Review of Children of the Corn (1984) by Thequietgamer — 13 Jul 2017

Kids go bad in this Stephen King adaptation. The themes are potent here. The events serve as a parable about how religion is often used for cruelty in the hands of certain people who prefer doom and damnation as opposed to forgiveness. That, along with the usual brand of Stephen King imagination, make for an entertaining movie. Just keep in mind that it's not without it's flaws.

The idea about killer kids hiding out in a town ridden of grown ups has a pretty creepy quality to it. Unfortunately, it's just not very scary. This has less to do with the budgetary constraints and more with the fact that it's hard to make a bunch of kids and teenagers truly threatening to the adult protagonists, no matter how many sharp weapons they are carrying. Every confrontation ends pretty easily with the adults on top as they are just much stronger than their pre-pubescent adversaries. There's still some potential for slasher film style fun, but it's not capitalized on as the story doesn't allow for much killing to happen.

Despite a lack of frights it is still possible to enjoy the movie as it is remarkably well-executed, minimal budget or not. The cast is also very good. Sure the youngest of actors can't, well, act with much skill, and the child leader Isaac's voice is problematic in it's going through puberty scratchiness, but everyone is game and the older people on board are great. Particularly Courtney Gains as Malachai. He's a great villain.

Aged though it may be, Children of the Corn still has some thrills to offer. It's unique concept is alone enough of a reason to check it out. Especially if you're a fan of Stephen King and/or the short story. Personally, I have never read the short story this movie is based on so I cannot attest to it's faithfulness to the source material. I can say though that this stands as a pretty good movie. It's a cool idea that was brought to life on a low budget with surprising effectiveness. It definitely won't scare your pants off, but it will provide some solid entertainment.