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.