The Bad Seed is a 1956 American psychological thriller film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones and Eileen Heckart.
The film is based upon the 1954 play of the same name by Maxwell Anderson, which in turn is based upon William March’s 1954 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by John Lee Mahin.
Without giving too much away, this movie takes on the topic of “are serial killer tendencies genetically passed on from parent to child”. A different take on the nature versus nurture debate of child rearing. Though there are several points worth arguing about throughout the movie, such as “if nature was the answer why did it skip a generation?” and if it was nurture, what happened?
The whole movie revolves around a little girl named Rhoda and her mother Christine. Monica is their upstairs neighbor and landlady, and Leroy the handyman. Let’s just say that Rhoda acts a bit older than her age and is praised for it.
Honestly, this movie was done very well, from book to stage to screen even if it was in the 1950s when there wasn’t a lot in the way of special effects and many events happened off screen. This movie has been remade a few times since, once for TV and twice more as a movie.
My Rating: ★★★
Fellowship of Filming(s) 
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