This article analyzes the figure of monstrous children in two contemporary fiction works: the film El Orfanato by Juan Antonio Bayona (2007) and the novel Distancia de rescate by Samanta Schweblin (2014). The child characters play a decisive role in both works, as the two stories are constructed around the horror induced by the infants, both in a physical sense - in both works the body's deformity is an important issueand a moral one - the monstrous children are an astonishing, ominous entity (Freud, 1919). Through a comparative analysis, the intention is to account for affinities and discrepancies in the construction of the monstrous child's figure, as well as notice its function and relevance in the production of horror. All of it will finally allow us to conclude that the monstrous children materialize adults' fears and fantasies, reflecting in this way their own faults (Martin Alegre, 2001).