Children of the Corn (1984)
A creepy thriller based on the story by Stephen King.
Laura’s Rating: 2.5/5 Stars
Plot: A young couple find themselves in a seemingly abandoned town, until they run into a group of children belonging to a cult led by a child preacher.
Opinion: I love a good cult. Creepy kids can be super unsettling. Remote cornfields feel far away from the sanity and safety of civilization. This movie has the right ingredients for a good horror movie, but it kind of flops in my opinion.
The first few scenes set a great stage for the rest of the film, but then the movie drags on for a while and I wanted to (and probably could have) sped through about 40 straight minutes.
One issue for me is that the creepy kids aren’t that creepy. Sure they’re unsettling, but most don’t have a personality and the ones that do just fight with each other. This felt more like a Lord of the Flies adaptation set in Nebraska (but filmed in Iowa) rather than a horror movie centered on a cult of killer children.
I’m not a special effects snob and I don’t usually mind movies that appear a bit dated. But I have to say, the end of this film included some of the worst special effects I’ve ever seen.
There’s obvious religious messaging and overtones, with many traditional Christian symbols being adapted into corn themed corn objects. The lessons are obvious: don’t worship false prophets, groupthink can be dangerous, extreme religion often loses sight of the values of love and belonging. According to screenwriter George Goldsmith, the movie even goes so far as to function as a metaphor for the Iranian Revolution and the dangers of religious fundamentalism.
Whatever message you take from it, it’s not a great movie. I’m not a big fan and would recommend a lot of other 80s horror flicks before this one.
Comments