Children of the Corn - King's Corner Review
Welcome to King's Corner. A recurring series of reviews based on the film and TV adaptations of Stephen King's novels and collections, reviewed and released in order of the original source material publishing date.
Director: Fritz Kiersch
Starring: Linda Hamilton, Peter Horton, Courtney Gains, R. G. Armstrong, John Franklin
Written by: George Goldsmith
Produced by: Donald P. Borchers, Terence Kirby
Cinematography by: João Fernandes
Original Score by: Jonathan Elias
Synopsis:
A young couple is trapped in a remote town where a dangerous religious cult of children believes that everyone over age 18 must be killed.
Thoughts:
When it comes to sequels to his stories, Stephen King only decides to go ahead with them if he feels they are necessary. 'The Dark Tower' was an epic Fantasy Western about Roland's journey to the titular building that required multiple books to tell it. 'Doctor Sleep' was written to see what Danny Torrance's life was like as an adult after his childhood experiences in The Overlook Hotel. Recently he has fallen in love with his character Holly Gibney and has written multiple stories that include her with the latest, 'Never Flinch' due for release this year. On the screen though it seems like his stories are expanded upon for money more than anything. There have been four 'Pet Sematary' films to date. 'It' has been remade and a prequel series titled, 'Welcome To Derry' is due for release this year but these and others like them pale in comparison to the 'Children of the Corn' series that (to date) includes eleven films which are a mixture of prequels, sequels and remakes that all started from a short story about the dangers of making a wrong turn around the cornfields of Nebraska.
First published in Penthouse magazine in 1977, the short story would be later added to the 'Night Shift' collection in 1978. Set in the fictional town of Gatlin, Nebraska the story follows a California couple on a road trip whose marriage is on the rocks. Upon arriving in town it appears that it is deserted until they encounter a gang of children who worship a demonic deity known as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" that decide that they must be sacrificed to it leading them to a fight for survival. Whilst King hasn't really discussed where the idea of the story came from you can theorise that it was written in reaction to various murders perpetrated by cult groups like the Manson Family through the lens of something like 'The Midwich Cuckoos'.
The story's journey to the big screen began when Hal Roach Studios optioned the rights to the film. Originally King wrote the screenplay to the film but executives were not a fan of it leading to arguments between King and George Goldsmith who was brought onboard to redraft his script. In the book 'It Came from the 80s!: Interviews with 124 Cult Filmmakers' Goldsmith described the experience as follows; "He liked my ideas but Stephen King was Stephen King, and so we had a conference call, the three of us, which Stephen opened up by informing me I did not understand horror and I countered that he did not understand cinema: horror and fiction are internalized, just like his script. Cinema is external: visual, auditory, a more sensory experience." The executives sided with Goldsmith on this matter so the next step in the process was finding a director. Producer Donald Borchers originally offered the job to Sam Raimi who turned it down due to a lack of prep time and then to Tommy Lee Wallace who also turned it down. Eventually he turned to Fritz Kiersch who had previously worked in advertising.
The opening (and probably strongest part) of the film takes place three years in the past with the people of Gaitlin going about their everyday business on a Sunday by visiting the local diner after church. Soon we find out not everything is as it seems as some teenagers slip into the building locking the door behind them and a waitress poisons the coffee to unsuspecting customers. As soon as it takes effect other patrons are murdered by the teens with a variety of knives under the supervision of Isaac (John Franklin). Kiersch does a fine job at building up tension in this scene before a short, sharp explosion of violence but compared to the rest of the film it feels like a false dawn as nothing else in the film ever lives up to this opening scene.
The main problem with the rest of the film is that Goldsmith's script doesn't know how to take the basic ideas from the short story and expand upon them in a compelling way. With this kind of story there are so many opportunities to do something interesting with the ideas of pedophobia and religious extremism but they are handled in a blunt manner and at a surface level only. It is a film that feels very padded out with lots of drawn out scenes that lack any sense of propulsion. The perfect example being one of the main characters delivering a similar speech about the dangers of religious fanaticism twice. Tensionless, it over relies on its creepy atmosphere with its violent edges sanded down making for a very bland piece of horror.
The characters don't fare much better either as the leading couple Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) are paper thin plot devices at best. They are the proxy for the audience to show them what Gaitlin is like now and nothing more than that. In the source material there is a real mean streak to their rocky relationship that adds a dark dimension to them as characters whereas here there seems to be only a mild grievance between them over Burt taking up a new job. Their performances are completely unremarkable too as their reaction to the escalating madness of their situation is along the lines of someone forgetting to charge their phone. The perfect example of this is their reaction when Burt runs over Joseph (played by Jonas Marlowe) after he runs onto the road from a fatal wound.
The same can't be said though for John Franklin's performance as cult leader Isaac. He makes the most of every second of screen time given to him by chewing the scenery at every turn. He may not seem threatening in his Amish-like attire squawking orders to his followers but he is very entertaining trying to draw some life out of the film. Behind his characters' brains comes the brawn in the form of the intimidating Malachai (Courtney Gains). Whilst his performance isn't as compelling as Franklins there is still a creepiness to the dead look in his eyes. The rest of the child performances are a bit of a mixed bag with lots of awkward monotone line deliveries which dilutes any sense of horror in the film. This is particularly prevalent in the diner scene in the beginning when a kid named Job (played by Robby Kriger) narrates the horrific events of the day in a matter of fact manner.
Throughout the film you never see the demonic entity, "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" that the children worship. It is an unseen presence that casts a shadow of threat over the town but offers an equally terrifying prospect that it is not even real in any way. Whenever it is revealed at the end of the film it is very disappointing. Through some poor special effects its attack on Isaac looks like a coloured version of television static and then its face in an explosion looks worse than a cartoon. It is definitely a case where whatever you can conjure up in your imagination is infinitely better than what you are presented on the screen.
When looking at the conflict between King and Goldsmith's takes on the script for 'Children of the Corn' you can see how they are both right about each other's drafts as it is a film that is neither scary nor is enough of the internal, externalised visually in an entertaining way. There is a blueprint for a fantastic piece of American folk horror with this kind of story but this film (and its multiple follow ups) fail to deliver on it as it plays everything too safe resulting in one of the most bland King adaptations to date.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️
-Joseph McElroy
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