Children of The Corn (1984)

Children of the Corn released in 1984, is a horror film based on Stephen King's 1977 short story of the same name, and stared Peter Horton, and the bad ass action heroin Linda Hamilton. The screenplay that King had originally written for the film was rejected for a more gory screenplay written by George Goldsmith. King's screenplay would have went into more depth of the two adult characters of Burt and Vicky, and would have went into more of the history of the events leading up to it. Kings ideas were more used for the 2009 television film remake, though that version was honestly poorly executed and easily forgettable, but we shall talk more about that when I do that film.

Children of the Corn takes place in and around the small fictitious town of Gatlin NE, which is neighboring to Hemingford NE, which is a town that King writes about in a few of his works including The Stand. The film however was filmed primarily in Iowa rather than the neighboring Nebraska, interestingly enough the remake was also filmed in Iowa.

The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews, and to this day still holds a bad rating among critics. I would like to have seen King's version of this story as a big screen release, but I will be completely honest, this film is a classic. I love this film. It is a bit slow in pacing, and can get borderline boring at times. The effects are not super well done, but I remember watching this in the 1980s and thinking, that they were really amazing, and to this day, actually enjoy the way they look. The effects are low budget, but then film only had an $800,000 budget, and was released in 1984 so I feel like for what it is it looks really good. I love the casting of this film, I almost always love Linda Hamilton in films, but it was the kids who did the best job in the film. Much of the story is told through the eyes of a young kid named Job (or Jobey as he is called throughout the film), and his sister Sarah. The kids, all do a great job, and never break character, from their overly zealous religious character types. The highest praise as far as characters go in this film from me would go to John Franklin as Isaac, and Courtney Gains as Malachai, who act as the evil duo who speak with their god He Who Walks Behind The Rows.

Children of the Corn, despite it's negative reviews, has spawned a franchise of sequels, though I would not recommend continuing past Children of the Corn 2 (The Final Harvest), you can see my review of that film in an earlier post. The film has also been often referenced in music, and in pop culture. The characters of Isaac and Malachai are easily recognizable, and honestly a great screen duo. The film was criticized for its gore, but honestly I felt like it was never over the top, and that it fit the tone of the film really well. Again those kids never broke character, and never dropped their religiously zealous way of speaking. The tone of the film was bland and neutral, but it really does create the feel of being in Nebraska which is a bland and neutral toned state, and the boring and slow pacing, also helps to create the feeling of being in the setting. I have super fond memories of this film as a kid, and it brought me back to growing up in Iowa to be honest.

A lot of films based on Stephen King books, tend to be low budget, and tend to get trashed by the critics, and if you are a fan of that style of film, they are really great films, because of source inspiration of the films is such high quality writing. Though no film maker has ever stayed true to King's visions, many of the films themselves become classics in their own right, and I would say that is true of Children of the Corn.

Would I recommend this film. Yes, absolutely! Not sure if it is a must-see film, but if you like horror, and creepy kids, then this is a film that you should check out. Also if the idea of a Midwestern set horror film, that deals with how creepily religious folks in the bible belt can be, and then also the supernatural god aspect of the film, I think this is a film that shouldn't be passed up. But don't expect super cutting edge or clean special effects, don't expect a huge budget and elaborate sets, in this film you get corn, more corn, and more corn, with some creepy kids, a touch of gore, and low budget effects, and in my opinion it works really well. This is a film I have watched many times since I first saw it with my mom in the 1980s (which makes me wonder how the hell as a kid I loved playing hide and seek in corn fields with my friends?). So if you run across a copy, or see it on a streaming site, I do recommend checking it out.