Children of the Corn (1984)

A young couple is trapped in a remote town where a dangerous religious cult of children believe everyone over the age of 18 must be killed.

Director:

Fritz Kiersch

Writers:

Stephen King (short story), George Goldsmith (screenplay)

Stars:

Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R.G. Armstrong

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Horton	...	Burt
Linda Hamilton	...	Vicky
R.G. Armstrong	...	Diehl
John Franklin	...	Isaac
Courtney Gains	...	Malachai
Robby Kiger	...	Job
Anne Marie McEvoy	...	Sarah (as AnneMarie McEvoy)
Julie Maddalena	...	Rachel
Jonas Marlowe	...	Joseph
John Philbin	...	Amos
Dan Snook	...	Boy
David Cowen	...	Dad
Suzy Southam	...	Mom
D.G. Johnson	...	Mr. Hansen
Patrick Boylan	...	Hansen's customer

Storyline

A boy preacher named Isaac goes to a town in Nebraska called Gatlin and gets all the children to murder every adult in town. A young couple have a murder to report and they go to the nearest town (Gatlin) to seek help but the town seems deserted. They are soon trapped in Gatlin with little chance of getting out alive.

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Plot Keywords:

cult | corn | worship | boy | iowa | 

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Taglines:

An adult nightmare.

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 March 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Stephen King's Children of the Corn

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$800,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$14,600,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Angeles Entertainment Group, Cinema Group, Gatlin

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Ryder Sound Services)

Color:

Color (CFI)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Though real corn was used for most of filming, polyurethane corn had to be used for the more difficult action sequences.

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Goofs

Size and shape of blood stain on Burt's tee-shirt during the chase.

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Quotes

Job: [Sarah and Job are playing Monopoly] I got a great idea!
[picks up one of the tokens]
Job: Let's pretend this guy is Isaac, and we're gonna put him in jail.
Sarah: But what if he gets a get-out-of-jail free card?
Job: Easy...
[takes all the cards and throws them across the room]
Job: What card?
[both laugh]

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Connections

Spoofed in Robot Chicken: Plastic Buffet (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Foot Stompin'"
Written by Arron Collins
Published by Symbol Music, Inc. and Velvet Touch Music

User Reviews

Classic Stephen King

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 Vicky (a PR-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 melange of Southern-Gothic atmosphere and E.C. Comics-style gore, which script 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.