The Bad Seed

The Bad Seed is a 1956 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones and Eileen Heckart, about an eight-year-old girl whose mother begins to suspect that she might be a psychopathic killer. The film adapts the 1954 play of the same name by Maxwell Anderson, which in turn is based on William March's 1954 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by John Lee Mahin. Kelly, McCormack, and Heckart each garnered Academy Awards nominations for their performances, as well as Harold Rosson's cinematography.