31 Days of Creepy Kids, Day 3: Henrietta Baker (Ghosthouse, 1988)

Henrietta Baker

"Play around...be bad" I remember seeing Ghosthouse when I was younger, and I remember it creeping the living hell out of me. The movie itself was pretty crazy and gory; it's an Umberto Lenzi film, so you know it's bound to be gory. The best part of the movie though, and what has kept it firmly embedded in my mind for all of these years, was the little girl and her doll.

Stop staring!

In the movie, the ghost of a dead little girl and her evil little doll (which I always assumed was her tool for vengeance) would show up and look creepy, and were always accompanied by an eerie and messed up nursery rhyme which repeated the words "Play around...be bad." She didn't do much violence-wise, her doll took care of that for her, but she didn't need too; just seeing her stare at us with those dead eyes were enough to make a lasting impression.


See what I mean? It's an odd, eerie little movie, and I'd almost prefer the little girl to jump up and try to stab someone instead of sitting there staring... or crying blood. That does nothing to make her any less creepy.

Go cry in your room... which is in Hell, where you came from!

So that's her folks, and I'm pretty sure she'll be in your dreams tonight. If you haven't seen Ghosthouse, check it out. It's an old school, cheesy Italian creep-fest that will slake your thirst for blood as well as creepy kids. And dolls. That clown is just disturbing.

She pouts before her doll kills...