CHILDREN OF THE CORN (UMD/PSP) DVD

Children of the Corn
Narrator Job (Robby Kiger) relates the tale of Gatlin, NE, where one day the children, led by a boy preacher named Isaac (John Franklin), rose up and slaughtered all the grown-ups. A few years later, Job and his sister, Sarah (Ammemarie McEvoy), help their friend, Joseph (Jonas Marlowe), try to escape through the cornfields of Gatlin. Meanwhile, Burt Stanton (Peter Horton), a commitment-phobic young doctor, and Vicky Baxter (Linda Hamilton), his frustrated girlfriend, travel through the cornfield-lined roads of Nebraska on their way to Burt's new internship in Omaha. Their car hits Joseph, who appears out of nowhere, but upon examining him, Burt realizes the child's throat was slit before he ever wandered out from the corn. Attempting to locate help, Burt and Vicky turn to gas-station owner Diehl (R.G. Armstrong), who urges the couple to go anywhere but nearby Gatlin to report the murder. Several contradictory street signs later, they arrive in Gatlin anyway, and, befriending Sarah and Joseph, attempt to uncover the mystery behind Isaac's cult and its mysterious deity, known only as He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Stephen King cash-ins flooded the market between the successes of Brian DePalma's Carrie (1976) and Rob Reiner's Misery (1990), many of them, like Children of the Corn, based only loosely on the author's fiction. The original short story appeared in the collection Night Shift. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Cast Peter Horton as Dr. Burt Stanton Linda Hamilton as Vicky Baxter R.G. Armstrong as Diehl John Franklin as Isaac Courtney Gains as Malachi Robby Kiger as Job Annemarie McEvoy as Sarah Julie Maddalena as Rachel Jonas Marlowe as Joseph John Philbin as Amos

Crew Craig Stearns - Art Director Mark Lipson - Associate Producer Barbara Scott - Costume Designer Fritz Kiersch - Director Harry Keramidas - Editor Earl A. Glick - Executive Producer Charles Weber - Executive Producer Jonathan Elias - Composer (Music Score) Craig Stearns - Production Designer Raoul Lomas - Cinematographer Charles Weber - Producer Mark Lipson - Producer Terence Kirby - Producer Donald P. Borchers - Producer Cricket Rowland - Set Designer Max W. Anderson - Special Effects Jonathan "Earl" Stein - Sound Mixer Julia Evershade - Sound Editor Marshall Winn - Sound Editor Bruce Paul Barbour - Stunts George Goldsmith - Screenwriter Stephen King - Screenwriter Doug O'Neons - Second Unit Camera Patience Thoreson - Script Supervisor Stephen King - Book Author

Children of the Corn
Although by no means a horror classic, this low-budget Stephen King adaptation stands out from a crop of similar '80s slasher films by virtue of its scary premise, spooky music, inspired casting, and tightly plotted, if frequently hammy, script. Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton star, but it's the child actors who make the most indelible impressions. John Franklin has one of those faces that looks ancient before it even hits puberty, making him the perfect choice for pint-sized cult leader Isaac. Redheaded teen actor Courtney Gaines is even better as Malachi, Isaac's menacing, machete-wielding henchman. Robby Kiger and Annemarie McEvoy make convincing if occasionally cutesy young protagonists. And in one of the few adult roles, horror-Western veteran R.G. Armstrong plays a crusty gas station owner with campy aplomb. Despite a few unfortunate digressions into primitive-synthesizer mode, Jonathan Elias makes great use of a haunting children's choir in his deeply creepy score; the music works especially well during the clever title sequence, which tells the story of the titular children's rise to power in a series of sicko crayon drawings. Cheap special effects keep the climax from measuring up to the opening credits, but for the first two acts, director Fritz Kiersch relies on ambience and the mere suggestion of violence to exact maximum nail-biting intensity from the material. Kiersch does occasionally let the hoary dialogue get the best of his actors -- particularly Horton, whose character bizarrely attempts to argue morality with a group of bloodthirsty, parentally unsupervised young religious fanatics who are holding him at knifepoint in a derelict church. But several truly scary scenes and bits of dialogue -- "He wants you too, Malachi" being only the most quotable -- made this film a staple of suburban nightmares when it appeared on cable channels throughout the mid-'80s. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
 

(no awards)

General Specifications: Language Options: Subtitle Options: Sound Processing: Additional Features: MPAA Rating: R DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: Content Length: 92 min