Old-School Horror Movie Kids Who Are Unrecognizable Now

There's something about having a child drive a horror plot forward that makes a film much creepier than having a stock poltergeist figure do the job. Cinema has long relied on young actors and their gullible demeanors to drum up complex kinds of dread within the supernatural genre in a way that traditional devices like jump scares and gory scenes can't. And luckily enough for directors in the field, there has been no dearth of deeply talented young actors who have successfully essayed complicated horror roles with maturity that transcends far beyond their age. 

From Patty McCormack's portrayal of a young murderess in "The Bad Seed" in 1956, to Haley Joel Osment's disquieting role as a recluse in 1999's "The Sixth Sense," a long legacy of junior actors have occupied this exclusive niche that still manages to give audiences the chills. Here's what the most iconic old-school horror movie kids look like and what they're up to now. 

Linda Blair was only 14 when she took on the seminal role of Regan MacNeil that would terrify generations to come. "The Exorcist" — widely held as one of the scariest films to ever be made — marked a milestone as distinct in Hollywood as it did in Blair's career, which was only just starting out in 1973 when the horror film was released. Public reaction to the film swung between extremes, with the role earning young Blair fame and infamy in equal measure. "Everyone felt like I was the devil. People were unnerved by me," she told Today in 2023, recalling the far-reaching impact her head-swiveling, soup-vomiting role elicited. 

It hardly discouraged Blair from pursuing the acting path, however, and she continued down it for decades after. While her credits spanned the breadth of both film and television across themes, horror stood out as her crowning achievement and she established herself as a leading scream queen with titles like "Stranger in Our House," "Grotesque," and "Hell Night." As the grand dame of the genre, Blair was consulted on the 2023 reboot of "The Exorcist" to make sure that the young cast felt protected while carrying the film's difficult legacy on their backs. Though guest appearances on television shows populate her latest filmography, Blair has all but retired from acting; today, the little girl from "The Exorcist" chooses to dedicate a major part of her time to animal rights. She told NBC Insider, "I kind of unknowingly left the business because I gave my word to the animals." 

Danny Lloyd is a biology professor in Kentucky and, it would seem, a man with a regular life. To the uninitiated, it would be hard to believe that Lloyd was once in the thick of Hollywood fame as the child star of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror classic "The Shining." He breathed life into the namesake character of Danny Torrance, the 5-year-old psychic boy conceptualized by Stephen King for his original book that inspired the film. 

While it is Jack Nicholson who is largely synonymous with the film's celebrated legacy, Lloyd was just as much at the center of the plot that has continued to discompose audiences for nearly half a century. Lloyd, however, was not immediately aware of the epoch-making film's significance or impact. "In the beginning, I didn't know it was a scary movie," he said, per Calgary Herald, revealing that he slowly caught on when he wasn't always permitted to come to set. 

Cinema-goers were ready to see more from Lloyd but after a minor role in the television film "Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy" and a burnout from long audition processes, Lloyd bowed out of entertainment. "What happened to me was I didn't really do much else after the film," he explained simply to The Guardian. He did briefly return to screen for a cameo in the 2019 film "Doctor Sleep," a sequel to Kubrick's original, but has simultaneously admitted that his film past doesn't take center stage in his life. 

He came, he scared, he left. That has more or less been Harvey Spencer Stephens' career graph as a horror film icon. He wasn't more than 5 years old when he transformed into devil child Damien Thorn for Richard Donner's 1976 classic "The Omen," winning against 500 boys to clinch the role. The enormity of the moment was lost on little Stephens, who only stepped into showbiz by fluke on the back of his model sister's career. Notwithstanding his naivete, and flanked by Golden Age stars Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, Stephens delivered an acclaimed performance that catapulted him into the spotlight. Being associated with the Antichrist did little to make Stephens' school days easier.

"I was lucky for a few years, nobody could see the film. When it first came out I was left alone, but at about 10 or 11 it then started to come on to terrestrial television, then it started," he said in an interview (via YouTube). Despite everything, Stephens recalled it as an enjoyable period in his life. It didn't stimulate him to pick up acting full-time, however, and after just one other role in "Gauguin the Savage" (and later a small cameo in the 2006 remake of "The Omen"), he retired from showbiz for good, later opting for a career in futures trading (via The Guardian). In 2017, he made an unexpected return to the public eye following a road rage incident, in which he got into a heated altercation with two cyclists in Kent, England, that earned him a suspended prison sentence. 

In 1989, Miko Hughes brought the character of young Gage Creed to life on the big screen in "Pet Sematary." The sinister storyline — adapted from horror maestro Stephen King's original book of the same name — hinged on Hughes' role as a 2-year-old devil incarnate who terrorizes his own family after being revived from the dead. Given that Hughes himself was 3 at the time and only just debuting in films, the success with which "Pet Sematary" managed to unsettle audiences was no small feat. Funnily enough, Hughes was more or less oblivious to the full extent of the horror film until he was much older. "I had seen some of the scenes that I was in growing up, but I didn't sit down and watch the whole thing until I was about 12," he told The Convention Junkies in 2019.  

