Stephen King's short story Children of the Corn is wickedly disturbing, the idea of a small town being overrun by a cult of children, worshiping an ungodly entity is quite spooky. Credit to George Goldsmith and Fritz Kiersch for pulling of the chilling King concepts and atmosphere. The editing and sound was uniquely done, using odd shots, grittier images and fast paced filming techniques. Also, the filmmakers delivered on portraying the children as gruesome, evil figures. Both the young actors, John Franklin and Courtney Gains worked perfectly together as the film's arch villains, Isaac and Malachai. There roles were equally sinister, and their lines delivered to each were enthralling. The lead roles of Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton were also a team that had good chemistry on screen. A couple downfalls with the film include situational scenes cliché in horror and a subpar ending. Children of the Corn is underrated 80's horror flick that shouldn't be skipped by the genre's viewers.

I can remember renting this out on VHS back in the 1980's when it came out & watching it twice within 24 hours. Don't think that I've seen this, the original, since, until now, having just sat down with my teenage son - who's a bit of a Stephen King fan - and watched it on DVD. Certainly looks dated now, especially the demon effects, and also a lot tamer than I remember (my copy is rated 18 but surely it would now be a 15), though there are a couple of jump scenes. I also recall reading the short story, needless to say that it was better than the film. However, it's still good viewing & I'm giving it 7/10, nostalgia being reflected in my score.

Looking back, I really haven't seen that many Stephen King movies. I'm not going to go through all the work of seeing the miniseries, just his regular feature length movies. The main problem with this film is that it's needlessly padded. There are so many scenes that drag on that just show the characters looking at corn. We never even really get a good idea of what the monster is. Is it actually a manifestation of the corn? This has some of the goofiest scenes I've ever witnessed in a horror movie. We see the monster being represented by a bunch of roots tunneling through the ground. At the end, the monster appears in some weird cartoonish thing.This movie was based on a short story and you can tell. I guess it's hard for me to really hate it, seeing as how it did entertain me with how ridiculous it was. If nothing else, I'll give it credit for starting off a series and it does genuinely seem better than the sequels. This film series actually set a record for most bad entries in any franchise! Seriously, I think there's at least ten bits of material centered on this, probably the most of any Stephen King adaptation. Maybe I'll have to read the story. Isaac is the most entertaining as the zaniest, as pointed out by the Nostalgia Critic. If there's anything legitimately good, it's that the main guy does show some courage at the end. If you have to see this, ignore the sequels. **

Set in the fictitious rural town of Gatlin, Nebraska, the film tells the story of a couple, Burt Stanton (Peter Horton) & Vicky Baxter (Linda Hamilton), getting caught up in a ritually sacrifice murder plot run by the children of the town to ensure a successful corn harvest after years of droughts. This movie had a lot of potential of being a great corn in a cob movie about natural corn killers; instead, the movie fed its audience, chicken feed. What a huge disappointment! I was really looking forward to this movie as a kid. After all, I was a huge fan of 'the bad seed, horror genre'. 1956's Bad Seed, 1960's Village of the Damned, and 1993's The Good Son are some of my favorites. However, this movie really goes against the grain. It wasn't any fun of a great horror popcorn flick. Based upon the 1977 short story of the same name by fame horror author, Stephen King & directed by Fritz Kiersch, the movie was very lackluster. It didn't translate well into film. In my opinion, the awful screenplay is one of the reason, why this movie didn't work. King wrote the original draft of the screenplay, which focused more on the adult characters of Burt and Vicky and depicted more backstory on the uprising of the children in Gatlin; however, this script was disregarded in favor of George Goldsmith's screenplay, which featured more violence and a more conventional narrative structure. Because of this change, we don't see, how the children of this town, got tempt by this malevolent entity, that they call God, nor how they were able to maintained and keep themselves, isolated from the rest of the world. Here is a bigger question, what was the reason, they felt, the lone mechanic (R. G. Armstrong) around? I get that, maybe, they keep him around to help run the machines for the harvest, and help isolate themselves, from outside visitors, but it doesn't make sense in a plot sense, because, their God AKA 'He Who Walks Behind The Rows', stated out, that all adults in their town, must die, or he will lower the age to 18, rather than 19. Plus, he wasn't there in the original source material. The movie also starts off awkwardly, with all of the adult figures, being killed off. It's felt like we jump into the third act, without knowing it. In my opinion, I would rather have, the mystery of the child getting ran over, opening from the source material over this. It builds more suspense. Since the movie has large story gaps, it's not very well-paced. Lots of slow and dull moments. It was not flesh out enough. Another thing, I didn't like, about this movie is the main good child, Job (Robby Kiger). He reads the narrative, with seemingly no emotional reaction. A good example of this, is when he talks about his father being killed right in front of him. Also, for a character that is supposedly, very smart. He does a lot of stupid decisions, like shouting out, when people are able to escape. His sister, Sarah (Annie Marie McEvoy) is just as stroppy. She gives no emotional side of trauma, as well. Nor, does she ever seem to be in fear of her life. I also hate the fact, that her character started drawing pictures that predict the future, without any backstory. The two adult leads, are also pretty bland as well. Peter Horton looks and acts like director Michael Bay. His character has a very offensive and fake-looking attitude, when it comes to him looking for action. It's pretty lame, how easily, he can escape from these maniac teenagers. For Linda Hamilton, it's very jarring to see her, play the damsel in distress after last, seeing her, play a semi good heroic in 1984's Terminator. It's sad to see, that her character, here, doesn't really add, anything to the movie. Anyways, their action scenes, together, barely counts as thrilling. I really find the movie, very weird that it's Rated R, yet, most of the deaths, are not really gory, or graphic. The camera always seem to cut away. Another fault of the movie is the lame, and not frightful, jump scare. They mostly pointless, nor make any sense. A good example is the kid's dead body scene. It's a bit odd, for her to know, in detail, what the kid look like, when she didn't see the body, at all. Even, the anti-climactic ending was bad. The movie ends so abrupt. I would rather have, the tragic yet, somewhat bitter sweet ending of the book over this, any day. If there was anything scary about this movie, it wouldn't be the dated, special effects in this film as well. It wasn't impressive at the time, and it sure, hasn't aged well, since then. It looks like radioactive VHS static. The creature toward the end of the film, also looks like a recycle copy of the Master Control Program (MCP) character from 1982's computer fantasy, Tron. The only thing, that was somewhat good, about this film is how menacing, the then-25 year old, John Franklin as the cult lead, Isaac Chroner was. He really save the movie, with his chewing of the scenes. Courtney Gains as his second in command, Malachai Boardman, also deserves credit. He was foreboding, most of the film. Overall: While, this movie was badly made. It did started a thread of sequels and remakes, hoping to capitalize on Stephen King's name. As of this writing, eight sequels have since been produced, and a 2009 remade, TV Movie was filmed. In the end, I felt like this movie could had been better. It's not the worst Stephen King movie, I ever saw, but it's not even, near the best. It's just disappointing. Not a-maize-ing. Let's hope, in the future, somebody can tackle, the source material in making a film with some respect.