The Bad Seed

Rachel Penmark is such a different little girl. So calm, so well-mannered, so deadly. The Bad Seed had been a novel, a Broadway play and a landmark 1956 movie before this film brought the harrowing story of a demented child's secret trail of violence to a new generation. Blair Brown (Fringe) heads a stellar cast as Rachel's gentle mother Christine, who gradually discovers the truth about her psychopathic daughter, and about the horrors of her own forgotten childhood. As Christine fits the puzzle pieces together, tension and menace build into a taut cocoon of overpowering dread. And, unlike the earlier movie, this production includes the original ending, a chilling denouement considered too shocking for '50s audiences.