The Bad Seed (DVD)

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.

Starring: Blair Brown, Lynn Redgrave, David Carradine, Carrie Wells, Richard Kiley, David Ogden Stiers, Chad Allen, Weldon Bleiler, Carol Locatell, Anne Haney, Eve Smith, Christa Denton

Director: George Eckstein