CHILDREN OF THE CORN: Oh Look, A Stalk Monster

So far what I have seen come out about this film, in reviews or word of mouth, is people comparing it to the original. I know that’s inevitable because this isn’t the first swing at this ball but for me, I wanted to ignore the movie from 1984 and focus on this Children of The Corn as its own thing. That’s hard to do sometimes because I definitely have a place in my heart for the first film but I feel like this one deserves to be looked at objectively.

We begin with a horrific scene as any good horror movie will do, Eden (Kate Moyer) is playing outside when a young man emerges from the corn. He promises that no one will ever hurt Eden again and proceeds to murder her parents with a rather large knife. The movie wastes no time jumping into the violence. When Eden is taken to the police station for questioning she’s already transitioned from an innocent little girl into something else. The scenes are stolen by Kate Moyer, she does a fantastic job.

From there it follows that the corn harvest is in trouble and the adults of the town aren’t quite sure how to fix the problem. All that is going on as the children are forming a cult of their own because He Who Walks Behind The Rows wants the kids to save his crop. The children aren’t possessed so much as they’re brainwashed by Eden into doing her and the hidden monsters bidding. Adults are rounded up and murdered as the children of the corn attempt to save the harvest leading to a wild third act reveal that I’m not entirely sure what to think of.

What Children Of The Corn Got Right

The film was directed by Kurt Wimmer who you may know as the director of Equilibrium and as with that movie, this one also has a rather interesting visual style. He does a lot with angles and as for the violence it’s clear that he thinks that more is more, no less is more here. There’s nothing wrong with that, it is a horror movie after all and here, the practical effects are gory and glorious.

I want to give a shoutout to the casting director who did an awesome job as well, both the adults and the children are fantastic. The players here include; Elena Kampouris, Callan Mulvey, Sisi Stringer, Bruce Spence, Alyla Browne, and Erika Heynatz. Of course, like I said earlier, Kate Moyer completely steals the show. It’s her world, everyone else is just living in it. A tremendous young talent. The scene where she’s at a podium giving a speech like dictators from the past was particularly well done on her part. I felt like I was watching a tiny Stalin take control of her people.

Lastly, I want to talk about length. It’s a short film, only 90 minutes, and honestly, it didn’t need to be any longer. Three quick acts very efficiently tell the story that they set out to tell. It really seems like filmmakers these days feel like longer is better, that if it’s three hours it’s automatically epic. That rarely is true. Sometimes, for the sake of everyone, it’s okay to just give us a quick bite of cinema and let us go home.

What Children Of The Corn Got Wrong

Again I’m not going to compare this to the original film but what I can compare it to is the source material. The actual story from Stephen King. When I do that I find that this adaptation is completely all over the place. The subtext is lost, and the story is modified, and not for the better. Being different for the sake of being different doesn’t always yield good results. Sometimes it’s a disaster.

I mentioned the runtime as a positive and I meant it, it was a short movie. Even with that short runtime though there are parts of the film that drag along. Scenes that aren’t doing anything for the story or characters that go on far too long. This movie was 90 minutes when it should have been 75. I wouldn’t have been mad about that.

And finally, He Who Walks Behind The Rows did not need to be seen. At all. That concept works better for sure as a disembodied voice in someone’s head or watching the corn move in unnatural ways but what we got… we got a 12-foot corn monster made up of stalks. Yes, it ripped someone in half but come on, if the wind had been blowing that fellow would have ended up in Wichita, Kansas.

Conclusion:

I wouldn’t say I was excited to see this as much as I was curious. The movie was made in 2020 and then sat on a shelf for years and I really wanted to know why. Of course, I always go into these things hoping that they will be amazing, especially a King adaptation, but we don’t know until we watch them do we? This film let me down a little bit, I won’t lie. The source material deserved better.

They did leave the ending open for a sequel and how they left it off could end up being an interesting take. Honestly, they could have begun this movie that way and given us a radically different and fun experience. It would have been a film I enjoyed far better than the one we were handed. That said, there are still some bright spots to be celebrated. The kids really did a fantastic job, I will keep singing the praises of Kate Moyer to anyone and everyone who will listen.

I will probably watch this again, it is far from a perfect film but if I can remove all expectations and pretend that I don’t know the original or the written story then it’s almost a good time. I never get tired of the creepy kids trope, maybe because I have creepy kids of my own, I can’t be sure, but that just always puts a smile on my face.

Children of the Corn was released in theaters on March 3, 2023 and will be released VOD on March 21, 2023!

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