Seminal ‘80s horror flick holds up well enough.
Before there was Stranger Things or any other retro goodness, stories from the mind of Stephen King were fodder for Hollywood’s horror machine. In Children of the Corn, the author taps into some fantastic generational conflict, enacted in an iconic setting of stalks and rows.
Starring Peter Horton as Burt and Linda Hamilton as Vicky, the movie shows outsiders stumbling onto a scene out of, well, a Stephen King short story. A tiny midwestern town has been turned upside down, as the youngsters have purged (read: killed) the adults, all under the auspices of a religious directive.
Creepy besuited leader Isaac (John Franklin) and head enforcer Malachai (Courtney Gains) create an iconic duo of eee-vil. The speech patterns are all Pilgrim and Puritans, and vengeance and blood are the order of the day!
Like many other King stories, there’s a hideous monster behind all of this, here in the form of “He Who Walks Behind the Rows.” This demonic force is nothing in terms of frightening compared to these deluded kids, roaming free to slit the throats of The Unbelievers.
Time after time, Peter, the recently graduated medical doctor, forgoes Vicky’s sound advice and continues to dig them deeper and deeper in a terror hole. It’s laughable, but a perfect encapsulation of Reagan-era gender-role dynamics. Horton is a few years away from being the sandy-haired hunk on Thirtysomething, but he tries his best to be an alpha male in a thinking man’s getup.
Hamilton is a bit of a scream queen, but gets way too little screen time considering in a few years she’ll dominate in the Terminator series. She’s underused but still great.
Even though the acting can be a little much and the evil a bit forced, Children of the Corn is a true ‘80s classic, iconic not only for its characters but for turning placid fields of corn into a hotbed of horror. Be careful next time you hit the road.
Special Edition Blu-ray
Now available from Arrow Video
Features and Extras
- Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative
- Brand new audio commentary with horror journalist Justin Beahm and Children of the Corn historian John Sullivan
- Audio commentary with director Fritz Kiersch, producer Terrence Kirby, and actors John Franklin and Courtney Gains
- Harvesting Horror: The Making of Children of the Corn retrospective piece featuring interviews with director Fritz Kiersch and actors John Franklin and Courtney Gains
- …And a Child Shall Lead Them a brand new interview with actors Julie Maddalena and John Philbin
- It Was the Eighties! an interview with actress Linda Hamilton
- Field of Nightmares a brand new interview with writer George Goldsmith
- Return to Gatlin brand new featurette revisiting the film’s original Iowa shooting locations
- Stephen King on a Shoestring an interview with producer Donald Borchers
- Welcome to Gatlin: The Sights and Sounds of Children of the Corn an interview with production designer Craig Stearns and composer Jonathan Elias
- Cut from the Cornfield an interview with actor Rich Kleinberg on the infamous lost Blue Man Scene
- Disciples of the Crow 1983 short film adaptation of Stephen King’s story
- Storyboard gallery
- Original Theatrical Trailer
