The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema: Youth Rebellion and Queer Spectatorship

Drawing together film theory, queer theory, childhood studies, and reception studies, The Revolting Child in Horror Film examines the "revolting child" in such films as The Bad Seed, Village of the Damned, Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and The Omen. It argues that monstrous child stands in for the queer child by taking on its various incarnations: the child with a secret, the child "taken over" by monstrosity in adolescence, the changeling child, and the cabal of queer youth. The child monster is both revolting and repellant, and yet is also a body in revolt against patriarchal institutions like state, family, and religion. As such, they offer a variety of subject positions for the spectator: from a pedophobic rage directed at children to a queer identification with the revolting child and against a heteronormative culture. Indeed, the cinema of revolting children allows us to have our child and beat it too.