Movies-TV

Canned Corn

I have never read a Stephen King book, because just about every Stephen King movie I have ever seen really blows. CARRIE is an exception, and it was only good at the end. THE SHINING was boring as hell until Jack Nicholson finally went nuts, and who can blame him considering he was married to Olive Oyl-Shelley Duvall?? CHRISTINE?? A car that runs by itself?? Give me a break. How about a Cadillac which is driven by a senile 85 year old man who runs over people and forgets about it? That would be believable. What about the dumb movie with the trucks that drive by themselves and attack a service station-diner (Maximum Overdrive?). CHILDREN OF THE CORN is typically dumb Stephen King. No explanation for anything. SPOILERS: The DEBBIL is in DA CORN. DAT'S ALL FOLKS. At least this movie has a cast of ugly, creepy, mongo kids. Isaac looks like a young MOE from the THREE STOOGES and Malachi is a suitably irritating buck-toothed creep. The rest of the kids are pretty much from the rejected mutant DNA pool. These kids looked like the kind that would all kill their parents. I think this movie rips off Rod Serling's story about the evil kid (Bill Mumy) who used to put people in the corn field. Just like the Rod Serling town, nobody seems to be visiting this Corn City. Just the psycho kids who are busy killing off anyone who turns 19 years old. This movie is really dumb, but the mongo kids make it interesting. Linda Hamilton is in it and she is usually interesting. Peter Horton plays her thick headed boyfriend who just has to investigate the town and is so dense he never gets it until the end. As kids with knives, pitchforks, etc. run after him in scene after scene; Horton just casually jogs away. I wonder if he was on some happy pills during the filming of this movie or if he just thought it was so stupid that he could never wipe the smirk off his face. The various scenes where the crazy kids are emoting are ruined by Horton, who looks totally laid back and ready to clock-out and pick up his paycheck. At one point he is stabbed in the chest, and even then as he is running away from younger kids (who were not stabbed), he looks like he is doing a slow-motion commercial for hair spray. Every time he is in a scene he seems to be thinking "I am the prettiest one in this movie." Nobody has ever stabbed me in the chest, but I think I would not have a big pie-eating grin on my face when it happened! Horton's bizarre acting skills ruined this dumb movie. At least with someone who was emoting as much as the nutty kids, it would have been a good B movie. But with Horton dancing through it, CHILDREN OF THE CORN is just a bad movie with bad actors who do a bad job. At one point Horton just walks into the kids' town meeting to reason them out of killing him, and it works (except for one girl who stabs him but good). Negotiating with homicidal kids?? But aren't they possessed by the Corn Debbil?? So how can they just toss their pitchforks on the ground and forget about Isaac and Malachi?? Why ask why? What is the thing in the ground? At the end of the movie, the underground earth-moving thing has caught up with Job and then stops, as if the guy running the FX remembered that little Job had to turn on the irrigation machine because Horton was too dumb to figure out how to push the button. CHILDREN OF THE CORN would have been much better if Linda Hamilton had been the survivor and she could have creamed the corn king.

The Orignal film

Many fans and critics of the horror gene has given the children of the corn films a bad reputation. But, ignore them and focus on the film itself and what you think of it. There is six children of the corn films in the sereis, leaving no room for a seventh at the end of the sixth film (CHILDREN OF THE CORN 666 ISAACS RETURN). If you read the book Night Shift, Children Of The Corn is orgianlly a short story that was written by Stephen King. Of course, the book is completely different from the movie. The movie has a good ending while the book does not. There is features on this film [Amazon.com] just didn't put it in. There is a theatrical trailer, 5X7 theatrical poster, 16 page collector's booklet, dolby digital 5.1, and widescreen 1.85:1 (ANAMORPHIC). The first children of the corn film that was released to dvd was Children Of The Corn 666 Isaac's Return which had no features. This film is a good and entertaining campy film that lives up to the title. Anchor Bay did do a good

job on doing it. So if you own a dvd player and a VHS copy of the film then get rid of the VHS copy and buy this one.

kind of a bore...

yea yea yea its a cult classic and very memorable...but why...stephen king is an amazing writer, but this is weak...its not very suspensful, not very well acted, the score tho is probably the best ive ever heard from a horror movie, but the story line is slow and at times very boring. And a lot of the characters are really annoying i mean, they make you want to take a gun to your TV annoying! Isaac, i wanted to slaughter that high pitched, midget friend of Dorothy, always complaining and going on! and malachae or w/e his name is...the dood with the red mullet and horse jaw....he annoyed me more than isaac...and whats with the stupid ending? the visual looks sooooo bad and soooo stupid! this movie as a whole just makes me mad....ok im changing the rating from a 3 to a 2. Only reasons its getting 2 stars is cuz the music is awesome and its by stephen king....other than that...its not worth it

And a child shall lead them...

