In the horror genre, kids are forced to learn about death and the darkness of the world the hard way. Today, I’m sharing some of the most traumatized kids in the horror genre. These are some of the kids who need some serious therapy after the traumatizing events they were put through. I hope you enjoy and let me know who should be added to the list!! (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

Virginia Wainwright – Happy Birthday To Me

Poor Virginia (Melissa Sue Anderson) was pulled into a world of pain over things she didn’t even know about. She lost her mother at a young age, suffered a severe head injury that took a long time to recover from, and forgot about what happened. Things were good for a while until her friends started disappearing and she started to believe that she was responsible. In reality, her best friend, Ann (Tracey E. Bregman) was really her sister and SHE was the one killing all their friends and framing her for it. She barely had time to process that her father wasn’t really her father before Ann tried to kill her. Then RIGHT after she killed Ann, the authorities came in and saw Virginia with all of those dead bodies. She undoubtedly paid for a horrific crime that she never committed.

Jesse Walsh – A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge

After moving into a house on Elm Street, Jesse (Mark Patton) started getting targeted by a deceased child murderer and dream demon named Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Freddy wanted to possess Jesse’s body to kill everyone he could. Jesse was forced to do some horrible things for Freddy. He was almost sexually assaulted by his coach, he had to watch his best friend die, and he had parents that were just useless the whole time he was going through this. It’s a good thing Jesse had someone who not only believed him, but actually helped him fight Freddy from the inside. Otherwise, Freddy would’ve won and there would’ve been a lot more dead kids. Still, Jesse will forever live with the memory of what Freddy made him do.

Daniel Matthews – Saw II

Because his father was a crooked cop who destroyed a lot of lives, Daniel (Erik Knudsen) was targeted by one of the most sadistic killers in their city, Jigsaw (Tobin Bell). He was trapped inside a rigged house with all the convicts his father framed and they were all slowly dying by a deadly toxin they were breathing in. He had to watch all of these people die in such horrible ways and he was even forced to kill one of the convicts in self defense. The one person he thought he could trust, Amanda (Shawnee Smith) turned out to be an accomplice of Jigsaw’s all along. He was left tied up in a giant safe with oxygen for God knows how long. I just felt so bad for this kid. He didn’t deserve to pay for what his father did.

Max & Daniel Coleman – Orphan

After suffering a terrible loss of one of her children, Kate Coleman (Vera Farmiga) wanted to adopt a child and she and her husband felt an immediate connection with a young girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman). These kids really went through some stuff! At just 4 years old, Max (Aryana Engineer) witnessed Esther kill a nun from the orphanage AND her father. She was almost killed in a car after Esther tampered with it, and Esther tried to shoot her. Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) had it even worse. Esther threatened to castrate him, trapped him in a burning treehouse where he almost almost died getting out. THEN in the hospital, Esther suffocated him and luckily, they were able to revive him. Max might be young enough that she’d possibly forget a good chunk of it over time, but Daniel will never forget about their crazy sister.

Kassie Bixler – Evil Dead Rise

After an earthquake shook up their apartment building, Kassie’s (Nell Fisher) brother found a strange book and records that unleashed demons on their entire floor. With the exception of her aunt, Beth (Lily Sullivan), and her dad who abandoned them prior to that night, poor Kassie lost her whole family. She had to watch her mom die more than once, she was forced to drive a stake through her sister’s head, she almost drowned in an elevator full of blood, and she was almost decapitated by a merged monster of her whole family. She was a good fighter, but her whole world was destroyed in one night when she lost her family and learned all about demonic possession the hard way.