He made up for scaring viewers by turning over to comedy soon after, impressing as a child actor in films like "Kindergarten Cop" and taking on the television role of Aaron Bailey in "Full House," thanks to which pop culture was blessed with a wealth of meme material. He accumulated a long list of acting credits through the '90s and 2000s, eventually switching out his front-facing performances with production work. "I'm more behind the camera now," he said in an interview with The Horror Nerd in 2021, revealing that he dabbled in everything from television to music videos. 

Patty McCormack is nothing short of a Hollywood institution, with an acting career that spans seven decades. While she went on to build an impressive roster of credits over that period — with appearances in acclaimed productions like "The Miracle Worker" and "The Sopranos," to name a couple — her most defining work came about early on in her life, when she was 9 and first stepped into the shoes of psychopathic child killer Rhoda Penmark. After immortalizing the iconic character in Broadway's production of William March's play "The Bad Seed," McCormack reprised her role in the 1956 film adaptation, blowing a whole new set of audiences away with her performance. 

The acclaim culminated in an Oscar nomination and eventually a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for McCormack, who is still counted among the youngest-ever honorees in both leagues. Though McCormack continued to dabble in acting — committing a huge chunk of her talent to theater, with one of her most recent outings being Paul Osborn's acclaimed play "Morning's at Seven" — she was apparently clear about not chasing stardom too fervidly. "I didn't become blindly ambitious for that success the rest of my life because I found it so early," she said, per The Spectrum. "So I've been happy taking the roles that I wanted because they were just enjoyable to play." 

Haley Joel Osment's expressive eyes and unnervingly quiet screen presence were enough to relay the horrors contained in the 1999 psychological thriller "The Sixth Sense." As 9-year-old Cole Sear who could see dead people, Osment delivered an iconic performance that all but upstaged even those of his more seasoned co-actors Bruce Willis and Toni Collette. It earned him wide acclaim as one of the most talented child actors Hollywood had seen. The unanimous praise translated into an Oscar nomination for 11-year-old Osment, who became one of the youngest artists to ever be honored by the Academy. 

Osment's early stardom — which kicked off on a high note with an adorable debut in "Forrest Gump," and later distinction following "The Sixth Sense" and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" — lay the groundwork for his long journey in acting, which continues to this day across formats, from film to television and even video game voice roles. He did step away from the limelight for a while, making a well-timed move to New York in the 2000s when the showbiz culture in Los Angeles became a bit too overwhelming for his taste. It hardly dimmed his passion for acting, though, with Osment telling E! News: "It's still a job that I really enjoy, despite all the uncertainty and the difficulty of being able to plan your life three to six months out." Haley Joel Osment is still acting today; he was most recently seen in Zoë Kravitz's 2024 directorial debut "Blink Twice."

Over four decades have passed since "The Shining" was released, but Lisa and Louise Burns continue to haunt viewers as the Grady sisters — and they seem to revel in their spooky reputation. Across social media, they proudly distinguish themselves as the "Shining Twins" and frequently partake in the film's unyielding legacy by talking about their time on Stanley Kubrick's set. "We're naturally spooky! But we did practice our timing — saying things in unison — and we worked on saying our lines in a hollow, other-worldly kind of way a number of times," they recalled for Cosmopolitan. 

The Burns sisters were around 12 when they worked on the film and were, rather impressively, able to stomach the disturbing storyline and bloody graphics surrounding the Grady twins, who were axed by their father. "We saw people in scary makeup but it always felt more like we were at an elaborate fancy dress party," they said. While they didn't make any major acting appearances after "The Shining," the Burns sisters continued to be seen at offline horror conventions and seemingly found their own pop culture niche on social media as well. They made headlines in 2022 following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, whom they lined up to pay their last respects to. 

Christina Ricci was not the originator of Wednesday Addams — a character that had been popularized on screen long before she was even born. But many would agree that Ricci was almost single-handedly responsible for giving cartoonist Charles Addams' creation its legendary status in pop culture, after joining the cast of the 1991 horror comedy "The Addams Family." 

She was 12 when the film was released, playing the role to such macabre perfection that even over three decades and varied iterations later, she is the actor most closely associated with Wednesday — even though she has gracefully surrendered the character to successors like Jenna Ortega. "I'm now 44 years old, so I don't have a feeling of ownership over the character the way that I think some people might imagine," Ricci told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2024 interview. 

