Donald P. Borchers produced the original Children of the Corn and in later years wasn’t very happy with it. He decided to return to corn country and redo the Stephen King short story. Sometimes “He who walks behind the rows” should just stay behind the rows.
In 1975, bickering married couple Burt (David Anders) and Vicky (Kandyse McClure) are heading for divorce. That’s pretty obvious from their fighting, but at the moment they’re also heading through Nebraska corn country. They hit a child on the back roads, but it appears that the young boy had his throat slit before he stumbled into the road.
They put the body in their trunk and head for the nearest town, Gatlin. What they don’t know is that the pintsized prophet Isaac (Preston Bailey) had received divine communication from “He who walks behind the rows” that told him to gather ye all the children and have them slaughter all the adults.
He’s aided in his mission by his enforcer Malachi (Daniel Newman). Both the hidden deity in the cornfield and the murderous children has devilish plans for any “outlanders” that happen to wander into Gatlin.
An old Hollywood axiom instructs don’t work with kids or animals. Director/writer/producer Donald P. Borchers doesn’t heed that warning and suffers for it. Borchers produced the 1984 version of the film that was based on the Stephen King short story.
According to his comments on the special features, King wrote a screenplay that kept more in the vein of his original short story. Borchers then “hollywoodized” that version adding a happy ending. Originally he was happy with the finished film, but as time has gone on he’s wanted to go back to King’s original vision.
King is given co-screenwriting credit on this remake, but it’s obvious that he didn’t have much to do with it. Another axiom states that if a film appears on SyFy, don’t expect it to be very good. It’s another axiom that’s partially true with Children of the Corn which aired on the channel that’s now named after a slang term for syphilis before being released on DVD.
This release does offer an uncut and uncensored version, which the SyFy Channel didn’t offer. The original wasn’t exactly great cinema either, but it did have some good points in the performances of the creepy John Franklin as Isaac. Borchers decided to cast real children in the roles as Franklin was actually 25 at the time the first film was shot. This is one of the greatest failings of the remake.
The yung-un cast as Isaac has no menace and is therefore forgettable. At least Franklin stood out in the original; the short Preston Bailey offers more humor than menace in the remake. He looks odd in his black hat that’s too big for his head and his line delivery isn’t menacing at all.
David Anders and Kandyse McClure take the “couple on the road to divorce” far too seriously and bicker and argue for most of their time together. You’re happy when they finally separate so they won’t be insulting each other so it’s not like you have too much invested in their characters either.
That they’re a mixed race couple is interesting, but it’s not explored. There’s also some eye rolling ‘Nam flashbacks when Vietnam vet Burt is being chased through the cornfield. It may also bother some that “He who walks behind the rows” stays hidden, but that didn’t bother me too much (not that the productions budget could’ve handled creating the monster).
Unfortunately, there’s no menace there either. The film does stick closely to King’s original story, unhappy ending and all, but it’s still not very good as a movie.
Children of the Corn is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the 10 minute “New Directions” which interviews Borchers, the 10 minute “Cast of the Corn” which interview the actors, the 11 minute “To Live and Die in Gatlin” which interviews the production team, and the 12 minute “Fly on the Wall” which has behind-the-scenes footage. You can watch each separately or use the play all feature.
Some remakes should stay dead. Children of the Corn had some potential, but miscasting made me loose all hope. I felt like I’d been violated by a corn cob. Ouchies.
Children of the Corn (2009) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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