The Bad Seed

Have we talked about this one? I don't remember.


Who remembers this one from the 50s, evil little girl kills people to get things she wants. Robert Englund once said this was mistakenly shown at a birthday party he was at as a kid instead of a western, and that for years he was terrified of girls with pigtails.

I found the movie in itself excruciating to get through especially with the girl being such a whiney yelling sugar-voice brat. But the ending makes it all worth it, I just love movies with happy endings.

ME! It was shown on daytime TV not long after it was released, so I was still pretty small when I first watched it. The subject matter was a ballzy movie for its time, and so creepy for such a simple low-budget setting.

Patty McCormick was a very pretty tow-headed child, and her acting in that role ~ because it was so dramatic ~ made it all the creepier. She killed the classmate and the old groundskeeper, who she knew did not trust her. I love this movie. Even MacCauley Culkins' "The Good Son" didn't hold a handle to this one.

how was it in comparison to the book? do you know?

I didn't make it through the whole book, only the first couple of chapters, the book was a lot edgier because it could get away with talking about things the movie couldn't, incest, castration, etc., and this is listed in the CHILDREN'S area of the library. I'll have to get that book again someday, only thing is I hate the books they make the print as small as possible and cram it all as close together as possible and that's what was done with this copy, so I suppose it's no wonder I didn't finish it.

Patty McCormack is still working and is now playing a grandmother. The movie was OK and yes there is a certain satisfaction with the ending but it was required and opposite what happened in the book IIRC. Sort of the opposite with the Stephen King novella and subsequent movie, Apt Pupil except I liked the way the story ended much better than the movie ending. I think more people would have liked No Country For Old Men if it had a similar ending to The Bad Seed.

I recall watching that on TV when I was a kid.

After the movie they had like a curtain call of the cast and the girl got an over-the-knee spanking, which is what everyone in those days considered appropriate for psychotic children.

I never knew there was a book. I may check into it.