Stephen King's short story "Children of the Corn" has been a favorite among horror filmmakers for almost fifty years. Originally published in the March 1977 issue of Penthouse magazine, the story of a bickering couple who stumble upon a murderous child cult in a Nebraska cornfield was included in King's first collection of short stories, Night Shift, and later adapted into a 1984 feature film directed by Fritz Kirsch. of the year.
Night Shift also contains the source material for such Stephen King classics as "The Mangler," "Sometimes They Come Back," "Maximum Overdrive" and the upcoming "Boogeyman," but none of the other 19 stories in the collection have the same impact as "Children of the Corn" Perhaps due to its evocative title, which suggested barbaric pagan rituals, or its eerie juxtaposition of childhood innocence and brutal murder, the original film spawned eight sequels and two remakes over four decades.
The newest sequel to the long-running franchise is Kurt Wimmer's Children of the Corn, a reimagining of the story with a new town of adults to kill. Aside from the title, Wimmer's script bears little resemblance to King's original tale. Not only is the story set in a new town, Railstone, rather than doomed Gatlin, but the story has been updated for modern audiences and includes economic themes and warnings about climate change.
The religious aspects of King's story have been removed, and our heroine, Boleyn, is neither a child nor an adult. Played by Elena Kampouris, Bo is a teenager about to go to college. The latest in a long line of resourceful girls from the final class, she embodies the optimistic innocence of adolescence while maintaining the rationality of the town's grown-ups. Despite its radically different narrative and resolution, Wimmer's Children of the Corn still contains some Stephen King themes.
The seeds of nihilism remain, and the explosive ending draws a line between the original text and Kirsch's adaptation, but is itself a shocking spectacle.
Same season, different stories
King's short story unfolds like a mystery. We begin with Bert and Vicki, a couple on the brink of divorce, driving across the country in a last-ditch attempt to salvage their failing marriage. When they run over a child who has tripped on the road, they are horrified to find that his throat has been cut by someone hiding in the corn.
Seeking help in the nearest town, they find Gatlin deserted, with only distant laughter coming from the fields. We never find out what exactly happened to the adults, but the Gatlin children eventually sacrifice Bert and Vicky to a creature they call "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." Kirsch's 1984 film opens with the massacre that King alludes to. Before joining Bert (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton), we watch as the Gatlin children kill everyone over the age of 19 with poisoned coffee and primitive weapons. Despite this grim beginning, Kirsch's version ends on a more optimistic note, with Vicki, Bert, and the two defecting children seemingly defeating He Who Walks by setting the corn on fire.
The new film begins with a massacre, but this time the victims are children. When a violent teenager attacks the leaders of an orphanage, the local authorities attempt to subdue him by flooding the building with toxic gas and accidentally kill the children trapped inside. This horrific tragedy sets the tone for a story in which children are far more sympathetic.
In dire financial straits, adults in Railstone vote to accept government subsidies and end corn production—a short-term solution to long-term problems. When children express their concerns, abusive adults ridicule them and consider the idea that they could have an opinion about their own future to be absurd. Betrayed by their parents, the children form a mutually protective relationship with He Who Walks Behind the Rows and kill anyone who threatens the corn.
Isaac and Eden
King's original story concludes with a brief overview of the cult and the introduction of a character named Isaac, a nine-year-old prophet who claims to receive messages from Him Who Walks. We don't learn much about him other than his age, his authority among children, and his decree that the new age of sacrifice should be 18. In Kirsch's film, Isaac (John Franklin) is portrayed as the mastermind behind the citywide massacre, although in King's story the event takes place before his birth. Wimmer's version of Isaac is a girl named Eden (Kate Moyer). Possessed by the power of the Red Queen from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she is the sole survivor of the orphanage massacre and sets the children on the path of tit-for-tat.
Like Isaac in the original film, Eden is the unquestioning leader of the children. They kill on her orders and trust her to gain the favor of Him Who Walks. She moves from murder to murder with chilling detachment, and the children follow in her footsteps. But unlike Isaac, Eden is protected by the corn monster. When Beau holds a knife to her throat, he appears to save her. After Eden is humiliated at a town meeting, He places a comforting green hand on her shoulder as she cries in the corn. King's one who walks is indifferent to children. It feeds on victims of any age, and children do not dare enter the corn after dark. In Kirch's version, Isaac is actually sacrificed to the corn god after the children reject his leadership.
