The fear of an “evil” child is a primal one. The idea of something as innately innocent as a child being corrupted and twisted into something monstrous is an abomination of the natural order, and it is a concept that has historically been used to great effect in fiction. From John Wyndham’s 1957 book “The Midwich Cuckoos” (adapted as the 1960 film “The Village of the Damned”) to the 2003 novel “We Need to Talk About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver (adapted to film in 2011), precociously ghoulish kids have found eager audiences worldwide.