“Children can be nasty, don’t you think?”
I’m not sure if The Bad Seed was the first creepy kid movie, but it was certainly the most popular. The 1956 film comes off the heels of a novel, which was turned into a stage play that ran for over 300 performances. America had Bad Seed fever, and the only cure was more of The Bad Seed! That’s not even mentioning the multiple remakes of this film, or the art it almost certainly inspired: Pet Sematary, The Omen, The Good Son, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Village of the Damned, the name of Nick Cave’s band. While Mervyn Leroy’s film isn’t scary by today’s standards, it still stands up as something that can transcend the genre of camp and offer a serious meditation on the nature of evil.
I probably don’t even need to get into the plot specifics (I’m sure you can guess them correctly), but here goes: little Rhoda Penmark is the perfect little girl. She curtseys to her elders, plays the piano, and is a good student, only narrowly missing out on a gold medal for penmanship. When the boy who won the medal, Claude Daigle, dies in a freak accident, things start to go awry. Rhoda’s teacher says that Rhoda was bothering Claude, trying to get the medal, which has gone missing from his body.
Now, savvy viewers – or even pretty dumb ones – will know right away that Rhoda killed Claude over something she believed she deserved. To The Bad Seed‘s credit, it doesn’t shy away from this; I mean, just look at the title. The drama is more personal than horrific, as we are watching the dissolution of a family, and of a woman’s mind. That woman is Christine Penmark, Rhoda’s mother, who slowly comes to terms with the fact that her daughter is not just a killer, but possibly – probably – completely without pity or remorse. Nancy Kelly (Oscar-nominated for the role) does solid work against Patty McCormack (also nominated) as Rhoda, but is left dangling in the wind elsewhere.
At times it is glaringly obvious that not only was this adapted from a stage play, but the cast was brought over from Broadway as well. Director Leroy gave Kelly little direction or feedback, which explains the stagey theatricality of her performance. This is true of McCormack as well, although not nearly as obviously. Eight-year-olds, after all, are prone to yelling and fits of pique.
The best performance belongs to Eileen Heckart, playing Hortense Daigle, the dead boy’s mother. She only has two scenes in the movie, but absolutely dominates both of them. She plays Mrs. Daigle as a run-down drunk, unafraid to admit when she’s drank half a bottle, and equally unafraid to admit that she knows Christine knows more than she is telling. It’s scenes like these that elevate The Bad Seed above camp, and put a human face to tragedy and grief. Equally good is Henry Jones as Leroy, the apartment handyman who sees through Rhoda’s mask, mainly because he wears one two (he pretends to be dimmer than he is). The scenes with Leroy and Rhoda going toe to toe are some of the tensest.
Like a lot of movies of this era, The Bad Seed drags along at times (before ending hilariously abruptly). 129 minutes should definitely have been 90; what you’re looking at here is someone adapting a stage play and not excising a single scene. It’s more than occasionally melodramatic, and its nature vs. nurture discussion of evil, while at times well-measured, is undeniably dated, and holds up about as well as a pair of calipers. But you have to consider context when talking about The Bad Seed. Movies like this weren’t really being made in 1956; twists that we can spot from a mile away were shocking at the time. It’s nice to see that horror has always been transgressive. Plus, this movie arguably started a genre, and it deserves commendation for that.
Thursday, 10/1: Phantasm
Friday, 10/2: Frozen
Saturday, 10/3: Suspiria
Sunday, 10/4: Suspiria (2018)
Monday, 10/5: Emelie
Tuesday, 10/6: Castle Freak
Wednesday, 10/7: Session 9
Thursday, 10/8: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Friday, 10/9: We Are Still Here
Saturday, 10/10: The Changeling
Sunday, 10/11: The Bad Seed
Monday, 10/12: Verotika
Tuesday, 10/13: The Legend of Hell House
Wednesday, 10/14: Lake Mungo
Thursday, 10/15: Puppetmaster
Friday, 10/16: Marrowbone
Saturday, 10/17: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Sunday, 10/18: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Monday, 10/19: Sweetheart
Tuesday, 10/20: Girl On the Third Floor
Wednesday, 10/21: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Thursday, 10/22: Triangle
Friday, 10/23: Dog Soldiers
Saturday, 10/24: Noroi: The Curse
Sunday, 10/25: Train to Busan
Monday, 10/26: Tales From the Hood
Tuesday, 10/27: Mandy
Wednesday, 10/28: Sometimes They Come Back
Thursday, 10/29: Veronica
Friday, 10/30: The Wicker Man
Saturday, 10/31: Child’s Play
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