Child Murderers



"My reign of terror was legendary. Dozens of children would fall by my blades."

- Words from the story of Freddy Krueger (as told by Freddy himself) about how many children he murdered in the town of Springwood.

Child Murderers (also referred to as Child Killers) is a particular and (often) controversial trope on villains who kill, or at least attempt to kill a child, baby or, to some extent, teenagers. These villains are almost unilaterally considered to be the worst of the worst (with the serial rapists and slavers), even if they only attempted to commit this act.

Since the act of murdering a child is extremely shocking and controversial, child murders are rarely featured on-screen and usually only implied (or at least the hideous details are not explicited, or subdued in order to make the scene easier to support), even in horror works, although many notable exceptions exist such as American Psycho (in the book only).

Why are These Characters So Disturbing?
To kill a child or a baby is a very cruel and atrocious crime that a villain could commit, because that goes agains the very principles of humanity and compassion, as children are (except for the ones that are also evil) embodiment of sweetness and innocence.

In addition, this is highly dishonorable as babies are completely defenseless and children cannot defend themselves against an adult.

Even worse, many of these characters are pedophiles who have absolutely no redeeming qualities, and are likely to be purely evil.

It is also shown that child murderer having a huge hatred towards children.