Children of the Corn

Anne Marie McEvoy, Courtney Gains, John Franklin

The murder rate is as high as an elephant's eye in this flaccid adaptation of Stephen King's short story. While driving through Nebraska en route to a new job, medico Burt (Peter Horton) and his wife ...( read more  read more... )Vicky (a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton) nearly run over a mutilated boy who staggers from the cornfields. Seeking help, they enter the town of Gatlin, whose under-20 residents have butchered their parents per the decree of junior-grade holy roller Isaac (John Franklin), who preaches the word of a being called "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." King's original story (from his 1978 collection Night Shift) was a lean and brutal mélange of Southern-gothic atmosphere and E.C. Comics-style gore, which scripter Greg Goldsmith effectively neutralizes by adding a youthful narrator (a grating Robbie Kiger) and putting an upbeat spin on the story's morbid conclusion. Fritz Kiersch's direction is TV-movie flat, with the sole inspired moment (hideous religious iconography glimpsed during a bloody "service") delivered as a throwaway. Aside from Horton and Courtney Gains (as Isaac's hatchet man Malachai), the performances are dreadful, and the depiction of the Lovecraftian monster-god as a sort of giant gopher inspires more laughter than terror. Amazingly, the film spawned six sequels; Franklin (Cousin Itt in the Addams Family films) later appeared in and wrote 1999's Children of the Corn 666. --Paul Gaita

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52% liked it

R, 93 min.

Directed by: Fritz Kiersch

Released: March 9, 1984

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DVD Released: April 10, 2001

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Top Flixster Reviews


  • May 9, 2009
    This film stretches itself as far as it can go. It's simply two people walking around and driving around for a very long time. When the kids finally come out to play, they're such awful actors it's hard to take them seriously. By the end the dated effects come into play and it's ... ...( read more )
  • November 8, 2008
    I preferred the first half of this film to the second, I feel it started off quite well as a classic Horror and very typically Stephen King, it just went on a little too long.

    Reminded me of the (much later) French film ?Them?.
  • September 20, 2008
    Job and Sarah were cute, and Malachi was the ugliest kid I've ever seen. Not sure if Issac was a midget or an ugly kid or a kid in makeup, but it was odd looking as well. Not sure this movie made ANY sense. It could have been just fine as a stand alone 'child zealot cult' that... ...( read more )
  • July 21, 2008
    I think this is one better left to memory. The beginning is fantastic, but the meltdown at the end (crucifixes that shoot sparkles and fly away?) is a tad disappointing now.
  • June 10, 2008
    One of the better Stephen King films.
  • June 26, 2009
    I didn't really enjoy this at all. In fact this film seems to have a legendary type of reputation in the horror genre and I don't understand why. It had some creepy moments but the main villain was never full explained and what was up with that ending?? They just start walking... ...( read more )

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Comments


  • HorrorMovieCinema
    June 11, 2008
    kwl movie and i think issac is
    funny cuz hes short
    and i like the way he talks:)
  • BrittyWitty
    June 5, 2007
    lol yeah deffinatly a beastly midget lol!!
    this movie rox but all stephen king movies rock
  • tmac14621
    February 2, 2007
    Children of the Corn! It was a funny yet sick and twisted movie! I loved it and Issac is a beastly midget!!!!

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