Children of the Corn
by Fritz Kiersch
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Courtney Gains, John Franklin, Linda Hamilton, Peter Horton, R.G. ArmstrongDirector: Fritz Kiersch
Cinematographer: Raoul Lomas
Producer: Donald P. Borchers
Producer: Earl A. Glick
Producer: Mark Lipson
Producer: Terrence Kirby
Writer: George Goldsmith
Writer: Stephen King
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.66:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-04-10
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Movie Reviews of Children of the Corn
Movie Review: Childish and Corny
Summary: 2 Stars
I have a glimpse of a memory from when I was ten or so. It is of this film's climax, giant fields of corn, some sort of malevolent creature burrowing through the ground like a mole on coke, and crosses of corn exploding into the air. I only saw fragments because my parents were watching the film, but at the time, it freaked me out.
This is probably because my father is a Baptist minister, lending all sorts of sobriety to the image of crosses, and also because I grew up in southeast Missouri, around dozens and dozens of cornfields.
I wanted to be scared like that again, so I got the Children of the Corn series. Instead of being scared, however, I have been afforded the opportunity to warn others of my mistake.
In the first five minutes of this film, all the children of the podunk town of Gatlin, Nebraska kill every last citizen over the age of 19. That's the first five minutes, mind you. The entire incident is narrated nonchalantly by young Job (Robby Kiger), who is annoyed that his mother and father have been slain, but who isn't necessarily put out by the ordeal.
Because, you see, Job and his sister Sarah (who, for no reason whatsoever, can draw the future), are kept alive by the band of murderous children, who are acting at the behest of Issac, a legitimately creepy child who is acting as the prophet of He Who Walks Behind the Rows (of corn). Issac is played by John Franklin, a twenty-five year old whose Growth Hormone Disorder makes him seem just the right kind of disturbing for the part. After murdering all of the adults, the town of Gatlin enters a three-year grace period, where, for some reason, absolutely no investigation or inquiry is made into the town's sudden lack of taxpayers. What, the relatives of these murdered adults don't worry that their family doesn't respond to mail or phone calls? How is that this place still gets electricity, gas, and water after all of the breadwinners have been dispatched? Ah, but I'm thinking too much. Ha ha. Silly me.
Anyway, enter Burt (a laconic Peter Horton) and Vicky (a younger, sexier Linda Hamilton), two thirty-somethings entering the picture purely by accident when they happen to collide with Issac's latest victim, a young defector whose name I don't care to look up.
King has always taken issue with fundamentalism, and his work reflects that. I can't testify to how true this film is to the short story that inspired it, but that fanatical religious fervor is present here in undiluted form. Who knows what these kids are worshipping? Not even them it seems. Whatever it is, it enjoys bloodshed and corn, and it hates adults (if you define adult as 20+ years of age).
Aside from the story's basic incomprehensibility, the movie is uneventful and horribly acted. It's a rough deal when the bulk of your cast is children, especially when said children are directed to act menacing. The most violent child of all, Malachai (Courtney Gains), tries to leer and sneer with the best of them, but mostly what I noticed was his abnormally large mouth. He screams a bit, Issac screams a bit, Burt takes it all in stride, and a kid named Amos gets a pentagram carved into his chest
It's all rather mundane and dull. In fact, I think the movie glossed over the scariest part. What I would've liked to have seen is the preface to all of this weirdness. Instead of making a movie about the aftermath, they should've written a story about Issac discovering He Who Walks Behind the Rows, about him convincing an entire town of children to murder their parents. That's what I thought the movie was about, actually (instead of it being the first five minutes). And the sequels that followed? Well, I assumed they would be about people coming to investigate why no one in Gatlin returns phone calls or has paid their credit card bills. Now, I don't know what to expect.
Probably more corn.
Summary of Children of the Corn
When a young couple find themselves stranded in an isolated community in nebraska they discover that all the towns adults have been slaughtered by a religious cult of twisted children who worship a cornfield diety. Can they escape? features: widescreen trailer 16 page collectors book. Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 06/25/2002 Starring: Peter Horton Run time: 92 minutes Rating: R Director: Fritz KierschThe murder rate is as high as an elephant's eye in this flaccid adaptation of Stephen King's short story. While driving through Nebraska en route to a new job, medico Burt (Peter Horton) and his wife Vicky (a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton) nearly run over a mutilated boy who staggers from the cornfields. Seeking help, they enter the town of Gatlin, whose under-20 residents have butchered their parents per the decree of junior-grade holy roller Isaac (John Franklin), who preaches the word of a being called "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." King's original story (from his 1978 collection Night Shift) was a lean and brutal m?lange of Southern-gothic atmosphere and E.C. Comics-style gore, which scripter Greg Goldsmith effectively neutralizes by adding a youthful narrator (a grating Robbie Kiger) and putting an upbeat spin on the story's morbid conclusion. Fritz Kiersch's direction is TV-movie flat, with the sole inspired moment (hideous religious iconography glimpsed during a bloody "service") delivered as a throwaway. Aside from Horton and Courtney Gains (as Isaac's hatchet man Malachai), the performances are dreadful, and the depiction of the Lovecraftian monster-god as a sort of giant gopher inspires more laughter than terror. Amazingly, the film spawned six sequels; Franklin (Cousin Itt in the Addams Family films) later appeared in and wrote 1999's Children of the Corn 666. --Paul Gaita
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