Of all the Stephen King adaptations in all the world, what is it about Children of the Corn that caused it to turn into such a drawn out franchise? With seven sequels and one even worse remake, it is one of the longest running horror series, ever. I find this fact baffling because none of them are particularly good.
Burt (played by Peter Horton) and Vicky (played by Linda Hamilton) are traveling cross country after Burt has graduated from Medical School. While driving on the back roads of Nebraska, they accidentally hit a boy who runs out of the cornfields. Upon further examination, they find the boy's throat had been slit. Burt wraps the boy's body in a blanket and stashes it in the trunk. The two drive on until finally winding up in the isolated, small town of Gatlin. Perplexed by the deserted town, they start poking around, looking for help. They are horrified to discover that all of the parents are dead and the children of the town are all part of a cult that worships a demonic god known as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." The cult is led by Issac (played by John Franklin) with Malachi (played by Courtney Gains) as his right hand man. Burt and Vicky discover they are to be served up as the latest sacrifices for their god and with some help from two dissenting young children, Job (played by Robby Kiger) and Sarah (played by Anne Marie McAvoy), have to figure out a way to escape Gatlin with their lives.
There are certainly some interesting themes going on in the film, as there were in the original short story by Stephen King that the film is based on, with some pretty grotesque imagery conjured up to depict the demented cult these kids are part of. The problem is the film doesn't stand up to much scrutiny. It depends on the tried and true idiot plot syndrome which requires the two main characters, as well as all the other adult characters for that matter, to act like total idiots. This is made all the worse when the characters have the very book that contains the story the movie is based on sitting on the dash of their car (what a refreshingly meta approach that would be if Vicky was reading the book and remarked to Burt, "Honey, there's a story in here that is remarkably similar to what is happening to us now. I think we should turn around and go back the way we came and take the freeway instead, avoiding cornfields and strange children that repeatedly yell, "Outlander!" at the top of their lungs." But Burt would still ignore this because Burt, despite being an MD, is an idiot.). The film is also rather inconsistent, starting off with Job and his Dad heading to the cafe after church, with some rather cheesy (corny?) narration from Job as we witness the children's massacre of the adults begin to unfold. We never hear narration from Job again, so why include it here when the perspective of the film sharply switches to Burt and Vicky a couple scenes later, after we see Job and Sarah help another dissenting boy, Joseph, try to escape in the least subtle or covert escape attempt ever. They might as well have shot up flares or posted a neon sign blinking "Escape Attempt in Progress." No wonder Malachi found him, slit his throat and then said boy ran out into the road only to get hit by Burt and Vicky. Also, just the fact that the community could go so long without being discovered, it's implied it's been a year or two since all the adults were killed, strains credibility. Did none of the families in Gatlin have extended families that might be checking up on them? Or if they did, did they get "put in the corn fields" too? I suppose that's what we're supposed to assume.
On it's own silly, brainless, B-movie level there is something entertaining about Children of the Corn. It certainly seemed to have captured some form of popularity given how many sequels it has spawned as well as a even worse remake where the main couple was so unlikable, I was actually rooting for the kids. In the pantheon of Stephen King movies, this one is pretty bad but at least it's never dull and it does have a wonderfully over the top performance from John Franklin as Issac, so there is that at least.
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