Emma Grossman is the villainous protagonist of the 2018 film The Bad Seed and its sequel The Bad Seed Returns. She is a highly intelligent but sociopathic girl who is willing to do anything to get what she wants.
She is played by Mckenna Grace.
Her Qualities[]
What Makes Her Entertaining[]
- She's very intelligent and skilled at getting what she wants, and her actress gives a very charismatic and witty performance. She even treats the viewer as an accomplice as she occasionally smiles at the camera when she pulls off her plans.
- Despite being a psychopath she's full of energy and has an appealing vitality that makes her an engaging character. She's also very funny at times, such as when she extorts Chloe into letting her stay up late and give her extra dessert.
- She's a very bright student, getting straight-As and her teachers recognize her as being very talented and competitive.
- She does a good job mimicking the good attitudes that her teachers want in order to win a prize, though she doesn't actually win it.
- She's very close to her father at first and seems to care for him despite her sociopathic nature in general, and seems genuinely upset when she senses their relationship is being threatened.
- She's skilled at outwitting and killing her enemies, acting friendly to Milo before luring him to his death and then staging a series of accidents to dispose of anyone who gets suspicious of her.
- It's also implied that she chose to kill Milo by drowning him due to her belief that drowning doesn't hurt which indicates she at least didn't want him to suffer.
- She quickly discovers her babysitter Chloe's own deviant behavior and uses this to blackmail her. She also defends Shirley Temple (who she seems to like) when Chloe insults her, correctly pointing out that she was a United States ambassador and couldn't have been stupid.
- She fakes an accident to get sympathy and distract her teacher from telling her father about her suspicions.
- When Milo's medal is found, she invents a story to explain its presence and even returns it to Milo's parents in order to make herself look remorseful.
- She's able to manipulate her psychiatrist.
- She realizes her father is planning to kill her and is able to thwart his attempts and nearly kill him in turn, at one point deducing that he's poisoned her hot chocolate and switching mugs with him, then manages to frame her father and get him killed.
- She also shows some remorse when trying to kill her father, as she first gives him a kiss before she tries to kill him in his sleep, and is also seen crying when she attempts to shoot him. Both of these times her father was asleep and there was no one to see her, so it's likely this was genuine.
- In the sequel, she manipulates a boy she has a crush on into becoming her friend, and when she's not sure how to proceed she manipulates her rival Kat into giving her advice on how to make him like her, which she succeeds at. She even thanks Kat for this before killing her.
- She's willing to invite Kat to join her friend group despite Kat being an outsider and someone her other friends are more reluctant to include. While this backfires since Kat is trying to expose her, it shows that Emma at least doesn't bully unpopular students.
- She quickly gets the upper hand on Kat when she starts to become suspicious of her, managing to frame Kat for attacking her, and disposes of her other rival Steph by triggering an epileptic attack when she's made captain of the dance team.
- She takes a psychopathy test online and smiles when she gets a perfect score, which is a darkly funny moment and shows she's at least fully aware that she's evil and has no problem with it.
- She smoothly concocts a plan to get rid of all three people who could expose her, stealing Cora's phone and sabotaging Aunt Angela's camera so she can't see what's going on. She then lures Kat to her house by claiming she'll confess to her crimes, while also using Nathan as a witness, then tricks her uncle into thinking her baby brother is in danger in order to neutralize him, then poisons Kat's drink during their confrontation and defeating all of her attempts to stop her, before starting a fire. As Angela also rushes into the house to try to save her husband, this leads to all three of Emma's enemies dying with her being above suspicion.
- While she has no problem endangering her baby brother at first, she actually seems to warm up to him as the film goes on and enjoys teasing him which is played for dark humor. She even saves him from the fire at the end and asks for them to stay together as they're the only family they have left.
What Makes Her Detestable[]
- She's a psychopath who is willing to kill anyone in her way, and seems to enjoy being evil.
- She kills her classmate Milo over a prize she thought she should have won.
- She kills her teacher by planting a beehive in her car, and later kills Chloe in a fire.
- She causes her father's death by framing him for trying to kill her, resulting in him being gunned down.
- She kills her rival Steph's dog to spite her.
- She kills off all the people who knew about her past, even her family, and gleefully taunts Kat before leaving her to die in the fire.
- She overall has no true redeeming qualities whatsoever.
External Links[]
- Emma Grossman on the Villains Wiki
- Emma Grossman on the Pure Evil Wiki