2012-09-06
Explanation
This comic explores why undead children are such an effective horror trope. A family -- a man, a woman, and their young daughter Susie -- are watching a scary movie on TV that features a ghostly child in a yellow dress standing in a dark tunnel. The man asks "Why do you think undead children are so freaky?" The woman turns to their daughter and asks: "Susie, if I let you have a knife, would you stab me?"
In the third panel, the little girl cheerfully answers "Probbly!" with a big grin, while the mother stands in shadow, processing this response. In the final panel, the mother turns to the father and delivers the punchline: "Imagine that with power." The joke explains the horror of undead children through a simple logical chain: regular children are already somewhat terrifying because they lack the moral development to reliably choose not to harm people. An undead child takes that existing lack of impulse control and adds supernatural power to it. The reason ghost children are scarier than ghost adults is that adults have internalized social norms, while children -- as Susie cheerfully demonstrates -- have not.
The votey panel shows Susie in bed, eyes closed with a serene smile, saying "Now I'''m Mommy." This adds a final unsettling twist, implying that the child has already begun plotting to replace her mother -- confirming the comic'''s thesis that children are inherently a little terrifying even without supernatural abilities.