Children of the Corn

UPC: 013138305084

Studio: Starz/Anchor Bay

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Graphic Violence, Not For Children, Adult Language, Profanity]

Summary: Narrator Job (Robby Kiger) relates the tale of Gatlin, NE, where one day the children, led by a boy preacher named Isaac (John Franklin), rose up and slaughtered all the grown-ups. A few years later, Job and his sister, Sarah (Ammemarie McEvoy), help their friend, Joseph (Jonas Marlowe), try to escape through the cornfields of Gatlin. Meanwhile, Burt Stanton (Peter Horton), a commitment-phobic young doctor, and Vicky Baxter (Linda Hamilton), his frustrated girlfriend, travel through the cornfield-lined roads of Nebraska on their way to Burt's new internship in Omaha. Their car hits Joseph, who appears out of nowhere, but upon examining him, Burt realizes the child's throat was slit before he ever wandered out from the corn. Attempting to locate help, Burt and Vicky turn to gas-station owner Diehl (R.G. Armstrong), who urges the couple to go anywhere but nearby Gatlin to report the murder. Several contradictory street signs later, they arrive in Gatlin anyway, and, befriending Sarah and Joseph, attempt to uncover the mystery behind Isaac's cult and its mysterious deity, known only as He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Stephen King cash-ins flooded the market between the successes of Brian DePalma's Carrie (1976) and Rob Reiner's Misery (1990), many of them, like Children of the Corn, based only loosely on the author's fiction. The original short story appeared in the collection Night Shift. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Category: Horror

Features: Audio commentary with directior Fritz Kiersch, producer Terrence Kirby and actors John Franklin and Courtney Gains
Fast film facts
New Welcome to Gatlin: the sights & sounds of Children of the Corn: an interview with production designer Craig Stearns & composer Jonathan Elias
New It Was the Eighties! an interview with Linda Hamilton
New Stephen King On a Shoestring: an interview with producer Donald P. Borchers
Harvesting Horror: Children of the Corn - a documentary featuring interviews with director Fritz Kiersch and actors John Franklin and Courtney Gains
Theatrical trailer
Original storyboard art
Poster and still gallery
Original title sequence art

Children of the Corn

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 08/25/2009

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DTHD null

Runtime: 92 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: Spanish

Brian J. Dillard

Although by no means a horror classic, this low-budget Stephen King adaptation stands out from a crop of similar '80s slasher films by virtue of its scary premise, spooky music, inspired casting, and tightly plotted, if frequently hammy, script. Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton star, but it's the child actors who make the most indelible impressions. John Franklin has one of those faces that looks ancient before it even hits puberty, making him the perfect choice for pint-sized cult leader Isaac. Redheaded teen actor Courtney Gaines is even better as Malachi, Isaac's menacing, machete-wielding henchman. Robby Kiger and Annemarie McEvoy make convincing if occasionally cutesy young protagonists. And in one of the few adult roles, horror-Western veteran R.G. Armstrong plays a crusty gas station owner with campy aplomb. Despite a few unfortunate digressions into primitive-synthesizer mode, Jonathan Elias makes great use of a haunting children's choir in his deeply creepy score; the music works especially well during the clever title sequence, which tells the story of the titular children's rise to power in a series of sicko crayon drawings. Cheap special effects keep the climax from measuring up to the opening credits, but for the first two acts, director Fritz Kiersch relies on ambience and the mere suggestion of violence to exact maximum nail-biting intensity from the material. Kiersch does occasionally let the hoary dialogue get the best of his actors -- particularly Horton, whose character bizarrely attempts to argue morality with a group of bloodthirsty, parentally unsupervised young religious fanatics who are holding him at knifepoint in a derelict church. But several truly scary scenes and bits of dialogue -- "He wants you too, Malachi" being only the most quotable -- made this film a staple of suburban nightmares when it appeared on cable channels throughout the mid-'80s. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Cast and Crew: D.G. Johnson  Actor 
David Cowan  Actor 
Teresa Toigo  Actor 
Eric Freeman  Actor 
Dan Snook  Actor 
Mitch Carter  Actor 
Elmer Soderstrom  Actor 
Suzy Southam  Actor 
Patrick Boylan  Actor 
Donald P. Borchers  Producer 
Jonathan Elias  Composer (Music Score) 
George Goldsmith  Screenwriter 
Fritz Kiersch  Director 
Stephen King  Screenwriter 
Charles Weber  Executive Producer 
Charles Weber  Producer 
Mark Lipson  Producer 
Earl A. Glick  Executive Producer 
Terence Kirby  Producer 
Peter Horton  Actor 
Linda Hamilton  Actor 
R.G. Armstrong  Actor 
John Franklin  Actor 
Courtney Gains  Actor 
Robby Kiger  Actor 
Annemarie McEvoy  Actor 
Julie Maddalena  Actor 
Jonas Marlowe  Actor 
John Philbin  Actor 

Country: USA