Child Actors From Horror Films You Won’t Recognize Today

#1 John Franklin

The part of Isaac Chroner in the screen adaptation of a novel by Stephen King was the most successful in John Franklin’s career. Until recently, Franklin taught English, but in 2015 he quit and decided to get back to acting.

#2 Lindsey Haun

Even though Village of the Damned wasn’t particularly successful, it can safely be called one of the eeriest movies about killer children thanks to Lindsey Haun who played the children’s leader, Mara Chaffee. Today Lindsey still acts in movies and also writes soundtracks.

#3 Daveigh Chase

Ready for a pun? Daveigh hasn't had to... chase... work since her unnecessarily terrifying stint as Samara. She played, you may remember, Samantha Darko in Donnie Darko a year prior to The Ring and reprised that role as the central character in S.Darko, seven years after it. On top of that she's been the voice of Lilo for various Lilo & Stitch movies and games, was in Beethoven's Fifth, CSI, Without A Trace, ER and, interestingly, had a credit in the 2005 sequel to The Ring because of the use of archive footage from the first movie. Kelly Stables, however, performed all of the new footage. Despite having three movies released in 2014 the last year or so seems to have been pretty slow.

#4 Louisa and Lisa Burns

Louisa and Lisa Burns, who played the now-iconic twins in Stanely Kubrick's The Shining, attended a film screening at the BFI in London yesterday (January 29).

The twin sisters have kept a low profile since the film's release back in 1980 but happily posed for a picture on the red carpet as they arrived for the screening of Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove as part of the LOCO London Comedy Film Festival.

#5 Linda Blair

Linda Blair starred as the head-spinning, projectile-vomiting and crucifix-stabbing child in 1973's controversial The Exorcist.

A few years after the film's release, Blair encountered trouble with the law when charged with possession of drugs and conspiracy to sell. She managed to turn her career around by the early '80s, going on to star in low-budget but successful horror movies such as Hell Night and Savage Streets.

The actress, now aged 55, also went on to send up her infamous role as Regan in The Exorcist by appearing in Repossessed in 1990, followed by a cameo part in Scream in 1996.

She campaigns for Animal Rights charity PETA as well.

#6 Heather Donahue

Remember The Blair Witch Project? This pseudo-documentary was all the rage back in 1999, with an unprecedented hype built around the film thanks largely to innovative marketing. Perhaps the defining moment of the film is the close-up of Heather Donahue’s nostrils as tears run down her face. Most of the film, Donahue’s character can be seen running around the forest in terror in her gray beanie. Since that film, Donahue hasn’t exactly reached great heights, with only 10 years in total as an actress and 15 acting credits. She is better known these days a marijuana activist, and even grows medical marijuana

#7 Harvey Stephens

Harvey Stephens plays son of the Devil Damien in 1976's The Omen.

The 43-year-old London-born actor - who reportedly secured the role of Damien by punching director Richard Donner in the testicles during the audition - went on to get a small part in the 1980 TV film Gauguin the Savage, and a cameo role in the 2006 remake of The Omen as tabloid reporter number three.

The Omen remains his only major role to date.

#8 Jodelle

Jodelle is known not just for the role of Sharon and Alessa in Silent Hill: in 2009, she starred in another horror movie, Case 39. Since 2015, she has been working on the science fiction series Dark Matter.

#9 Danny Lloyd

Danny Lloyd played the damaged Danny Torrence in Kubrick's The Shining in 1980.

After losing out on roles as a teenager, he gave up acting and now teaches Biology at a community college near his home in Louisville. The 41-year-old is married with six children.

#10 Haley Joel Osment

In The Sixth Sense, Pay It Forward and A.I., Haley Joel Osment demonstrated a dynamic range of acting well beyond his years. Unfortunately, when puberty struck, he fell from favour, his only moment of note in the last last decade being when he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, in 2006. However, things appear to be well and truly on the up. In January he appeared in The Spoils of Babylon a comedy miniseries starring Tobey Maguire, Kristen Wiig, Tim Robbins, Jessica Alba, Val Kilmer, Michael Sheen, and Will Ferrell. He also appears in the upcoming film Tusk - which cruelly isn't a spin-off based around brilliant House Of Cards tycoon Raymond Tusk, but actually a Kevin Smith horror about a walrus. Yeah, we did the same perplexed face you're doing now. This year he appeared in the big screen adaptation of Entourage.