Corn (2004) User Reviews

When Will I Learn Not To Judge Movies By Their Box Covers?

[BraveHawk · 5/10 · 18 February 2005]

This movie caught my attention with it's unique box cover, which featured a deranged sheep in 3D, complete with demonic eyes. I like a good horror movie and something about mad sheep seemed a little creepy to me so I picked it up. This was just another case of the box misrepresenting itself as a horror movie when it was anything but. The crazy sheep only appeared two or three times and only in quick flashes. It was painfully obvious that, depending on which shot, the sheep were not real or was not doing anything out of the ordinary.

The story itself, was more about Emily Rasmussen (Jena Malone), a young, pregnant woman who has come home, most likely because there was nowhere else for her to go. Meanwhile, her neighbor has planted an experimental crop genetically mutated corn. The corn was meant to be altered genetically so it could grow with very little water so it could be grown in otherwise barren places such as parts of Africa to feed starving people. The side effect of this corn is it produces a weed as well, which makes the sheep act a little crazy, or get a high as the film explains. Sort of the same way a cat reacts towards catnip, but in more of a violent way.

The problem with this movie is that while all the characters in the movie have good intentions, not one of them is likable. Not even Emily. I have seen it mentioned before that the movie is similar to Erin Brockovich, and it is with regards to one woman going against a large corporation, but the pieces never quite fit together well and is nowhere close the the movie Brockovich was. Emily put the pieces together about the mysterious weed far too quickly and unrealistically to be believable.

Overall, the story turned out to be quite dull and moved pretty slow. I would have to rate this at about a 4.5 out of 10 stars.

When Sheep Attack

[ghoulieguru · 3/10 · 9 November 2004]

So I see this movie at Blockbuster. It's got a pretty ridiculous 3-D prismatic cover that features a herd of demonic sheep and it's called CORN. I figure I've got to take it home.

The tagline on the video box, "It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature" is borrowed from an old margarine commercial. This thing has got to be awful, right? Well, the reality is that it's not quite as bad as you might imagine. It ends up being a weird Rosemary's Baby kind of story about genetic manipulation and aggression. Not done with the same panache of 28 Days Later, it still strives for a unique story. In the end, "When Sheep Attack" might have been a better title, and it's pretty boring at times... but I think three stars is fair.

Pointless and annoying

[emdoub · 3/10 · 1 April 2007]

Not, by far, the worst movie I've ever seen - but certainly not good enough to be worth the time to watch.

While the writer/director did show some skill in doing several F/X off-screen, getting the point made without spending cash, there were several serious missteps here: Both a farmer and a rancher refer to the corn as 'generating' a weed - as if one plant can magically produce another plant of a different type.

Repeatedly had people accustomed to a sheep ranch refer to a haunch of mutton as a leg of lamb.

Showed what was, by far, the dirtiest butcher shop (meat department in a grocery store) I've ever seen - slaughterhouses are cleaner, and they all get inspected regularly.

Showed a grocery store manager who was apparently aching for a labor-relations lawsuit, starting with sexual harassment during training.

I strongly suspect that the author/director had never been on a farm before this was filmed, and is a vegetarian - the urge to display meat as distasteful was just too obvious.

Many loose ends, many unexplained flashbacks - a very amateurish film. I understand that his previous work was better - let's hope his future work is.

Erin Brockevich minus a chromosone

[amberpalooza · 3 November 2004]

I think this movie had some potential, but after the scene with the sheeps and the little boy it was little much. And by "little much" I mean not much at all. There was no conclusion only creepy townies trying to make out the only normal girl to be crazy. I give props to Jena Malone for trying to be a B-Movie star, but she really could have done without this one. Some things were never really explained...the blood on the bed in the dream sequence before she throws up...maybe it was supposed to be her mothers. Who knows. The only thing I really enjoyed was the dream she had giving birth to the legless sheep calf. Nice second use of that prop. The female struggle in this movie was appropriate though. Maybe if she would have been Julia Roberts with bigger boobs the townspeople would have taken her more seriously.

