Highest-Rated Movies about 'Dead Children'

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Braveheart (1995), The Young and the Damned (1950), Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996), Downfall (2004), Ivan's Childhood (1962), Shutter Island (2010), Dogville (2003) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Dead Children movies.

#1. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Storyline: Jill McBain travels to the wild frontier; Utah - where she and her new husband planned to settle down. Upon arrival, she finds him and his children dead. There's a lot of land, and potential, but there's those who want to take it - at any cost. Even if it means killing a man and his kids.

Plot Keywords: harmonica, woman in bathtub, railway station, widow, husband wife relationship, child killer, seduction ...

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#2. Braveheart (1995)

Storyline: William Wallace is a Scottish rebel who leads an uprising against the cruel English ruler Edward the Longshanks, who wishes to inherit the crown of Scotland for himself. When he was a young boy, William Wallace's father and brother, along with many others, lost their lives trying to free Scotland. Once he loses another of his loved ones, William Wallace begins his long quest to make Scotland free once and for all, along with the assistance of Robert the Bruce.

Plot Keywords: scotland, revolt, nobility, based on true story, idealism, legend, england ...

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#3. The Young and the Damned (1950)

Storyline: Hell-bent on revenge, the cocky reform-school runaway, El Jaibo, returns to his old neighbourhood in post-World-War-II Mexico City's poor and squalid slums, to reunite with his faithful gang of juvenile delinquents and street urchins. However, as the dangerous ringleader lives and breathes retribution, his destructive obsession to find the informant who supposedly sent him to jail will intricately interweave his bitter fate with that of Pedro, his weak and unwitting accessory, in a despicable act of pure evil. In the end, are humans inherently good or bad--and above all--is immorality contingent with society?

Plot Keywords: slum, juvenile delinquency, street gang, dream sequence, social commentary, delinquent, mexico city ...

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#4. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)

Storyline: Berlinger and Sinofsky's documentary of a gruesome triple murder in West Memphis, Arkansas and the subsequent trials of three suspects, takes a hard look at both the occult and the American justice system in 'small-town' America. Three teenagers are accused of this horrific crime of killing three children, supposedly as a result of involvement in Satanism. As in their previous documentary, things turn out to be more complex than initial appearances and this film presents the real-life courtroom drama to the viewer, as it unfolds.—Tad Dibbern <DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>

Plot Keywords: independent film, prejudice, 1990s, devil worship, multiple homicide, mutilation, orgy ...

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#5. Downfall (2004)

Storyline: In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Soviet Armies closing in from the west and south. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his Generals and advisers to fight to the last man. "Downfall" explores these final days of the Reich, where senior German leaders (such as Himmler and Goring) began defecting from their beloved Fuhrer, in an effort to save their own lives, while still others (Joseph Goebbels) pledge to die with Hitler. Hitler, himself, degenerates into a paranoid shell of a man, full of optimism one moment and suicidal depression the next. When the end finally does comes, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

Plot Keywords: bunker, third reich, nazi, suicide, world war two, ss officer, last will and testament ...

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#7. Shutter Island (2010)

Storyline: In 1954, up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he thinks he's been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy's shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals "escape" in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.

Plot Keywords: surprise ending, neo noir, mental asylum, psycho thriller, year 1954, cult film, confinement ...

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#8. Dogville (2003)

Storyline: Late one night, a beautiful and well-dressed young woman, Grace (Nicole Kidman), arrives in the mountainous old mining town of Dogville as a fugitive; following the sound of gunshots in the distance which have been heard by Tom (Paul Bettany), the self-appointed moral spokesman for the town. Persuaded by Tom, the town agree to hide Grace, and in return she freely helps the locals. However, when the Sheriff from a neighbouring town posts a Missing notice, advertising a reward for revealing her whereabouts, the townsfolk require a better deal from Grace, in return for their silence; and when the Sheriff returns some weeks later with a Wanted poster, even though the citizens know her to be innocent of the false charges against her, the town's sense of goodness takes a sinister turn and the price of Grace's freedom becomes a workload and treatment akin to that of a slave. But Grace has a deadly secret that the townsfolk will eventually encounter.

Plot Keywords: rape, infanticide, father daughter relationship, 1930s, gunshot, female protagonist, slip the undergarment ...

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#9. Let the Right One In (2008)

Storyline: Oskar, a bullied 12-year old, dreams of revenge. He falls in love with Eli, a peculiar girl. She can't stand the sun or food and to come into a room she needs to be invited. Eli gives Oskar the strength to hit back but when he realizes that Eli needs to drink other people's blood to live he's faced with a choice. How much can love forgive? Set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982.

Plot Keywords: vampire, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, solitude, 1980s, bullying, gothic, apartment ...

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#10. Europa Europa (1990)

Storyline: A Jewish boy, separated from his family in the early days of WWII, poses as a German orphan and is thereafter taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually made a Hitler Youth. Although improbabilities and happenstance are cornerstones of the film, it is based upon a true story.

Plot Keywords: circumcision, nazi, jewish, german, pubic hair, based on true story, male nudity ...

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#11. If.... (1968)

Storyline: In an indictment of the British public school system, we follow Mick and his mostly younger friends through a series of indignities and occasionally abuse as any fond feelings toward these schools are destroyed. When Mick and his friends rebel, violently, the catch phrase, "which side would you be on" becomes quite stark.

Plot Keywords: boys' school, boarding school, homosexuality, humiliation, violence, social satire, revolution ...

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#12. Funny Games (1997)

Storyline: Two seemingly well-educated young men, who call each other Paul and Peter among other names, approach a family on vacation. They are, apparently, friends of the neighbors, and, at the beginning, their true intentions are not known, but soon, the family is imprisoned and tortured in its own house violently, which the viewers are forced mostly to imagine and to share a certain complicity with the criminals. It might be some kind of game with the lives of husband, wife, son, and dog, but why are they doing it?

Plot Keywords: home invasion, egg, torture, sadism, psychological torture, violence, mind game ...

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#13. Henry V (1989)

Storyline: King Henry V of England is insulted by the King of France. As a result, he leads his army into battle against France. Along the way, the young King must struggle with the sinking morale of his troops and his own inner doubts. The war culminates at the bloody Battle of Agincourt.

Plot Keywords: king, battlefield, war violence, sword and shield, shakespeare play, battle, honor ...

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#14. Selma (2014)

Storyline: The unforgettable true story chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernay's "Selma" tells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.

Plot Keywords: civil rights, bechdel test passed, revisionist history, courage, protest, black american, u.s. history ...

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#15. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Storyline: In Coruscant, the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker rescue the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine from the Separatist General Grievous' spaceship and Anakin kills Count Dooku with his light-saber after a fight; however Grievous escapes from the Jedi. When they land on Coruscant, Padmé Amidala comes to tell Anakin that she is pregnant. Soon he has premonitions of his wife dying during the delivery. Palpatine requests that Anakin join the Jedi Council against the will of the members but he is not promoted to Master and stays at the rank of Knight; further they ask him to spy on Palpatine. Anakin is manipulated by Palpatine about the true intentions of the Jedi and is tempted to know the dark side of the Force that could be capable of saving Padmé. Further Palpatine discloses that he is Sith Lord Darth Sidious. What will Anakin do?

Plot Keywords: personality change, tragic villain, spaceship, adoption, hologram, wilhelm scream, no opening credits ...

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