Children of the Corn Part 3 : Urban Harvest

Children of the Corn Part 3 : Urban Harvest title

Tag Line : In the heart of the city an adult nightmare is about to be reborn.

Children of the Corn Part 3 : Urban Harvest A young couple from Chicago, William and Amanda Porter (played by Jim Metzler and Nancy Grahn) adopt a couple of country kids named Joshua and Eli, who were recently orphaned under mysterious circumstances. They seem to be a little strange at first, but their adoptive parents and the other school kids just put that down to them being Amish.

Whilst the older brother Joshua (Ron Melendez) makes an effort to fit in and make friends, young Eli (Daniel Cerny) decides instead to try and convert people over to his way of life. But although Eli may look Amish, the religion he preaches is anything but. Because what people don't know (apart from us that is) is that Eli and Josh are from the Nebraskan town of Gatlin.

If you've seen the first film you'll know all about what happened there (otherwise go back and read my review), and it turns out that Eli is another Isaac wannabe. Having grown his own corn patch inside a disused factory, he soon starts up his own religion inside his new school and it isn't too long before his new band of followers are ready to start offering sacrifices to their god "he who walks behind the rows" (even though it seems a little out of place in Chicago).

Only the local priest, father Nolan (Michael Ensign), and Joshua realise what's happening behind the scenes, but is it too late for them to prevent another Gatlin style massacre happening in downtown Chicago?

A bit dumber than the previous film, this is an OK sequel but gets a bit confusing as the plot seems to be off at a tangent to the original storyline. Quibbles aside though, there are some nice gore scenes and if you enjoyed part 2 you should enjoy this even though it was a bit silly having their evil god turn up in a corn patch in the middle of the city.

Overall Marks : 4/10.

Other Information.

Alternate tag lines "An Adult Nightmare is about to show its face in the heart of a city", "Let the harvest begin..."
Eli's Corn Bible was actually the hardcover edition of Stephen King's "Night Shift" (the book that "Children of the Corn" originally featured in) with an altered cover.
Director James Hickox is the brother of fellow genre director Anthony Hickox, who also has an uncredited role in the film as "Hans".
Daniel Cerny also played the Kid in "Demonic Toys".
A little known fact, this film marked the screen debut of former model Charlize Theron, who had a small non-speaking role as one of the kids. She later went on to star in "Devil's Advocate" with Keanu Reeves and "Monster - The Aileen Wournos Story" for which she won an Academy Award.
Set in Chicago, the film was actually shot in Los Angeles, California.
Nicholas Brendan, who went on to play Xander in the popular US TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", had a minor role in the film as a basketball player. This was also his first feature film.
The original UK video and DVD release was cut by 13s by the BBFC. This removed 2 short scenes showing a youth twirling a butterfly knife around, and cut several shots near the end of the film where the "monster" attacks the kids, specifically where the monsters tendrils go between one of the girls thighs and removed a shot of the her lacerated breasts. The film was later passed uncut for the 2004 re-issue.