Screen Robot
  • Movie News
  • TV News
  • Gaming
    • Xbox Games
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
    • Amazon Prime
    • Now TV
    • Disney Plus
  • Trailers
  • Screen News
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
Screen Robot
  • Movie News
  • TV News
  • Gaming
    • Xbox Games
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
    • Amazon Prime
    • Now TV
    • Disney Plus
  • Trailers
  • Screen News
No Result
View All Result
Screen Robot
No Result
View All Result

10 films featuring kids behaving badly

Rachel Carlyon by Rachel Carlyon
18th September 2014
in Movie News
80 4
0
10 films featuring kids behaving badly
162
SHARES
649
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

As The Riot Club hits UK screens, we look at 10 other films where the kids weren’t all right.

As the song says, the children are our future, so what happens when they go bad? This week sees the release of new British film The Riot Club, about a notorious fellowship where privileged students are given carte blanche to run amok. Exploring the role of children and teenagers in society as a way to examine humanity’s flaws is a rich thematic well that cinema returns to often, which is why we find tales of misanthropic or just plain evil kids across many disparate genres. Here are 10 films were the kids are really not all right.

 

Who Can Kill a Child? (1976)

who can kill a child

A young couple arrive on an island inhabited by a tribe of silent, bloodthirsty children hell-bent on murder. The couple come to the realisation they must be willing to fight back against the children if they hope to survive. This Spanish shocker posits that, in a world sick with violence and apathy, even the most innocent of us will inevitably become monstrous, a theme that was first popularised by William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, to which this film owes an obvious debt.

 

The Lost Boys (1987)

the lost boys

Two teenage brothers move to a sleepy coastal town with their mother and discover the local biker gang are a nest of blood sucking vampires preying on the unsuspecting locals. Vampires get a 1980s makeover by way of the rebellious teenager myth popularised by James Dean – live fast, die young and leave a good looking (undead) corpse.

 

Eden Lake (2008)

eden lake

Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly are terrorised by a gang of hoodie-clad maniacs led by Jack O’Connell whilst on holiday in the English countryside. This taut hoodie horror was met with praise by many critics, while others alleged it reinforced negative social stereotypes. The film certainly exploits the idea of the teenager as ‘other’ by couching it in wider societal fears.

 

Village of the Damned (1960)

village-of-the-damned-original

After a mysterious event, local women give birth to identical blonde children who develop strange telepathic powers. This dark, paranoid tale asks us to face the possibility that there is something inherently dark and uncontrollably malevolent at the heart of our civilised world. If this is the case, the very notion of a social order becomes an academic exercise.

 

Kids (1995)

kids 1995

In their debut roles, Chloë Sevigny and Rosario Dawson hang out, get stoned and have uninhibited sex with their friends in this wildly controversial film from Larry Clark and Harmony Korine. Lifting the veil on the realities of the teenage lifestyle in such confronting ways was too much for some and sparked very heated debate, not only on the film’s artistic merit but also on Larry Clark’s intent as a filmmaker.

 

The White Ribbon (2009)

the white ribbon

Set in the period leading up to the First World War, this disturbing drama depicts a series of mysterious events befalling the townsfolk of a small village in Germany. Could the children be responsible? Michael Haneke’s film is a brutal examination of the origins of evil. The treatment of the children in the village and their subsequent retaliations suggest the never ending cycle of violence that absorbs the guilty and the innocent alike, reaching its inevitable apotheosis in global warfare.

 

Elephant (2003)

elephant

Best friends Alex and Eric gather up guns and ammunition and proceed to stalk through their high school, executing those who have bullied and marginalised them. Inspired by the Columbine massacre, Gus Van Sant’s unflinching look at high school violence is a cinematic triumph. Stripped of most conventional narrative devices, the film does not look away from the horror of the events and challenges the audience to do the same.

 

Battle Royale (2000)

battle royale

Japanese high schoolers are abducted and taken to an island where they are forced to hunt and kill each other until only one student remains. This pitch black satire looks at the way the modern world imposes its pressure on the young before they are psychologically or physically able to sustain it, in the only way a Japanese film knows how; with extreme violence.

 

if… (1968)

if

Students at a draconian boarding school in England resort to armed revolution to overthrow their oppressors. A scathing indictment of the British upper class and boarding schools in particular, Lindsay Anderson’s acerbic masterpiece is personified in Malcolm McDowell’s astonishing debut performance.

 

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

clockwork orange

Alex and his droogs terrorise the citizenry of a future Britain whose government instigates a new technique in behavioural conditioning to remove all criminal tendencies. Stanley Kubrick’s anarchic and unsettling satire presents a future where it is hard to distinguish between evils; are the marauding ultraviolent gangs the real scourge of society, or is it the government, who are more than willing to remove our freedom of choice to ensure our passivity?

 

Read more: 10 enormous comic talents that haven’t translated to film

 

Featured image: Artificial Eye

Inset images: American International Pictures; Warner Bros; Optimum Releasing; MGM; Buena Vista Pictures; Artificial Eye; Fine Line Features; Toei Company; Paramount Pictures; Columbia-Warner Distributors

Tags: A Clockwork OrangeChildrenfilmlist
Previous Post

Notes on Blood Simple

Next Post

What use is the MPAA now?

Next Post
What use is the MPAA now?

What use is the MPAA now?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

KNICKER SNIFFERThe ultimate prank by post

Readers Favourites

The week in trailers

The week in trailers

19th June 2014
128
3-year-old gets a glorious Chewbacca cake as part of her Star Wars-themed birthday

Why it’s time to embrace ‘unflattering’ fashion this summer

11th July 2017
152
Why do genres die?

Why do genres die?

13th January 2014
237
Game of Thrones recap: The Watchers on the Wall

Game of Thrones recap: The Watchers on the Wall

10th June 2014
179
Penny Dreadful recap: Grand Guignol

Penny Dreadful recap: Grand Guignol

8th July 2014
218
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
Menu
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Copyright © 2020 screenrobot.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Movie News
  • TV News
  • Gaming
    • Xbox Games
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
    • Amazon Prime
    • Now TV
    • Disney Plus
  • Trailers
  • Screen News

© 2020 Screen Robot

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.