Paper made printed material cheap enough for the masses, and the masses wanted to read about monsters. Muslim Spain transmitted the invention of paper to Europe from the Middle East. With technological advances during the Renaissance, monster lore became prominent throughout European. Monsters were a popular topic in the literature of the Middle Ages, when books printed on parchment priced many Europeans out of literacy. In II Esdras, an apocalyptic text in the apocrypha, scripture warns that one day "wild beasts shall change their places, and menstruous women shall bring forth monsters." Isn't it always the menstruous women causing a ruckus? The Bible contains one helpful hint on the problem of monster babies. The idea of monstrous births and the corruption of reproduction also blended In The Bacchae, Euripides imagined a Dionysian cult of women suckling wild animals such as fawns and wolves. The idea of monstrous births, like every other idea in human history, predates Christ. Monstrous pregnancies and births represent a more complex, more bodily anxiety than tawdry psychotic children, and the concept of monstrous births has a lively history in canonical literature. The children are the result of a human's unnatural sexual contact with some sinister other. These films share many commonalities with films about evil children. There is, however, an under appreciated sub-genre of horror films dealing with "monstrous births," usually of demonic, satanic, or alien origins. A being with something called a "soft spot" doesn't easily induce terror or dread. He may have evil psychic abilities, but he's really just lying in a crib and maybe looking colicky in a few shots.
A baby doesn't do very much in a horror movie. A child is just more frightening than a baby. Evil babies and fetuses have inspired far fewer nightmarish vignettes.
With their violent crayon drawings and sinister grins, evil children are the darlings of the horror genre.
Children, especially the evil ones, are scary.
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