Terrible adults
King's original story never gives us a motive for the original massacre, other than to explain that the children "adopted religion." Likewise, Kirsch begins the story after the children have been indoctrinated by Isaac, and we only see the town's adults moments before their deaths. Wimmer's adaptation features a host of unlikable adult characters: a cheating mother, brazenly careless law enforcement, a predatory preacher and a drunken father who publicly abuses his sons. There are no adults to be found, and an evening walk shows that the city is completely unsafe for children. No one would argue that Eden's actions are justified, but these despicable adults feel like the real villains, and the corn is simply protecting itself from destruction.
The original Gatlin Elders die before the events of their story, but King gives us some gruesome adults in his version. Bert and Vicki are insufferable in their constant bickering and condescension. Vicki grumbles and complains, but Bert is especially cruel. He ignores his wife's warnings that something is wrong in the empty city and takes her keys while he explores the empty buildings, essentially leaving her helpless and alone in the car.
This is a disgusting character, and his death does not seem particularly tragic. In Kirsch's film, the central couple is more likeable. In Horton and Hamilton's performance, their main problem is Burt's fear of commitment, which seems to be resolved by the end of the film. Both King and Kirsch seem to be on the adult side, but Wimmer is muddying the waters by showing commitment to both ends of the age spectrum. At 17, his hero, Bo, is somewhere in between.
The one who walks in line
Children of the Corn Wimmera gives us what the original film adaptation only hinted at. King describes "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" as "something huge, rising into the sky... something green with terrible red eyes the size of footballs." Wimmer gives us this monster - a giant monster made of constantly twisting leaves and stems. Created with CGI, this monster looks better when lurking in the shadows, but it is a sincere representation of the barbaric deity that has lurked behind the lines of King's text for more than four decades. Kirsch's film leaves He Who Walks to our imagination: a fast-moving mound of dirt signifies the creature's movement.
Wimmer's film Him is also incredibly violent. King gives us no details about Burt's death and leaves most of the violence to Gatlin's children. Kirsch follows suit, only hinting at a vengeful god ready to devour offenders. Wimmer shows us these terrible sacrifices. We watch as his creature terrorizes adults and tears apart a woman's body.
Eden and her minions are no less cruel. They kill with baseball bats, toxic chemicals and hand farm equipment. Instead of killing the parents, they drive the adults into a big hole and bury them alive with bulldozers. In one of the most brutal scenes, Eden gouges out a man's eye with a dirty sickle, and then eats the oozing organ.
righteous flame
King's original ending is both nihilistic and terrifying. After Bert and Vicki fall victim to the corn, twenty Gatlin teenagers sacrifice their lives to a primeval god. Since the new age of sacrifice is now set at eighteen years, all who are older must enter the corn and perish. The one who walks behind the rows is “well pleased” with this bounty. Both adaptations end on a more uplifting note.
Bert and Vicki find a way to pour gasoline over the corn and set it on fire, causing a massive explosion deep in the rows. Bo implements a similar plan. She ignites traces of fuel on a tractor with a car lighter and spreads the flames all over the corn. Possessed by a demonic entity, Isaac dies in this fire. Eden walks into the burning corn next to the corn god, who takes one last look at his young disciples.
Wimmer's film ends on a whimsical but creepy spectacle more befitting King's first feature film adaptation, Carrie. Like Sue Snell (Amy Irving) walking towards the ill-fated gravestone, Bo enters the ruined corn. Stopping to pick a flower, she is reminded of a bacterium that is said to be causing mania in nearby towns, and hears Eden's ominous warning: "Nothing ever dies in corn." She looks up to see a burned and skinless Eden screaming in her face before Wimmer fades to black. This shot is probably meant to inspire as much fear as Carrie's (Sissy Spacek) hand reaching out to Sue from beyond the grave, but it's a fun final jump even if it doesn't make much sense.
Eden's resurrection also sets the stage for a potential sequel, and with such a prolific franchise, we'll likely be walking the ranks again soon. And we hope Stephen King will take part in the new film Children of the Corn.
Recommended: Children of the Corn 2023 fixes the original film's flaw