This is the tale of a young couple (Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton) stranded in the deserted little town of Gatlin, Nebraska and stalked by a pack of adult killing children worshipping a demon living in the cornfields. This very atmospheric piece is a rather humble b-movie that boasts an unusual and interesting premise (thanks to a pretty good short story by Stephen King) and delivers some decent performances from its cast (which is rare with children in general). Although soft in its depiction of violence, the movie offers some creepy moments (especially in the still effective opening sequence). John Franklin, excellent as the child-preacher Isaac, makes for one odd and creepy looking kid and Courtney Gains inhabits his psychopathic Malachai character with obvious delight. The cornfields are beautifully shot and the overall is boosted by a pretty efficient score by Jonathan Ellias. And to top this all up, R.G. Armstrong makes here an appearance (albeit a too short one) as a recluse gas station owner. Don't be fooled though. The movie is far to be a masterpiece. At leading endlessly its main characters around cornfields and then through the deserted town (direct effect of superficially expanding a short story to feature film length), the movie ends up suffering from its slow pace ("Things just aren't happening fast enough" even says Horton at some point) with the characters taking what seems like an improbable amount of time to realise what is afoot. The danger of young and impressionable minds blindly following extremist religious leaders is certainly an interesting theme but is here barely tapped into. Finally the climatic sequence, with the manifestation of the collie flower looking "He Who Walks Behind The Rows", is a bit of a let down to say the least. Those (not so minor) details however are not enough to warrant the bad press the movie gathered upon release (and Stephen King's severe criticisms). "Children of the Corn" is a well performed little soft core horror b-movie that surprisingly enough spawned a franchise and still provides eerie ambiance and creepiness that even, at times, make the few cheap scares work.

Seven films from one short story

This stiff-as-a-board horror wants to be a cross between 'The Wicker Man' and 'Village of the Damned', but those are good films and this isn't. Based on a short story by Stephen King, it stars Linda Hamilton and Peter Horton as a nice couple who turn up in a town beset by a cult of murderous children. You can see the gaping hole where the atmosphere should be as the movie resolutely fails to round up any level of creepiness or tension, plodding through its story with little enthusiasm. Admittedly some of the final scenes are a bit weird, but once corn starts popping up all over the place, I'd had more than enough. I'll have to get round to reading King's story some time, it's bound to be better than this.

Freaky Movie

I enjoyed this movie cause i like Horror movies with kids in them. The movie starts out with your ordinary Sunday morning Church service. Everyone in the town is going to the local cafe for an after-Church service dinner get together. Well, everyone is having a good time untill the kids show up and come into the dinner. They stand around till thier 9-year old leader come to window and gives them a signal. They kill all the adults. Then the movie comes back to present day and shows 3 kids helping thier sibling try to escape. The kid runs through the corn field, but Malachi gets him and slits his throat and throws him out into the road where this couple hit him. They ride into Gatlin and find there is no one there except kids. They find a little girl names Sarah who tells them whats all going on till the kids show up and take the wife away to sacrafice to "he who walks behind the rows" Thier leader is Issac. He tells all th ekids they need to get rid of all the adults...and they listen. Soon, her husband finds her in the corn field where the final showcase is and saves her and they rescue Sarah and her older brother Job they are the 2 kids that tried to help thier sibling escape) Its a pretty freaky movie. When the kids turn 19, they get a knife and engrave the star of the devil thing on thier chest and pass around the little blood dish to the other kids and give thierselves up to "he who walks behind the rows" good movie though, the storey stinked though in "Night Shift".

