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There are always going to be those campy, kitschy horror movies that may not be necessarily the finest or scariest entries in the genre, but they retain a lasting appeal simply because you have fond memories of experiencing them for the first time. In the early 1980s, just as the Stephen King gravy train was running at full steam, making money for virtually everyone in the film business, a small low-budget adaptation of one of his more memorable short stories was released hot on the heels of big-budget and critically-acclaimed adaptations from filmmakers Stanley Kubrick (The Shining), John Carpenter (Christine) and David Cronenberg (The Dead Zone). While first-time feature film director Fritz Kiersch’s Children of the Corn may not be one of the best Stephen King movie adaptations, for me it remains one of the most faithful in terms of capturing the creepy essence of King’s original work. I can distinctly recall first reading the source short story (from a dog-eared paperback edition of Night Shift very much like the one that makes a cameo appearance on the dashboard of the Stantons’ car early in the film version) and thinking how much the story lent itself to visual interpretation. When I finally saw the film version, it was amazing how much it resembled my own ideas of the characters and settings.

Although not wholly unique or original in the King canon, Children of the Corn is one of the first stories to explore recurring ideas and themes that the author would continue to harvest: cult-like religious obsession, the havoc wrought from a mob mentality, and the disturbing idea of children murdering their own parents. But as with most of King’s best creations, it’s not necessarily the idea or plot that resonates with people, but rather the execution and the realistic details that help us identify with the characters. The basic premise of Children of the Corn is revealed through a first-person narrator — a young boy named Job (Robby Kiger) — who explains how the children in his Midwestern fictional town of Gatlin, Nebraska, were one day coerced into killing their parents and elders by a mysterious boy-preacher named Isaac (John Franklin). As shown during a pre-credit flashback sequence, after prayers for the successful return of the town’s moneymaking corn crops failed, the children were easily led astray into worshipping an entity known as “He who walks behind the rows,” as Isaac refers to him. Together with his dutiful lieutenant Malachai (Courtney Gains), Isaac leads a violent revolt resulting in the elimination of the entire adult population of Gatlin. The children are brainwashed into thinking that all adults are not to be trusted and they need only remain faithful and obedient to Isaac, Malachai and the all-powerful “He who walks behind the rows.” Those who challenge this simple hierarchy are to be brutally sacrificed in odd, cult-like rituals.

Three years after the initial massacre a young couple named Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) happen to pass through Gatlin on their way to Seattle, Washington where Burt is about to begin a new medical internship. Meanwhile, out in the vast cornfields of Gatlin, a boy named Joseph confides in Job and his sister Sarah (Anne Marie McAvoy) that he plans to leave and come back to rescue them. In the interim, Joseph implores Job and Sarah to be careful and keep their forbidden activities — such as listening to rock music, playing board games, and coloring with crayons — from Isaac and Malachai. Before he makes it through the cornfield, however, Malachai tracks Joseph down and slashes his throat. Bleeding and near death, Joseph stumbles out of the corn into the road and is struck head-on by Burt and Vicky in their car. Horrified, the couple gets out and attempts to help the boy, but he’s already dead. Burt notices the knife wound and, realizing they are out in the middle of nowhere, decides to take the boy’s body to the local authorities. But between the misleading road signs and the lack of cooperation from a local mechanic (R.G. Armstrong) obviously in cahoots with the demonic children, Burt and Vicky are unable to find their way to the next town. Despite warnings to the contrary, they end up driving into Gatlin, which they find eerily abandoned, save for the occasional child who quickly scurries back into a building when seen. When they find Sarah sitting alone in a house, they suspect things are not right. Sarah also has a penchant for drawing strange depictions of children murdering adults — things she claims to see in visions — that she’s plastered all over the walls.

Burt tells Vicky to stay with Sarah while he goes into town to look for help. As he checks out one vacant building after another, he notices desecrated religious pictures and icons — crucifixes made from corn husks — and also sees a lot of similar graffiti and Biblical verses painted around town. Sarah’s brother, Job, keeps watching and following Burt, hoping he may have found an ally. But Isaac’s minions, including the malevolent Malachai, are also hunting for these “outlanders” and “unbelievers” who have come to disrupt their personal utopia. Before Burt can get back to Vicky and Sarah, Malachai and some of the other children surround the house and take Vicky hostage. When Burt finally returns he finds his car has been vandalized and stuffed with corn stalks and Sarah is alone in the house. When he asks what happened to Vicky, all she can say is “Malachai.” Malachai and the others have taken Vicky back to Isaac in the cornfield, where she is hoisted up and crucified alive on a cross made of corn stalks alongside the long-dead corpse of a similarly-crucified police officer. Isaac begins questioning Malachai’s handling of Joseph and the local mechanic and blames him for allowing these “outlanders” to escape. While searching for Vicky, Burt encounters a group of the children in a local church preparing to sacrifice another member in a strange blood ritual. When Burt attempts to stop it, one of the young girls slashes him with a knife and the others begin chasing him into town where he is confronted by Malachai who seems to be growing in both power and popularity among his minions. Burt manages to evade them with help from Job, who takes him to a secret underground shelter where he and Sarah have been hiding. The siblings tell Burt about the atrocities that took place in Gatlin years earlier under the rule of Isaac and Malachai.

Back in the cornfield, Malachai accuses Isaac of becoming too prideful and overthrows him. He orders Vicky to be cut down from her cross and Isaac to be crucified in her place. Malachai then takes Vicky as a hostage with him to lure Burt out of hiding. As Burt sneaks into the cornfield, Isaac is consumed by an evil force — presumably “He who walks behind the rows” — while hanging on the cross. Burt manages to tackle Malachai and yells for Vicky to run away to a nearby barn where Job and Sarah are waiting while he confronts the other children. He tries to explain to them how they have been misled and that any religion without love and compassion is false. After Malachai again tackles Burt, Burt gets the knife away from him but opts to spare his life, proving his point to the other children. But Malachai will pay for his disobedience as Isaac returns — now possessed by the evil spirit of “He who walks behind the rows” — to reclaim his lieutenant. Burt reunites with Vicky, Job and Sarah back at the barn as a ferocious storm begins brewing on the horizon. Sarah says “He who walks behind the rows” is angry at them for stopping Isaac and Malachai. The foursome decide the only way to destroy the evil entity is to burn the entire cornfield by pumping gasoline through the irrigation system. Using a Molotov cocktail and with help from Job, Burt is able to set the vast cornfield ablaze and destroy the murderous monster before it takes any further innocent lives.

While some elements of Children of the Corn certainly betray its age and its low-budget production, the film is well cast and does an admirable job of staying true to the essence of King’s original short story — albeit not a wholly faithful adaptation. Looking back at the film some 25 years later, the most striking deficiencies are in the laughable and cheesy visual effects employed at the climax to represent the evil “He who walks behind the rows” entity. The high-definition Blu-ray format also doesn’t help hide the obvious animation and poorly-done green-screen effects that have been layered over the film to simulate some type of large-scale “monster.” That being said, the key characters here are all perfectly cast in their respective roles — from the odd-looking man-child John Franklin as Isaac, to the creepy Courtney Gains as Malachai, to the fetching and young Linda Hamilton just months shy of appearing in The Terminator. Director Kiersch also wisely used a lot of actual local children as extras and shot the bulk of it on location in Iowa, lending a sense of authenticity to the film. It’s clearly a product of its time, but Children of the Corn manages to hold up well today. There’s still some genuine shocks and unnerving bits — like that initial shot of Isaac glaring at his “children” from outside a diner window as they begin systematically murdering all the adults inside — that are just as chilling as anything Hitchcock or Polanski devised.

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