HOT GALLERY: Where Are These Creepy Kid Stars of Horror Movies Now?

It’s hard to believe, but Dakota Fanning was already a veteran by the time she played Emily in Hide and Seek—which was released when she was only 10 years old. Of course, her fans had never seen her like this before, with her haunted, tragic demeanor. Along with a stellar cast including Robert De Niro, Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue, and Melissa Leo, Fanning proved she could go dark. That said, she was typically sweet and adorable in pigtails and a hoodie giving interviews for the movie, grinning as she said, “It’s a scary movie, and I’m glad when people are scared, I guess!”

The same year Hide and Seek came out, Fanning also starred in one of the year’s biggest blockbusters, the Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise remake of War of the Worlds. Since then, her career has skyrocketed: She has starred in The Secret Life of Bees, The Runaways, and the Twilight Saga series (as well as offering the voice of Coraline in the wonderful stop-motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel). Next up (among other projects) is the title role in Emma Thompson’s period piece Effie Gray.

There are horror movies, and then there is the horror movie directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on a Stephen King book, starring Jack Nicholson, that remains as chilling and visually stunning as when it was made more than three decades ago. In The Shining, we saw a man unraveling and a family trying desperately to stay alive (and sane). As Jack’s son, Danny Lloyd rode his Big Wheel around the haunted hotel and encountered visions such as that infamous scene with the dead girls who implore him, “Come and play with us, Danny, forever and ever and ever.”

Making The Shining was by all indications a positive experience for the 6-year-old—Kubrick apparently went out of his way to protect him on-set; for years, Lloyd didn’t even realize that it was a horror movie. But Lloyd was just about done with moviemaking—he had one more credit, in a TV movie about G. Gordon Liddy, and then left it all behind to live a normal life, eventually becoming a science teacher in the Midwest. He almost never appears in the public eye in association with the movie—in fact, he’s gone out of his way to make it clear that he wants nothing to do with the hubbub around it. That’s why it was particularly rare that he appeared at a 2009 signing event—he reportedly agreed to it because the proceeds benefited the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

You watch a videotape. You get a mysterious phone call. A week later, a very creepy drowned young girl (played by Daveigh Chase) crawls out of the TV and scares you to death—literally. When The Ring was released in 2002, it resonated with audiences in a big way, not least of all because we’re so reliant on our screens and phones that it’s horrifying to contemplate them turning against us (though the concept of a videotape seems rather quaint in the days of digital streaming on demand).

Daveigh Chase had a number of small roles on TV series (ER, Charmed) and TV movies (notably the notorious Michael Landon, the Father I Knew, Michael Landon Jr.’s detailing of being abandoned by his famous dad) before two years dramatically changed the course of her career. In 2001, she had a small part in the cult hit Donnie Darko and voiced the lead in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. Then in 2002, she went scary-drowned-girl in The Ring and animated-Hawaiian-heroine in Lilo & Stitch. She has since reprised the character on Lilo & Stitch: The Series and had a more grown-up role on Big Love (which also featured her exceptional singing).

Osment began his career at the very young age of four racking up roles in commercials, TV shows and acted alongside Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. Playing the eerie Cole Sear in The Sixth Sense was Osment's breakout role scaring audiences all over the world. He was even nominated for an Academy Award for the film!

After The Sixth Sense Osment blew up in Hollywood starring in no fewer than five projects between 1999-2001 including A.I. He's worked steadily ever since including a roles in the Amazon series Alpha House and the upcoming Entourage movie.

"You have been warned." So read the tagline for the scariest hit of 1976, The Omen, which featured an unexpected embodiment of the ultimate evil: a young boy. Damien, the Antichrist (played by Harvey Spencer Stephens), was just an ordinary kid—except, you know, for all of the death and mayhem that followed him (including his mother, his unborn sibling, his nanny, his priest...).

“It’s a difficult thing to live down,” Harvey Spencer Stephens told a reporter from The (London) Mirror a few years back. “I’ll always be associated with Damien, spawn of Satan. It was just three or four months out of my life, but I can’t forget it.” He’s tried though, having made few additional on-screen appearances, notably the 1980 TV movie Gauguin the Savage and a cameo in the 2006 remake of The Omen. Stephens has worked as a futures trader in the London stock market and as a property developer in Kent, England.

A couple (Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard) adopt a, shall we say, somewhat unusual orphan girl, Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman). Of course, it turns out that what seems like an unnatural level of maturity for a 9-year-old is just that; she’s actually a deeply disturbed thirtysomething-year-old woman with a medical condition that keeps her looking like a child (and contributes to her killing sprees when she doesn’t end up with a “perfect” family). “She just wants to find love,” Fuhrman explained of her on-screen alter ego. “Esther is my home girl.”

Since making a major impression on audiences in Orphan, Fuhrman has loaned her voice to The Cleveland Show and Sammy’s Adventures and played hard-trained tribute Clove in The Hunger Games. She played Clove inThe Hunger Games.

A kind of evil preacher, Isaac—played by John Franklin—is the leader of the cult of children who serve “He Who Walks Behind the Rows” and attempt to sacrifice all adults who happen to pass through their Nebraska town. His “apostles” eventually turn on him, and he himself becomes a sacrifice to the demon.

After Children of the Corn, Franklin had memorable guest roles on Kids Incorporated (check out the glitter!) and as Arnie on Highway to Heaven. He played Cousin Itt in two Addams Family movies and both starred in and cowrote the screenplay for Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return. Now using his birth name, John Salapatek, he put his former experience to good use as a teacher of English and, notably, screenwriting at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita, California.

Few horror movies have had such an indelible cultural impact as The Exorcist. For the time, the special effects were disturbingly real. And let’s admit it: The sight of Regan (played by Linda Blair) spider-walking down the stairs is still enough to keep you up at night—not to mention the head-spinning scene!

For her role in The Exorcist, Blair won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar. She later appeared in movies like Roller Boogie and Hell Night, as well as TV series including Fantasy Island and The Love Boat, but was as much in the public eye for her personal life. A passionate animal-rights activist, she is a longtime PETA supporter and created the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation to care for rescue animals in Los Angeles. In recent years, she has appeared in a number of reality series, including The Scariest Places on Earth and Pit Boss.

Another movie based on the work of horror mastermind Stephen King, Pet Sematary may also possess (so to speak) one of the sickest concepts: A heartbroken father schemes to reanimate his dead toddler by burying him in a mystical cemetery. The results are predictably gruesome. Miko Hughes was not even 3 years old when he played Gage, the evil, undead boy.

Since Pet Sematary—which was, not surprisingly, his first role—Hughes has worked steadily, both in movies (Kindergarten Cop, Apollo 13, Mercury Rising) and TV shows (Melrose Place, Full House, Life with Louie, Boston Public). Among his hobbies are DJ’ing, playing poker, and beekeeping.