Location: Amazon Prime
Release Date: March 9, 1984
Date Watched: February 25, 2023
Length: 1h 32m
Rating: R
Director: Fritz Kiersch
Top Cast: Peter Horton (Burt), Linda Hamilton (Vicky), John Franklin (Isaac), Courtney Gains (Malachai), Anne Marie McEvoy (Sarah), Robby Kiger (Job)
Ratings 0-10
• Overall – 6
• Scare Factor – 3
• Level of Gore – 1
• Thrills – 5
• Jump Scares – 1
Children of the Corn is based off of a short story by Stephen King. In it children have taken over a town and farm land and are led by one child that claims to take orders from some unseen deity. A couple passing through the area ends up having to go through their town, and they find out why there are no adults around.
I decided to rewatch this classic to prepare for “he who walks behind the rows”, next week. The 2020 remake is supposed to be playing for a short time in theatres, and streaming at the end of March. Shudder owns the rights, so it will likely be streaming there. It had been so long since I’d seen the original that I had forgotten a lot of the important scenes. One of the reasons I like rewatching the ones I haven’t seen in years is that it can be like watching again for the first time. The story and cast are still good. The graphics have not held up well at all, and took a little hit out of my rating. It was the best they had, but I like to judge the films through the eyes of now. If something takes away from the realism, then it takes me out of the story, and can become comical when it is meant to be scary. There is nothing comical about Children of the Corn however. It is still a scary concept and supernatural stuff aside, could happen in real life.
The scare factor is still relevant, even with the films age. The characters Isaac and Malachai alone, are enough to frighten many viewers. I think it will be difficult for the remake to have children as creepy as them. If you like horror with happy endings, you will enjoy this one.
Watch the trailer here:https://youtu.be/Qs6z1D4gVp4
Spoilers Ahead!
It was funny to me that Burt was never afraid of any of the children. He just immediately started yelling and lecturing at them, and then ordered them around as soon as he saw he’d gotten to them. They had stabbed him, taken Vicky hostage, and he knew they killed all of the other adults, but he still seemed to believe they couldn’t hurt him. This attitude might be what saved him. It was kind of funny when he was treating Job like his incompetent assistant. It was also kind of funny when Job was yelling at him over the loud noises to tell him how to start up the machine when he could have just walked over closer.
I suppose it was a happy ending to have both adults survive and decide to adopt the children. It didn’t seem like Burt was a big fan of children. He was just starting his medical internship and now he has to support himself and three people. Vicky went from a single young woman (since Burt wouldn’t commit) to a stay at home mom, most likely. It makes sense that after orphaned children saved your life that you would take them in. They would have had life-long issues from the trauma, but at least they were going to be with adults that had seen it too and could explain things.
I really like the part where Isaac is sacrificed and then he comes back as some kind of zombie demon. I haven’t read the source material yet, and haven’t researched what “he who walks behind the rows” is, but it seems to me like he is supposed to either be the devil or a demon. If he is a demon he’d probably be a higher order one because he seemed to have sent one of his minions into Isaac’s body. Malachai enjoyed his work a little too much, and learned the hard way that “he” didn’t like him killing indiscriminately. I think if Isaac hadn’t gotten to him and started the whole Children of the Corn thing that Malachai still would have become a serial killer. He was probably torturing animals and other children before he was chosen to be the main henchman.
There are sequels so I think we are to believe that Burt didn’t actually kill the creature and he just damaged it. It obviously still had followers because the girl tried to attack them again at the end. I thought it was strange that Burt would be able to change their minds so quickly with how brain washed they were.
Do you think the new version will have a leader as creepy as Isaac?
Image from imdb.com
Corpse Recycling 