Corny is the word

Children of the Corn isn't a bad movie, but it is certainly not very scary. When I was young and this movie was new, my conception of the movie was wrapped in an aura of fright, but now that I have finally watched it, I don't know where that aura came from. The theme of the movie is nothing new, really, but it has real potential by its very nature. In Gatlin, Nebraska, there are virtually no adults; the children, led by the young and powerful Isaac with the help of head goon Malachai, murdered all of the adults in the name of religious mania. He Who Walks Behind the Rows made himself known to Isaac, and that is where all the trouble started three years earlier. Only two children are not active participants in the twisted religion of Gatlin children-Job and Sarah. Sara has the "gift of sight," oftentimes revealing future events in her crayon drawings. Now two strangers have come to town, having run over an already murdered youngster who had tried to escape through the corn fields. The fate of adults in town is not really a deep secret, but our heroes stumble around idiotically, wising up only when the children have made their move.

John Franklin gives an impressive performance as the young prophet Isaac, adding a real sense of realism this movie had to have in order to work. Courtney Gains plays his character Malachai very well, but unfortunately the "farm implement of death"-happy Malachai is one of the most annoying characters in the history of moviemaking. Our unsuspecting adult "interlopers" are OK but not outstanding; Peter Horton gives a credible yet unspectacular performance, and a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton serves the necessary function of generating sympathy for the grown-ups. The children Job and Sarah are likeable, but the fact that Job serves as the film's de facto narrator gives a part of the story away fairly early on.

One is left with any number of questions after viewing the film. Since the murder of the town's adults took place three years prior to the arrival of the interlopers, why do even the youngest kids look exactly the same? Why do some seem too old to be children to start with? Who plants all this corn, anyway, and why wouldn't the ill-fated runaway choose to escape during winter, when the corn would presumably be much easier to navigate? Why are the two adults so slow-witted? The movie begs many more questions than it answers. One is also hard pressed to figure out what exactly He Who Walks Behind the Rows really is. The special effects witnessed at the concluding moments of the movie are unspectacular and unilluminating, and the conclusion does little more than simply bring the movie to a close. The adults' reactions to events are often inconsistent and seemingly peculiar, at times making the plot sound as weak as it sometimes is. I won't blame Stephen King for the faults of this film adaptation of his work, particularly given the fact that it takes great liberty with his original short story. This isn't a movie to avoid, but it basically serves as a diversion rather than a gripping horror story to the would-be viewer.

A great classic..!! -A really inspired masterpeice..!!

I've really love; -this masterpeice.. -Not as brilliant as a
masterpeice though. -I've herd that a real; -special
edition with extra features are comming out..! -That's
why I did not get the original edition..! -Becuase it's
just waste of money that you spend it on some DVD with
out the goodie's.. -I'm a goodie's; -fan's..!!

I think that; -Stephen king.. -Will finally; -respect
his art of work..! -Even he's not included in the extra's..!
I've saw this movie when I was a child..! -It totally did
freaked me out at the end..! -Even the beginning where he
slaughter's all the parent's..! -I've seen this on video
when my dad wooed rent lot's of these horror movie's when
this one came out.! -I remember this flick; -perfectly

Well..! -I can't weight too see the digg's of this new
Special edition.. -I think the transfer will be top notch..?
any how; -it is just an old movie..! -Old movie's; -can't
seem too be better..! -These day's..! -I've also have
"Creepshow 2.." -1987.. -Which had nothing..! -I've guest
I've shooed of gotten the original with it..! -But I've
cerntinaly enjoy this better then; -"Creepshow.." -1982..

Back with the; -flick..! -I've think that; -Children of
the Corn II: -The Final Sacrifice.." -1992.. -Was a lot
better..! -Yep..! -They totally messed the sequel's up..!
Permintally..! -The other's had nothing too deal with the
second one..! -If you are a hardcore fan..!! -Stick with
this; -and; -the second one..?

A couple of travlers from a country site..!! -Vickie and
Burt..! -Go two a rural
town.. -As they've discover a deadly secret of the town's
history..! -Their own fate..!! -A crazy wacho preacher
has brutally kille the parent's; -after a service at the
church..! -Until; -Vickie and burt..! -As
the two stumble into a corn field..! -They run over a kid..!

