid having to give maternity leave while still allowing a mix-gendered crew to freely interact and socialize. Women who get pregnant have the embryo removed and placed in an artificial womb (the fluid-filled chambers), allowing it to grow without risk and mommy to keep working.
* Warcraft III has a segment in the human campaign where the player saves a child called Timmy. A few levels later, a ghoul named Timmy is encountered.
** World of Warcraft has a number of ghostly children and Stratholme has a minor ghoul boss called Timmy. While it is mainly a {{Continuity Nod}} and the ghoul looks like any other ghoul, observant players remembering the above example may realise they just killed a child-ghoul.
* In a similar vein, at the beginning of ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' the child protagonist and two newfound friends (future antagonists) get into a snowball fight with three bullies. Said bullies aim every snowball at the nerdiest kid, and eventually he starts bleeding due to one ball that has a rock in it. After that nerd gets his hand on a TomeOfEldritchLore and remakes the world according to his own desires, the first-available mission to contain zombies gives them the same names as the bullies. (When they reappear in a later mission, their monster type is given as "[[FateWorseThanDeath Lost Soul]].")
* JadeEmpire has ghost children in the old Tien's Landing, several of whom are part of sidequests.
** Wild Flower marginally qualifies, since she ''also'' died in the flooding of Tien's Landing. She's alive, though, because Chai Ka [[BackFromTheDead revived her]] to serve as his anchor in the physical world.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Parodied in an episode of ''SouthPark'' where Butters' parents act as if he were a zombie (he's still alive and perfectly fine, but they chain him in the basement anyway), and have to find a way to sate his need to "feed".

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* There is a little undead girl shown prominently in Richard's "Little village up the coast" in ''LookingForGroup''. She [[spoiler: pulls a soldier's heart out of his chest and shows it to him before we even know she is undead]] and on one of the pages, she and another undead child are shown kicking a dead soldier's head around like a ball.

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