I would rather look at a toilet for 2 hours than to see this movie again

[jmwhea01 · 1/10 · 22 August 2005]

This movie has to be the absolute worst film I have ever seen in my life. The premise of the movie was already just completely moronic, but the acting and the further plot development of the movie just made it absolutely arm-gnawing. There were some points in the movie where it seemed like suicide would be just as good as the movie, but I just had to keep reminding myself that it would all be over soon. It was like a bad retarded dream. Whoever made this film should be barred from any cognitive thought for the rest of their lives. Just do yourself a favor and if you see this movie for rent, get something else. Anything else. Whatever you do, do not allow yourselves to give the bastards that made this movie more money. They have to be stopped.

Hardly the innocent movie it seems

[lazerousz · 3/10 · 7 January 2008]

The cover makes us believe that we will get to see psychotic sheep ripping people apart and the like. This is not even close to the truth. What we get is a "warning" tale about genetically engineered food (GE).

Our heroine, who is pregnant with an illegitimate child becomes concerned about the health of her child when GE corn is grown next door. Her concern starts with the sheep, which are starting to act violent. The source is, of course, a weed that grows under the corn. Yes you heard me...the corn is not the actual problem. The problem is of course this weed that has the corn has created. The movie uses techno-jargon to gives its science a real feel to it. Explaining out the real basic ideas of putting genes from other plants and animals into other plants and animals. While this science is essentially fledgling its worth pointing out that cross-breeding and cross-pollination has been occurring for centuries.

Now where this story steps away from traditional horror is when our heroine attempts to alert the community to the dangers of the contaminated meat that would come from lambs fed the weed. Officialy its suggested that the lambs that are fed the weeds are only used for wool, and the end of the film has the sheep being specifically fed the weed to increase their wool creation.

The people don't wish to except what she is saying, its scary. And it is scary but at the same time the film is a strong piece of propaganda being show to possibly unwitting viewers. This movie very strongly makes out GE foods to be extremely dangerous and doesn't in the least provide an idea of how to look into it if a viewer grows concerned from it.

That is part of the reason I give it a three, its an interesting movie at least. It catches the Erin Brokovitch feel though it lacks some of the reality of that film. The acting is reasonable even if the story is a bit lacking. I would suggest this film would be good for a film studies class about what you can use a film for, but its hardly a good film. Even for a b-film.

It doesn't pay to mess with Mother Nature.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 4 July 2005]

Emily Rasmussen(Jena Malone)is a young woman that cuts her college education short due to expecting an illegitimate child. She returns to her stepfather's(Don Harvey)sheep ranch. Almost immediately Emily realizes that the sheep are acting out of character...attacking each other and some dying after cutting their throats on barb wire eating weeds from the adjoining farm. That neighbor began crowing corn when provided with a newly generated seed that was meant to be immune to all pesticides. Jenna runs up against speculation and doubt when trying to warn the towns people to avoid eating lamb her stepfather sold to local markets. Low budget and unmemorable. Others in the cast: Pamela Gray, Jamie Harold, Brian Dykstra and Peter McRobbie.

Not a horror movie, just propaganda

[albino_slug-80901 · 1/10 · 27 May 2022]

In terms of pure filmmaking, this isn't terrible but it just boils down to being anti-GMO propaganda. Somehow it manages to be bad propaganda at that.

Jenna Maxine's character comes off as completely unhinged, making wild claims with little evidence that only happen to be true because the script has her back. At no point does she think to contact the FDA or any sort of authority. She just takes her circumstantial evidence as gospel and jumps to picketing outside a grocery store and harassing women who've recently miscarried.

I don't see how we're supposed to be on her side after that ending too...

Jena Malone is NOT Sissy Spacek OR Julia Roberts

[charlytully · 1/10 · 3 November 2008]