They meet some kid's at some secluded farm house..! -And
take them with them..? -But the town know's their here..?
and Issac.. -The town loony preacher..? -Will not give up
with out a fight; -as they fight and kill a gasstation
man and his dog.. -The ending is a resemblance of; -John
Carpenter's; -"The Thing.." -1982.. -Were we see some
god alwfull human that Issac has brought down..?

The ending is downright; -waterdown..!! -Their are great
moment's; -in this flick..! -But sometime's the movie
can bore you or just entertain you; -from the beginning..!

Never the less..! -This was a fun movie two watch..!!
I'll be glad too have fun with it..? -Again..!

Ya Got Trouble, Right Here In Gatlin City

Maybe if those kids in Gatlin, Nebraska had gotten a visit from Professor Harold Hill and a boys band out of it, maybe they might not have killed all their parents. This Stephen King view of the mid-west sure makes one nostalgic for The Music Man.It's one strange place that married couple Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton have come on their cross country journey. It reminded me of driving through Pennsylvania and the Amish country where you cannot get off the Pennsylvania Turnpike for ages, but on either side of the roads, nothing but woods and on the overpasses, Amish carts. Here it's nothing but corn and when Peter Horton thinks he's hit a child on the road he goes for help and there's none. The town has been taken over by the devil himself working his evil through a young child preacher played by John Franklin. All the adults have been killed and the children are his disciples.Of course some of the older ones are reaching puberty and the guy who was the high school bully Courtney Gains chafes under Franklin's leadership. He tries a palace coup d'etat, something along the lines of what old Lucifer himself did in heaven and everybody pays.Children of the Corn is a good adaption of the Stephen King novel, it will please his legion of fans and maybe convert a few others.

The movie that changed my life...

Oh my gosh! Children of the Corn is my all time favorite movie and probably the only Stephen King movie that I'll ever watch.I first thought of watching COTC when I saw it on vh1's I Love the 80's. It just looked so interesting! It is so not scary, although the first time you see it, it's really suspenseful. This movie gives you a creepy and lonely feeling when the young couple is driving through the deserted town that seems to be only populated by children. The music also adds the eeriness and the theme song is really catchy! Even though there's minimum gore, there's a few startling spots.All of the characters are really likable; even the villains! My favorite character would have to be Malachai, the hot red headed killer. He is just so hot and since I've seen it so many times, it's just really sad when he dies. I also like Isaac, the really short leader who does everything He Who Walks Behind the Rows says. Sarah and Job are so cute, and Rachel (I think) she's hilarious! Sometimes I just want the kids to win for once, you know? Ever since I first saw this, I became an obsessed corn kid. I love quoting lines from the movie. I even decorated the front cover of a spiral pictures from COTC. No matter how many times I see COTC, I never get bored. If you are just as obsessed as I am, you should buy the 20th anniversary DVD and I am very lucky to own it! Thank you Stephen King for writing such a great story! I would totally recommend COTC to anyone, but mainly kids and not adults because what I've noticed is that kids tend to enjoy it more. So, anyone who hasn't seen it should.

WHAT?

POSSIBLE SPOILERS!I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but when reading that some people on this page have called this a classic i just laughed because i thought they couldn't be serious. To my horror i found that they WERE serious and my laughter turned into muddled confusion. I would just like to ask what is in this film that makes it any good let alone a classic? Sure it has a creepy concept but I'm afraid to say that in MY opinion that is all it has going for it. Hell even the trailer was scarier than the movie itself.OK i'm getting ahead of myself here, this movie isn't as bad I'm making out to be but it suffers from what i like to call Jeepers Creepers syndrom. This is when a very promising first half is let down by an absolutely god awful second half (in Jeepers Creepers the second half is crap coz you realize the monster is actually a man in a latex mask).This film also takes far too long to get going (ala Dreamcatcher). There is a decidedly grim opening in which the children of the town kill all the adults, and a scene where one of the kids tries to escape through the corn fields only to have his throat cut up, but pretty much from then on in (20 mins and onwards) the film goes from being dull, to boring, to stupid, to laughable and then starts all over again. And Linda Hamilton, what are you doing? You've made two of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made along with the crap yet strangely fun Dante's Peak and you chose to do this? And so early in your career too, I'm surprised you were able to work in Hollywood again. It's as if your name on the poster (after the success of The Terminator) would add some credibility to the film but alas no, it seems that nothing can save this film.And can i just ask what makes and man with long ginger hair, a mouth like Steve Tyler's and gangly teeth scary? And the fact that he's taking orders from a kid half his size, i mean how does that work? I was surprised he didn't mutiniy earlier on in the film. It also has one of the most laughable endings on the planet. Oh a red cloud coming out of the corn field. Come on I've seen episodes of the Teletubbies that a more terrifying.This movie is low, boring and crap. I would advise you to stay away from this one.1/5