It's not surprising, since Ricci's golden streak in showbiz continued well post "The Addams Family." She made an equally memorable impact with the older lead roles she played in "The Ice Storm," "The Opposite of Sex," "Now and Then," and "Sleepy Hollow." Episodic appearances on shows like "Grey's Anatomy" and "The Good Wife," meanwhile, sustained Ricci's fame on television where one of her most major milestones came in 2021 with the thriller series "Yellowjackets," which she headlines. 

Macaulay Culkin's distinction as one of the most beloved child actors of all time is linked significantly to his role as Kevin McCallister in "Home Alone." While being part of the cast of the '90s Christmas franchise was definitely central to his stardom, Culkin's talent traversed other genres as well. Right after his "Home Alone" success, he starred in the 1993 thriller "The Good Son," playing the sinister Henry Evans whose deranged tendencies are masked by Culkin's famously sweet childhood face. In fact, for director Joseph Ruben, aligning the two contrasts was a major task. "For me, sort of challenging about the movie is that Mac is this sunny, very upbeat, very positive kid. And here he's playing the dark side of all this," he said in an interview (via YouTube). 

Atypical as it was for Culkin, the film became a memorable part of his vast repertoire of entertainment credits, which ranged from films to music videos to television shows, and even an experimental comedy rock band called The Pizza Underground. While Culkin all but retreated from mainstream film acting, he continues to remain a fan-favorite pop culture fixture, due also in part to his own social media throwbacks to his childhood glory. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023, with his on-screen mom Catherine O'Hara speaking at the ceremony in a viral moment that pulled at the heartstrings of fans everywhere. The event was also attended by his partner Brenda Song, with whom he shares two children. 

"Children of the Corn," yet another Stephen King adaptation, was a horror film to reckon with when it came out in 1984 because it featured not one child villain, but a whole town full of them. Leading the army of evil kids was actor John Franklin, who was in the role of incendiary preacher Isaac, the primary conduit for the supernatural entity known only as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." Franklin was in his 20s when he played 12-year-old Isaac, affected by a growth hormone deficiency. "Always being short, I felt different and would get comments from other kids, and now I had suddenly found my niche," he told The Chicago Tribune in 1991. 

After his menacing iteration in "Children of the Corn," Franklin took on a lighter role, albeit in the horror genre, as Cousin Itt in the 1991 film "The Addams Family." He continued working through the '90s, visibly slowing down his work as the century turned. During an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Network, he revealed that he stepped back from showbiz after multiple personal tragedies prompted him to reflect on his legacy: "I've entertained millions through the years, but is that all that I want written on my tombstone or my obituary? I just decided then, I need a break, I need to get away." He embarked on a teaching career that lasted well over a decade and after retiring, made his way back to acting and writing. 

In 1988, the iconic "Halloween" film franchise took a turn when it switched out its adult protagonist Jamie Lee Curtis with 11-year-old Danielle Harris. The young actor — narratively the daughter of Curtis' Laurie Strode — played the role of Jamie Lloyd, who became slasher villain Michael Myers' primary target in the fourth and fifth instalments of the film. Facing off with one of the most iconic horror antagonists didn't alarm Harris, who had other troubles on her mind. "I was more worried about being a good, little actress and being able to cry and scream really good," she told MovieWeb.

Though she starred in other notable titles during her youth — from comedies like "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" to emotional dramas like "Free Willy" — the "Halloween" franchise continued to be the crowning jewel in Harris' filmography. More so, because she remained attached to the film's legacy throughout the years by reprising her roles as Jamie and later Annie Brackett at different points in her career. Even as she explored other artistic avenues — including direction, voiceovers, and production — Harris continued to pursue her passion for acting, with one of her most notable recent credits being for Quentin Tarantino's star-studded film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," in which she played a member of Charles Manson's cult. 

Pamela Franklin was around 11 when she was assigned the role of little Flora, one half of the sibling pair possessed by ghosts who were romantically involved in the twisted 1961 psychological horror film "The Innocents." The Jack Clayton directorial, inspired by the 19th century novella "The Turn of the Screw," marked Franklin's screen debut — and it's safe to say that she pulled it off convincingly. The film has long been cited as one of the best horror flicks to ever have been made and, while its success hinged significantly on Deborah Kerr's performance, it was instrumental in laying the foundation for Franklin's future acting success.

After "The Innocents," the British actor entertained in roles that aligned with her youthful age, before making a more mature breakthrough with films like "The Nanny," "Eagle in a Cage," and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." The latter, which starred Maggie Smith in the lead, was an award-winning vehicle and especially momentous for Franklin's career. It set her up for a good run at the cinemas and on the small screen through the '70s, during which Franklin further cemented her place as a horror scream queen. Despite the early acclaim she earned in the field, Franklin eventually eschewed acting in favor of a quieter life away from the spotlight. She is married to former actor Harvey Jason, who owns the famous Sunset Boulevard vintage bookshop Mystery Pier Books.