Monstrous kids in Spanish horror films. A classification approach

Abstract

This paper aims to develop a classification of monstrous children in Spanish horror cinema that is not based on generic nor thematic criteria, but on the way that adult characters and the audience confront this menace. In order to do so, we will draw from Bohlmann and Moreland’s definition of the monstrous (2015, pp. 17-18), who argue that the main feature of these children is non other than the cognitive shock produced by their mere existence. The signs of their Otherness are thus consequence of our inability to distinguish the reality of the children from an impossible ideal of innocence and purity, or rather proof that adults have failed in their duty of protecting them. To illustrate this proposal, the paper will use five representative Spanish horror movies as its analyzed corpus: REC (Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, 2007), Who can kill a child? (Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, 1976), Orphan (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2009), The Orphanage (Juan Antonio Bayona, 2007) and The Devil’s Backbone (Guillermo del Toro, 2001).