Maxwell Anderson's broadway play, The Bad Seed, has been filmed three times; the 1956 original, a 1963 version made in Turkey, and a made-for-television 1985 film.
The 1956 original looks like a staged play because it is directly based on the Broadway production and features the cast of the stage version. This gives the film a very claustrophobic feel, a good thing in a classic horror film.
To her horror, a loving mother (Nancy Kelly) slowly comes to the ghastly realization that, Rhoda, her cute little eight year old daughter (Patty McCormack) is a cold-blooded sociopathic killer. Though she loves her daughter and her daughter obviously loves and trusts her, she decides that the only way to stop the murders and to spare the little girl a life in detention, is to kill her child.
All the violence in this film is offscreen and we never see the aftermath of Rhoda's murders. We only see her blonde pigtails and her cute smile. This is evil masquerading as innocence. The Bible describes Satan as beautiful (Isaiah 14:13,14, Jude 6, 2 Peter 2:4). If he were hideous or frightening we would run from him. He masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
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Similarly themed films: Devil Times Five, Bloody Birthday, The Good Son, Bad Ronald, The Omen, The Children
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