Key Takeaways
- Final Installments: The last three Children of the Corn films represent a decline in quality and creativity.
- Franchise Longevity: Despite their flaws, these films have maintained a presence in the horror genre.
- Directorial Choices: Each film features different directors who attempted to revive the franchise.
- Audience Reception: The latest entry, released in theaters, failed to perform financially despite its theatrical release.
And we are back. I didn’t quit when I watched all the Howling movies, and I didn’t quit when watching the Hellraiser movies. Let me get these corn cobs out of my ears and we will dive into the final three, to date, Children of the Corn movies. This series has a special place in horror history by becoming one of the most unlikely and longest-running franchises in the genre. Last time, we looked at the first batch of movies, the short film, and the original short story. Today, we’re looking at the final two attempts from Dimension and the final remake, released in 2023.
What do these last three movies have in common with Hellraiser? What did this series accomplish that all those other straight-to-video franchises failed to achieve? And what did the director of the last movie have to do with another famous horror author? Let’s walk behind the rows one final time as we look at the last efforts of Children of the Corn.
Children of the Corn: Genesis (2011)
These three were different for me because I hadn’t seen them like I had most of the original run or the other series sequels I’ve covered. I remember the cover for Genesis, and I remember when the newest remake came to Shudder, but I genuinely don’t think I had even heard of Runaway before.
After the remake from 20th Century Fox and original producer Donald P. Borchers turned out to be nothing more than a blip in the cinematic universe, Dimension took another stab at the franchise. Not because they thought it would be good or anything, gosh no, but because it had been nearly a decade since they released the last one and they were about to lose the rights and those sweet, sweet DTV and DVD sales.
To write and direct, they looked to Joel Soisson, who had been hammering out Dimension sequels in the early 2000s. He directed The Prophecy 4 and The Prophecy 5, as well as Pulse 2 and Pulse 3. As a writer, his breakout was Trick or Treat from 1986, followed by work on The Prophecy 3, Highlander: Endgame, Dracula 2000, Mimic 2, Dracula II: Ascension, Dracula III: Legacy, Hellraiser: Hellworld, and Hollow Man 2. That’s a lot of sequels and quite frankly a ton of work in a short amount of time. While not all of those are great, you gotta respect the hustle.
Billy Drago Chews Some Scenery
The cast of Genesis is small in a couple of ways. There is a very short list of actors actually named, and most of them didn’t show up in a ton of movies throughout their careers. The one exception is Billy Drago, who follows in a long line of character actors showing up in these movies to chew scenery. I probably know and love him best from his scene-stealing turn in The Untouchables, but he was no stranger to horror, with roles in the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, Tremors 4, and the Mirror Mirror series. Of course, being the villain in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. must be mentioned as well.
Drago plays a man named Preacher here, joined by his wife Helen, played by Barbara Nedeljakova from Hostel, as well as the main characters Tim and Allie, played by Tim Rock and Kelen Coleman. Coleman may be best known for The Office or Big Little Lies, but this was one of her very first movies. Not quite Naomi Watts or Charlize Theron, but better than I expected from this movie. Tim Rock, on the other hand, has almost nothing else on his acting résumé.
This ragtag group is joined by Duane Whitaker, who fights Billy Drago for the title of That Guy in this movie. Whitaker was a ’90s video-store staple with parts in From Dusk Till Dawn 2, Pulp Fiction, Tales from the Hood, and Puppet Master 5.
A Children of the Corn Movie in Name Only
The movie opens “20 miles from Gatlin, Nebraska” so that it can call itself a Children of the Corn movie and be done with it. A young soldier returning from the Vietnam War finds his house eerily quiet and his parents dead, with his father killed in a particularly corny way. He is knocked out of a window after being called a child killer and having Vietnam flashbacks before the movie jumps to somewhere in the California desert in the present day.
Allie and Tim are stuck with car trouble in the sweltering heat. To make matters worse, she is pregnant, so the heat isn’t helping. They wander to a house inhabited by Billy Drago, who says he doesn’t have a phone and can’t help them. Allie quickly shows that she is going to be an utterly unlikeable character. With so few characters in the dang thing, that’s a problem.
Eventually, they are let into the house, where they try to use the phone while avoiding the increasingly strange behavior of Preacher and Helen.
Allie wanders off at night despite being warned not to, again proving she is the worst, and finds a shack where she has some sort of torture-sex vision. She then discovers a child locked inside a shed.
The whole movie has that glossy direct-to-video sheen to it, and it definitely uses stock sound effects and music whenever it can. While it’s quaint and of its time, it doesn’t make the movie any easier to watch. The good news is that the movie is only about 80 minutes long, including the opening and closing credits.
