King’s Kids: 12 Most Memorable Child Protagonists In Stephen King Movies

Carrie White is one of the most powerful on this list. A gentle and shy teenager, unfortunately, the daughter of a religious zealot, she didn't deserve the fate she was dealt. The movie is, after all, called Carrie. A teenager with a wild talent, a young person with formidable psychokinetic powers, she asked for little other than to be treated as a human being. Only when she is humiliated publicly at prom does she go on a rampage of destruction. Brian De Palma's fantastic and sensitive direction and the work of the cast, Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Betty Buckley, Nancy Allen, William Katt, John Travolta, P.J. Soles, and Piper Laurie makes Carrie one of the greatest young characters in King's canon period.

1979's TV miniseries adaptation of Salem's Lot, directed by Tobe Hooper, follows the book's plot closely. The miniseries' kids, namely, Mark Petrie, one of the book's heroes, and Danny and Ralphie Glick, who are early victims of Kurt Barlow, the head vampire, make the biggest impression in the miniseries. When you think of the most iconic scenes in horror, it's hard not to think of the midnight return of Ralphie and Danny Glick, played by Brad Savage as Danny Glick and Ronnie Scribner as Ralphie Glick, outside their intended victim's bedroom windows. Honestly, it's still creepy. Mark Petrie, as played by Lance Kerwin, is a powerful-minded opponent of Barlow who wants revenge for the deaths of his parents. Read more: 1983: Stephen King's Year Of Fear.

Danny Torrance, son of Wendy and Jack Torrance, is an impressively talented psychic with "The Shining" or "The Shining Lamp of God." The Overlook Hotel's evil force so covets his abilities that it is willing to seduce his father to gain control of the boy. Danny, having lived with his father's alcoholism and under the good influence of his mother, is bright and capable. While escaping his father in the Overlook's maze, his actions never fail to impress.

Georgie Denbrough is the catalyst for The Losers Club's battle with Pennywise the Dancing Clown. After his disappearance, his brother Bill struggles with guilt, feeling responsible for his brother's death. The scenes with Georgie's encounter with Pennywise are one of the series and film's most disturbing moments, along with Georgie's return as one of the many faces of Pennywise. Tony Dakota played Georgie in the 1990 adaptation and Jackson Robert Scott in the 2017 and 2019 adaptations. Read more: Dee Wallace On Her Most Difficult Role: Cujo 40 Years Later.

Issac Chroner, the child prophet of Children of the Corn, is one of the most unforgettable characters in Stephen King's films. I still believe that the excellent performance of John Franklin is one of the reasons why the movie is still so popular. It's the reason that the series is still making sequels nearly forty years later. The most recent film was released in 2020. Franklin has a cold stare that few kids have, which works perfectly for the role.

One thing that Stephen King has never been afraid to do is to kill off any character, even beloved characters, kids, and pets. One good example of this is Pet Semetary, both of the adaptations in 1989 and 2019. While the child's identity taken by the evil force in the Pet Sematary changes, its effect on the Creed family and the audience doesn't change. It takes a wonderfully talented child to play an evil character, and Jeté Laurence and Miko Hughes both brought a chill to their respective films. Read more: Mike Flanagan Says His Adaptation Of The Dark Tower Is Still Very Much In Play.

The Grady Sister's appearance in Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining has to rank as one of the most iconic images in cinema ever. It's just two young and unsmiling girls standing in a hallway, but Kubrick and the two young twin actresses, Lisa and Louise Burns, make it a heart-stopping moment of terror. They aren't doing anything, but they project such menace and strangeness that you can't tear your eyes away. It's not them; it's the face of the hotel, making it even more frightening.

Courtney Gains' work as Malachai Boardman, the young assassin for He Who Walks Behind The Rows, is undoubtedly the other reason why they are still making Children of the Corn movies into the new millennium. Gains has had a long and varied career after making such a frightening impression in Children of the Corn and has most recently starred in The Wrath of Becky. Gains has said that he feels that people still fear Malachai and that he managed to unnerve his parents with his performance.

Both iterations of the kids in The Loser's Club, in both adaptations of Stephen King's It, are incredible. Both groups were cast so well that the films seem most alive when focusing on the kids and their run-ins with Pennywise the Clown. The group comprises leader Bill Denbrough, Eddie Kaspbrak, Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh, Richie Tozier, and Stan Uris. In 1990, they were played by Jonathan Brandis, Adam Faraizl, Brandon Crane, Emily Perkins, Seth Green, and Ben Heller. The 2017 film and 2019 sequel cast was Jaeden Lieberher, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, and Wyatt Oleff.

Charlie McGee is another psychically gifted child, this time with the ability to control heat and set fires with her mind. This pyrokinetic ability was passed on to her by her parents, Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson, who were part of a government project that gave them an experimental hallucinogen. Charlie's father can control other people's minds, and her mother could read minds. As played by Drew Barrymore and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Charlie is a small child with an indomitable will.

Kyliegh Curran, as Abra Stone in Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Doctor Sleep, is a telepath with an even greater power than Danny Torrance from The Shining. Naturally, Abra attracts the notice of The True Knot, a group of twisted psychics who feed off psychically gifted children they torment to extract their "steam." The True Knot has found the secret to immortality by stealing psychic essence, but those children with the power have become rare. Abra makes contact with the adult Danny through telepathy.

Billy Hopkins is the child whose angry father reprimands him for reading scary comic books in the wraparound segment. He is particularly memorable for his delight in using a voodoo doll to punish his father for throwing away his comic book. The second reason is that he is played by Joe Hill, Stephen King's son, who later became an acclaimed writer in his own right.