Starring: Linda Hamilton, Peter Horton, Courtney Gains
“Our time of tribulation has come. A test is at hand. A final test.” (Isaac, Children Of The Corn)
Films based on Stephen King books are a mixed bunch. You have your great films that are unfortunately not much to do with the book (The Shining), your great films that stick nearly 100% to the book (Pet Sematary), your non-horror films (Stand By Me) and your pieces of shit (Dreamcatcher). Having not read the short story Children Of The Corn is based on I am not at liberty to suggest which category this film falls into, but needless to say it’s sure to be one of the first two because this is a fantastic flick.
A doctor and his girlfriend are moving to the big city so he can set up a surgery. Whilst driving past a cornfield they hit a boy who steps onto the road. Realising he had already been stabbed, the doctor puts the body in his trunk and drives to the nearest town to get some help. Trouble is, the nearest town is Gatlin, a small countryside village much like any other you’d care to name. As long as you’re naming one in which the children have killed all the adults and are members of a religious cult.

There must be something about Stephen King books that makes their film translations scarier than usual. I can personally sit through 95% of most 80’s horrors without batting an eyelid. ‘Tense’ chase scenes don’t usually affect me and I can work out when the big scares are coming in most of the films, as they were more predictable back then. However, of the countless ’80s horror films that attempt to scare the viewer, only two I’ve seen so far succeed in making me feel extremely uneasy: Pet Sematary and Children Of The Corn.
The film opens with a flashback of events that took place three years before the film is set, and right away the audience is thrown into the mix with a number of ‘scythe n’ knife’-related killings and a freaky looking Amish lad who looks as if he hasn’t slept for 7 months. In time however, you may grow to feel sorry for him. Maybe.
The thing that really wins me over with Children Of The Corn is the imperfection of the two lead characters. Whereas in most films the hero is the virgin who never smokes, always does the right thing and collects injured birds off the road and gives them baths, Children Of The Corn forces you to question your feelings on the heroes. This kicks off right from the first scene, where Burt refuses to propose to his girlfriend Vicky and doesn’t seem to have time for her. Meanwhile, when Burt suggests they take the injured kid’s body into town to get help Vicky at first refuses, showing a coldness not many ‘hero’ characters demonstrate. While this could have so easily resulted in a film with characters that the audience feels no sympathy for when they get involved in later events, the excellent performances by Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton coupled with the effective script only make the characters more believable, bringing the audience closer and making it easier for them to relate to Burt and Vicky (after all, nobody’s perfect).

The real stars are the children, though. There are good kids, bad kids (the nameless ones who always seem to be there whenever someone pegs it) and batshit mental kids (Isaac, the leader of the cult). And then there’s Malachai. Never before have I hated a character more than I hated Malachai. Perhaps the young actor playing him (Courtney Gains) was tapping into the years of mockery he received for having a girl’s name, or perhaps he’s actually like the character, but this boy’s sneer makes you want to punch his head off and you really want him to get what’s coming to him (which, at the end of the day, is what the filmmakers intended). I’d love to have been at that casting meeting: “I think we should give the role of Malachai to young Courtney Gains, because he’s a complete prick”.
Although for the most part Children Of The Corn isn’t too dodgy, it does contain one of film’s biggest taboos: the brutal killing of children. Some of the adults get theirs too, especially at the start, but when you’ve got a town full of kids and they’re all a bit mental, some of them are going to have to take a kicking.
This film would have received a full 5/5 if it hadn’t been for one disappointing aspect; the ending. Perhaps this is how it ends in the book, but as soon as the dirt started moving Tremors-style and getting a little out there I was disappointed. Had the film stayed away from special effects at the end and kept to the idea of a religious cult it would have been a far more satisfying ending. As it is, it gives the impression that the kids actually knew something we didn’t and maybe weren’t so mental after all… a pretty weak end to a fantastic story.
This is also true for the last scene. The last 30 seconds are so underwhelming that when you see the words “The End” you can’t help but think that ending was just thought up at the end of shooting in order to get a final scare in there (and I use the word ‘scare’ loosely). Don’t let that put you off however. Children Of The Corn is 88 minutes long. Of these 88 minutes, 80 are fantastic. It’s just a shame those last eight were so disappointing.
Great review, just purchased all the children of the corn films myself.
You should do a review of “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” a classic 80s b movie.
I love that film, it’ll definitely be on here at some point soon. Great shout my friend 🙂
wow children of the corn? Really??? what a joke you put this on a website!
Hi Kimberly! I’m confused, what’s wrong with putting up a review of Children Of The Corn?
Piss off Kimberly, you pathetic old troll. Children of the corn is the best Stephen King movie ever.
I like your review but I have to disagree with you about the ending. The signs that there was something genuinely supernatural going on started earlier than just the last eight minutes when the ground was moving. Didn’t you notice the crazy weather when the old gas attendant got slaughtered? Or the corn moving on its own? Or the lost-style whispers from no where?
Usually I find Stephen Kings endings cheap and unsatisfying, but I thoguht this was pretty decent. The kids were part of a religious cult, but their charasmatic leader (Isaac) wasn’t just batshit…this part is kind of fuzzy but there were allusions that he’d gotten mixed up with some sort of demonic prescence in the corn…and started following its instructions believing it to the will of god. Now the priest sent the cop out to the corn field to burn it…implying the priest had some sort of idea what was going on.
Anyways…there were some inferences to be made and it wasn’t spelled out exactly….but I think thats generally what they were going for haha.
But I do agree with you about the last thirty seconds where the girl comes out of the back seat. That was just…unnecessary
Yeah the ending ruins it completely. You *have* to read the short story though..it’s actually, I think, King’s best and he’s written some doozies.
The only problem is I forgot about this movie and sometimes people ask me if I named my kid after ‘the guy in Children Of The Corn’. We didn’t, but we’re keeping lil’ Malachai away from cornfields until he’s at least twelve.
The director, Fritz Kiersch wasn’t happy with the ending either. He said that the producers kept cutting the budget, ”trying to make him fail”, and they had to literally think up the ending while on the road becuase the producers had a deal to have the film in theaters by February 84. He also said that with it’s current ‘THE END’ tagged on, makes it look like one of those B-movies made in the 50’s that ran out of money!! However, apart from these small things, I still think Children of the corn is a classic and despite all the fucking that the studios and producers did with it, it still turned out incredibly well, not to mention intense and complelling. I guess that’s why it had a neverending series that is still going to this very day.