funny

The Stephen King short story was truly terrifying. This movie isn't. If anything, it's funny. I even had a roommate at college that looked almost exactly like Isaac. King's short story had a dark ending with a valuable lesson of doing what your instincts tell you to do. I think what ruined this one was the insistence of some producer to give it a "send everyone home happy" type of ending.Yes, trivia fans, the Courtney Gains who played Malachi is the same Courtney Gains in Back to the Future who tries to step in on George and Lorraine McFly's dance. He also was the sheriff in Sweet Home Alabama.

Children of the Corn

This film is absolutely perfect. This is one you can watch with your kids/parents. Children of the corn has a few scary moments but is mainly just an awesome thriller. Malachi and Isaac are awesome in this film. Stephen King is a genius and the plot to this movie is something almost as good as the original Halloween plot. This movie has what most horror flicks don't...Personality! Definetly pick this one up.

Ugh.. a dissapointment

Maybe I'm a little biased after reading the excellent King short story upon which this movie is based... or maybe this movie just really sucks. Whichever, by the goofy climax of this wanna-be horror flick, I was feeling more than a little let down. Why is it that so many King adaptations fail so miserably? I can understand the difficulty in translating King's superlative prose into a feature film, but why must the acting be so bad. And why why why does the creepy atmosphere of the story have to be completely destroyed? I'll give you an example: in King's writing, the great creature at the end (He Who Walks Behind the Rows) is a genuinely frightening entity (I won't give away too much). However, in the film, this beast is portrayed as a stupid, hokey "force" (probably due to budget restrictions)... I dunno.. maybe I'm taking it all a little too seriously, and if I am I apologize. Still, I'd reccomend seeing the film before you read the story. That way can enjoy it's senseless violence without feeling a longing for King's true ability.

Back to the '80s

Before watching this movie, remember you are going to see an adaptation from a few-pages-long story by Stephen King, performed during the late eighties, when horror movies were the main attraction to young teenagers.
The movie is ridiculous, even if the story is pretty interesting. There are few moments of suspance, but actors aren't really there. It's a kind of a B-movie, with a solid background and incredibly low quality effects.
Anyway, it's interesting to see and to have, as the sign of a very different age.
The DVD is quite well mastered. Images are very noisy because of film grain, but otherwise consistent. Contrast is quite low, and this makes colours a bit washed out.
The sound is a multichannel remix from Chase, encoded in DD 5.1. Anyway dialogues are quite dated and so are the effects. Basses are too boomy and the soundfield collapses too often into the center channel.
The extras are very limited: there's a small booklet and a trailer. That's it.

So-So Stephen King Adaptation.

Based on Stephen King's short novel, "Children of the Corn" is a fairly underrated horror film. The film begins with a peaceful Sunday morning at a small-town coffee shop. Everyone has gotten out of church, and enjoying their breakfast and coffee. But wait! A group of creepy children approach the diner, and the waitress poisons the coffee. The kids storm in, slashing and hacking all the adults in the shop, leaving one small boy in the midst of bloody corpses. We then cut to present day, where a couple, Bert and Vicky (Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton) are driving through isolated Nebraska. While driving, a young boy (who was just attacked when trying to escape his town) runs into the road, clutching his throat. Bert slams on the brakes, but it's too late, and they hit the poor kid. He's obviously dead, so they put him in the trunk and after trying to find a larger city, they resort to the empty ghost town of Gatlin for help. Little do they know, there is a psychotic brainwashed cult of adult-hating children who worship "he who walks behind the rows"...I found the story for this film, based on King's short novel, to be actually pretty interesting. Corn fields are a little eerie to begin with, but they're even creepier when they're hiding a group of scythe-wielding little murderous kids who belong to a bizarre, adult-butchering cult. The opening scene of the film (the coffee shop massacre) is brilliant, and goes down on my list of classic horror scenes. The movie from there on is pretty atmospheric and eerie, initializing scenes of the child cult conducting numerous rituals and the innocent young couple having trouble in the isolated countryside. These scenes are spooky and atmospheric.The cinematography here is nice and the natural eeriness of corn fields is captured well, but a complaint would be the extremely fake-looking special effects displayed in the final act of the movie, they are really laughable, and the lack of scares this film delivers. It really could have been creepier, and I felt it was a little flat in that respect. Aside from that though, the movie was visually good. The acting is pretty decent, Barton and Hamilton both gave worthy performances, and John Franklin (who plays the leader of the cult, Isaac) is one creepy looking little guy (as he is conveyed in the movie at least). And there are plenty of gore scenes and neat little touches to the film that should please most horror fans.Overall, "Children of the Corn" is a decent movie. It's not perfect and surely has it's flaws, but all things considered, it's pretty entertaining and has some good things to offer for the genre. This film seems to have been getting some bad reviews, but I don't think it's all so bad. Definitely see it if you're a fan of Stephen King. 6/10.

