Like Who Can Kill a Child?, Stephen King’s Children of the Corn and its low-budget yet striking 1984 movie adaptation never seek to answer all the questions they raise as they explore the interface between innocence and evil.
On its release in 1984, few would have predicted that Fritz Kiersch’s low-budget adaptation of a short story by Stephen King, later published in King’s 1978 collection Night Shift, would spawn a franchise of killer-kids movies.
Gatlin is your typical midwestern American corn town until its kids mysteriously decide to rid the place of all adults. But what could have caused this pint-sized rebellion of knives, scythes and ropes? When a young couple, Vicky (Linda Hamilton) and Burt (Peter Horton), stumble upon the seemingly deserted town, they soon find a circus of dungaree-wearing killer kids led by the stony-faced Isaac, a charismatic child preacher who feeds a sinister force lurking in the cornfields.
King’s short story explores the destructive power of religious fanaticism over children and the ease with which they can be manipulated, while lacing it with the supernatural influence of a beast or entity hiding in plain sight. While Kiersch’s film would veer from King’s story in several key areas, most notably the conclusion, it retains the themes of ritual, cult control, and religious fundamentalism found in the short story.
Like Who Can Kill a Child?, the low-budget yet striking 1984 adaptation of Children of the Corn never seeks to answer all the questions it raises as it explores the interface between innocence and evil. Ultimately, whether that evil is supernatural or religious is up to you. But as you sit munching your popcorn, be warned; he who walks behind the rows is watching and waiting!
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