Children of the Corn

Children of the Corn title

Tag Line : And a child shall lead them.... an adult nightmare!

Children of the Corn Medical students Vicky (played by a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton) and boyfriend Burton (Peter Horton) are travelling across rural Nebraska when they accidentally collide with a young boy who was standing in the road. However, when Burt goes to back to check the body he finds that the young boy was actually dead before being run over.

Stuck out in the middle of nowhere, they decide their only option is to take the body with them and try and find help. Eventually they stumble across a small farming town named Gatlin, but to their surprise they find the place completely empty. As they begin to wander around they are alarmed to discover that the townsfolk obviously didn't just leave, they somehow disappeared.

As they are preparing to leave they come across a young girl named Sarah (Anne Marie McEvoy) hiding in one of the deserted houses. It is then they discover the shocking truth about Gatlin, and how some 3 years previously the children of the town, lead by a (rather ugly looking) boy preacher named Isaac (John Franklin) and his henchman Malachai (Courtney Gains), viciously slaughtered all the adults and used their blood to water the drought stricken fields and replenish their corn crops.

It turns out the guy they knocked down was one of children from the town, who Malachai murdered whilst trying to escape. Prior to Burt and Vicky's arrival, nobody had disturbed the deathly silence of Gatlin, but they leave it a little too late to get back out of town, as they are forced into confrontation with young Isaac, Malachai and the rest of their bizarre religious cult members. Because in Gatlin, every adult must die in sacrifice to their god, "the one who walks behind the rows".

Based on a short story by Steven King, this is definitely one of the better films to bear his name. This is a very entertaining and creepy film, in particular the opening scenes with the coffee shop massacre, which really sets the tone and feel of the film well. Just a pity about the effects at end of the though.

Overall Marks : 6/10.

Other Information.

Alternate tag line "In their world adults are not allowed... to live."
The films budget was $3million
If you look closely on the dashboard of Burt and Vicki's car there's a copy of the Stephen King book "Night Shift", in which the short story of "Children of the Corn" originally appeared.
Although set in Nebraska, the film was actually made in Whiting, Iowa.
Linda Hamilton, who plays Vicky, went onto star as Sarah Conner in "The Terminator", which was released in the same year. She also appeared in the US TV series "Beauty and the Beast".
John Franklin, who played Isaac, went onto play "Cousin Itt" in the 1991 remake of "The Adams Family". He also provided some of the alternate doll voices (although not THE "Chucky" voice) in the original "Child's Play", as well as starring as Floydd in the 2000 film "Python". He reprised his role as Isaac in the 6th "Children of the Corn" film in 1999.
Courtney Gains, who plays Malachai, later appeared in the Tom Hanks comedy "The Burbs" as Hans Klopek. His most memorable role however is undoubtedly that of Sgt Eugene McVey in "Memphis Belle".
The directors original cut of the film was apparently much longer and gorier than the version released theatrically. A scene was cut from the beginning of the film showing Sarah and Job's parents talking before going to church about Sarah's pictures, fearing that something nasty was about to happen, and a scene was cut from the middle of the film showing Isaac, whilst praying, being given a vision of his impending fate. These were presumably trimmed so they didn't give any of the plot away too early. The intro massacre was also trimmed to secure an R rating from the US ratings board. This was originally longer and gorier, and showed a sheriff's deputy getting stabbed and having his throat slashed and a farmer being hacked up by a group of pick-axe wielding kids behind his barn.