Funny

I'm sorry, but my best friend and I could watch this movie, over and over and over. In fact, we did. We have the entire movie memorized. This may seem scary to some, but this movie is so funny! Each line is classic, and has it's own individual spice.

The movie that started all the unnecessary sequels

Children of the Corn the film that started all the unnecessary sequels. Cotc wasn't a bad movie but wasn't good either it was just OK a movie that if you had some spare time you might as well watch it you might like it. The story is about in a mid western town called Gatlin a preacher named Isaac gets all the kids to murder all the adults in town, then a couple who are traveling knock a kid over and go to the nearest town which is Gatlin to report it. I was looking forward to watching this movie but was disappointed because I thought the acting was bad, it wasn't long enough and the main characters got out of the situation quickly and easily with not much effort. Overall i think this movie is OK and worth seeing.

He wants you too Malachai...

I'm usually a fan of Stephen King movie adaptations, so I knew this was going to be good from the start. And it was. I enjoyed this movie very much. I always missed it on TV, so I finally bought it out of curiosity. I was not disappointed at all either. The characters were all very likable. You rooted for the good guys, but at the same time wanted to see the bad guys doing their thing. There were only 2 big things that made me give this an 8 rather than a 10. One thing that knocked a star off of this movie's rating were the special FX. They seemed very unnecessary and were ridiculous also to the point of giggling at them. Another star-killer was the movie's pacing. Some things in the movie went by in about 30 seconds, while others took almost 2 scenes to complete. However, this movie didn't have to use the "night" tactic to be eerie. The eeriness was that it took place in the middle of the day. Now I'll be sure to carry a knife whenever going into a cornfield. I give this 8/10, a true Stephen King classic. And more deserving than the 5.0 rating (as of 2/22/08)

Like it or Hate it

Like many of the Corn movies (seven as of 2001!) I find that either people like this one or hate it. Some viewers despise the plot and say the setting is cheesy and the acting is bad, and that after watching it years later after we've all our bad tastes of horror flicks- let us not forget the Scream series- they find it is not as scary anymore. All I have to say is that if you're open-minded and you're into a plot about what would happen if these kids took over (sound familiar? sounds like my home town...) then definitely see it. I, personally, love this movie, although I started the second one and I couldn't finish it because I was laughing too hard. I'll try the third one, but really, the original horror movies are usually the best and in this case that is very true. On to the plot: This is basically about two newcomers who come to this deserted town and find out that these children are actually killers and worship 'Thee Who Walks Behind the Rows', a demon in the corn fields that speaks to Issac only, the leader of the children. Of course, there's the rebellious Malachai who turns it all around for the children in the end, and then to make matters worse there are now two new adults: things really get busy! I think this is the most appealing because you pretty much find out everything as the adults do, as opposed to the other movies where you pretty much expect just all these adult killings, although I've only seen the 6th one (which should be illegal in the US because it's so horrible). But anyway, a 7th Corn Movie is on its way, and it's on Post Production last time I checked, so maybe things have turned around! All I can see is that a new sequel is coming out every two years, but none will ever match up to this one. So see it! I give it an 8 out of 10!