Toy Story
As recommended by: jimmidill
Andy's skateboarding neighbour and enthusiastic toy-torturer. He attempts unsuccessfully to launch Buzz into space on a rocket, and is subsequently forced by his toys to 'play nice' Photograph: Pixar
South Park
As recommended by: JoannaDark, ID430169, manunkind and others
A psychopathic, manipulative and un-PC elementary school pupil, Cartman is aggressive, prejudiced, and lives with his mother, Liane. Before you ask, he's not fat, he's big-boned Photograph: PR
Benny's Video
As recommended by: Tystnaden
The eponymous character in Michael Haneke's 1992 film, Benny views reality through videos and games, and this disconnection leads him to commit a horrible crime Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar
The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel)
As recommended by: professorprofessor
The protagonist in Günter Grass's 1959 novel and the 1979 film based on it, Oskar, a native of Danzig, exhibits a particularly warped species of Peter-Pannery: born with an adult's mind, he wills himself to retain a child's physical form Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar
The Ring/Ring
As recommended by: ID4363781, thecheesyboy, elmondo2012 and others
Samara/Sadako was killed by her father and thrown down a well. A videotape of her carries a curse, fatal to anyone who view it. As a poster for the film has it, 'Before you die, you see'. The films are based on the novel by Koji Suzuki Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar
Harry Potter films
As recommended by: Steven Row
Harry's term-time scourge, Draco is a quintessential Slytherin bully: he's unduly proud of his pure-blood credentials, and followed everywhere by his slow-witted henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle Photograph: Jaap Buitendjik
As recommended by: CaptainGrey
Based on John Wyndham's 1957 novel, The Midwich Cuckoos, Village of the Damned depicts a mysterious, village-wide period of unconsciousness, followed by a mass birthing: all Midwich women of child-bearing age give birth on the same day. The resulting brood are cold and precocious, and are gradually revealed to have unusual mental powers. Like Oskar Matzerath, their peculiarly adult behaviour is especially disconcerting Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar
The Turn of the Screw
As recommended by: awilcox1, Lauren Rushen, Euphobia1
Miles and Flora's story is recounted in the diary of their unnamed governess, a neurotic spinster living on a lonely estate. Like the children in the Village of the Damned, Miles and Flora are unusually precocious. Their governess comes to believe that they are possessed by two ghosts, and attempts to exorcise them. The story has been adapted many times, notably on stage in The Innocents (1950), written by William Archibald Photograph: BBC
The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane
As recommended by ID7689080
The eponymous little girl – a juvenile murderess – was played in the 1976 film by Jodie Foster. Though Foster was only 14 at the time, she'd already received an Academy nomination (for Taxi Driver). The film was written by Laird Koenig and based on his own novel of the same name Photograph: PR
It's Alive
As recommended by: Bastinado
'There's only one thing wrong with the Davis baby,' reads the poster for Larry Cohen's 1974 horror. Born to Frank and Lenore, the baby in question is murderous, and unusually mobile for a newborn. As Bastinado succinctly puts it, 'Straight out of the womb and this kid kills a room full of doctors' Photograph: PR
