Can I make a bit of gratuitous and shameless promotion? "Evil Seeds", put together and edited by Vanessa Morgan, is a must-have book in case you are even slightly fascinated by horror movies featuring evil children! The obvious titles are included, (like "Children of the Corn"), the guilty pleasures ("The Children of Ravensbeck"), and the less-obvious foreign masterpieces ("Who Can Kill a Child?"). But the book also contains essays on several films that are completely obscure and unknown, but worth seeking out, like the Mexican sleeper gem "The Book of Stone".
Many reviewers around here state it's one of the scariest and most unsettling movies they've ever seen. I wouldn't go so far, but it's definitely a great example of a slow (better make that VERY slow-) brooding and 200% atmosphere-driven tale, with the emphasis on meticulous character development and plot accuracy, and not nearly on fake-scares, ghostly apparitions, or special effects. Writer/director Carlos Enrique Taboada found for sure inspiration in the legendary story of "The Tale of the Screw", and for the ambience he rivals Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" (also an adaptation of that same tale). The tale of a young child and her unusual friendship with a boy named Hugo, and her good-hearted governess attempting to get through to her is elegant and mature, but you must be in a certain mood/mindset to watch it. It's not exactly a very cheerful or relaxing thriller.