The Child

1977 • 82 minutes

About this movie

From 'The Bad Seed' to 'Bloody Birthday', the killer kid movie has long been a staple of the horror genre - but they don't come quite as devilish or downright delirious as 1977's 'The Child!' Young Alicianne arrives at an isolated old farmhouse to look after her new charge, Rosalie - a curious little girl who lives with her equally disturbed (and disturbing) father and surprisingly normal brother. But it soon becomes clear that Alicianne is going to be the one in need of assistance, as it transpires that little Rosalie wields the uncanny power to raise the decrepit residents of the local graveyard to conduct her wicked bidding... An ethereal nightmare cut from the same cloth as the likes of 'Messiah of Evil' or 'Let's Scare Jessica to Death', 'The Child' - from director Robert Voskanian and producer Robert Dadashian - is a superlative example of dream-logic terror and an essential entry in the cannon of 70's American horror.