It is truly frightening that someone who takes this crud as proof that lead Jena Malone is a "terrific actress" may vote in today's U.S. presidential election. She's on the screen here 95% of the time, and every moment is cringe-worthy. This is a miserably failed "issue movie" docudrama tricked out in horror flick clothing. It could not carry SILKWOOD or ERIN BROCKOVICH's pantyhose. Every penny earmarked for the absolutely essential special effects for the sheep apparently went instead for Jena's salary. But no amount of money should have been enough to lure any serious actress to play in a scene like this: to climax just one of the film's many lame and extraneous plot lines, Jena's character Emily Rasmussen informs her assumed biological father of 20-odd years she's just seen from her baby book birth certificate that he's not. "Dad" replies, now that we have THAT out of the way, wanna go to bed with me? After yakking her head off over a multitude of crazed conspiracy theories for the past hour and a half, 8-months pregnant Emily suddenly stands mute! Jena, HOW could you stoop so low as to participate in such slop, which even a "left behind" high school film class could top?!

excellent low-budget chiller with misleading packaging

[ThrownMuse · 8/10 · 15 February 2005]

When I was browsing horror dvds at the store, I came across this movie with a crazy red-eyed sheep on its cheesy 3D cover, which read "Jena Malone in CORN." I like Jena Malone (Donnie Darko, Saved!), and I glimpsed at the back, and thought "I have to see this!" I figured it was a z-grade horror movie about maniacal mutant sheep, cashing-in on the fact that somehow the latest Indie It-girl was involved in the project. Which, in all honesty, would have been all right by me, as I love cheesy horror movies and have never seen one about killer sheepies. Well, the packaging was misleading, and that's a good thing.

The story starts out with Emily (Malone), a girl in her late teens who just dropped out of college, reluctantly returning to her father's farm to try to get her life together. She is a few months pregnant, and plans on keeping the baby, even though the father is a politician who doesn't want anything to do with it. Her mother died when she was young, and she has a very awkward relationship with her father. Upon her arrival, she notices that her father's sheep are acting rather strange--they appear to be viciously fighting over a weed that is the byproduct of their neighbor's corn. After witnessing a sheep being born with only two legs, she decides to investigate this corn and its weed byproduct, and learns that it is an experiment in genetic engineering. After hearing about the death of a friend's newborn baby, who regularly ate lamb, Emily realizes she has to do something to put a stop to this. This will entail standing up to the big corporation that is testing the corn, her employers, and ultimately, her father.

This is a darn good movie, anchored by a terrific actress. Malone, who also served as associate producer, has described this microbudget film as "guerilla film-making." While it is obviously low budget (this is most evident in the silly fast-paced scenes that are ill-fated attempts at producing scares), the performances are exceptional. There are a few other flaws, including hit-or-miss sound (especially in the final scene), as well as unsatisfactory pacing and story structure. The movie starts out slow, and that works to build fear, but then it suddenly jumps to rising action and climax. While it seems silly that the lead character jumps to far-fetched conclusions based on a few things she sees, it sort of fits with the story. This movie is just as much about environmental horror (think Larry Fessenden) as it is about a girl's struggle with family relations, and the discrimination she faces as a pregnant woman. The ostensibly silly tagline for the film, "It is not nice to mess with Mother Nature," actually fits in with the recurring theme that motherhood and maternal instinct plays here. The personal and political are masterfully intertwined in a way that is rarely captured in movies today.

While "Corn" isn't a horror movie in the traditional sense, it does sort of work like a cross between "Rosemary's Baby" (including various creepy dreamlike sequences) and "Erin Brokovich." So if you are looking for a movie about crazy killer sheepies, you aren't going to get that here, regardless of what the DVD cover implies. If you are looking for a low-budget but well-made dramatic environmental chiller with a feminist bent, then check out "Corn." My Rating: 7.5/10

I was confused.

[spastickitchen · 6/10 · 30 November 2004]

I felt this movie was unique in so many ways: they tried very hard to make the story scientifically sound, and did much better than most killer food movies. The sheep gore at the processing plant was a powerful device. Jenna Malone once again brought her character to life.

The film was also very confusing as characters were followed closely for a short time, then forgotten. Much of the foreshadowing effects never paid off, and when the credits rolled, I felt very mislead. What happened to the scientist lady with the plant? What was the reason for the reoccurring dream with the bloody bed? Why did the doctor need to run tests? Was her child healthy? What happened to the corn people after they took the corn away? I felt as though I could draw no conclusions at all. Also the fire looked fake at the end but I really didn't care.

Watch this movie if you like documentary-style b-grade horror movies with open endings and no violence. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't recommend it.

6/10