Tim goes looking and finds a found-footage movie on a camera. What does this have to do with Children of the Corn? Probably nothing, actually. My guess is that Soisson had a drawer full of scripts to use, and they added just a LaCroix amount of Stephen King to the movie to make it work.
The movie tries to build tension by having Tim and Allie figure out the mystery and avoid Preacher, but it turns out he is the guy from the beginning. To the surprise of no one. He then tells the story of what happened to Gatlin while he was gone, probably the part of the script he wrote to make it a Children of the Corn movie, and Allie has a dream about children in the corn killing her.
A supernatural force is keeping them in the house, and Preacher explains that the force lives off children. A delivery driver comes the next morning, allowing Tim and Allie to get out of town. That doesn’t last. The force, seemingly inhabiting the child in the shed, kills Helen with a telepathic pitchfork before causing an accident that kills Tim. The delivery driver, who was in on it, takes Allie back to the farmhouse where she is destined to give birth for He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
This is easily the worst of the series. No slasher-like killers, no plot to speak of, and nothing really happens through entire runtime. Its 3.6 rating on IMDb is more than earned; I will never watch that again. I recommend you don’t watch it either; next up wouldn’t be too much better though unfortunately.
Children of the Corn: Runaway (2018)
2018 gave us Children of the Corn: Runaway, and again there didn’t seem to be much effort here. They did it to keep license and even filmed it in same damn warehouse in Oklahoma where Hellraiser: Judgment was shot so they could keep that series too. Broad overview: I was surprised by this one; but I’ll get to that momentarily.
Soisson returned to write screenplay but directing duties went to John Gulager who made more-than-dumb-fun trilogy before being asked helm remake sequel Piranha 3DD. Apparently that was just too much for world at large because afterward he returned direct-to-video fare like today’s movie and upcoming film Seven Cemeteries.
The cast includes Marci Miller who was also in Death Race 2050; Lynn Andrews III; Mary Katherine Bryant who also showed up Hellraiser: Judgment because why not; Gulager’s father Clu Gulager who is perhaps best known our massive community as Burt from The Return of Living Dead or Mr. Walsh from A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge; also check him out wonderful anthology movie From Whisper to Scream; awesome influential Lee Marvin movie The Killers.
Ruth Makes Runaway Different
The movie opens; oh my God are we going get direct sequel previous movie? Of course not! But in way I guess we are getting sequel original Children of Corn.
Ruth is getting up years for old cult also pregnant; To save herself unborn child she burns cornfield down tries kill group so she can get away; What’s interesting here while she giving birth tells evil entity he can have her baby.
This movie has shockingly likable main character played actress gives solid performance; It’s breath fresh air compared previous movie makes me think Soisson’s script maybe wasn’t culprit after all or at least wasn’t fully fault; Ruth fairly complex; She down luck moving town town find work get herself now-teenage son Aaron someplace safe;
The movie even looks like filmed better than last entry which welcome sight; There are even genuinely terrifying parts something hasn’t been seen this series remember how long;
Ruth Aaron driving through Middle America when voice radio starts speaking; It admittedly sounds like one those Spirit Halloween box voices but still creepier than anything we’ve gotten lately; They get pulled over their truck impounded so decide stay town while; It’s here they meet Carl who owns car shop;
Ruth has some problems though; The movie explores her depression former life cult member including episodes PTSD way keeps guard up; She tries make something her life almost everyone she befriends interacts with has some sort crappy reasoning ulterior motive; Well except Sarah friendly sassy waitress seems too good true far more charismatic than most characters we’ve encountered this series so course she going die terrible way right? You’ll see;
Finally Some Good Kills!
This film marks an improvement over its predecessors by returning to slasher elements with practical effects used throughout scenes!
The film features Ruth navigating challenges while encountering creepy characters!
A shocking twist reveals Sarah’s true nature!
This entry provides both character development alongside thrilling moments!
The film’s conclusion leaves viewers questioning Ruth’s fate!
Children Of The Corn:(2023)
This brings us final as 2026 Children Of The Corn simply called Children Of The Corn While won’t leave you hanging this film blows It’s incredible one specific reason this film released theaters It only an eighteen-day theatrical experience beginning Sarasota Florida bombed making just $575000 against $10 million budget But holy cow climbed summit can’t begin tell how exceedingly rare this;
The Children Of The Corn series already spanned eleven films short film its first feature arriving 1984 Its only theatrical release all way back 1993 Then this one able make back big screen That’s something The Howling series couldn’t manage The Prophecy series couldn’t do mean my God Hellraiser series couldn’t even make back theaters had genuinely great film come out most recent excursion fact this absolute trash irrelevant because theatrical release something gives horror general hope;
So how did we get fresh hell?
Kurt Wimmer Takes On Stephen King!
In early twenty twenty producer Lucas Foster worked movies including Mr & Mrs Smith Equilibrium Man Fire announced would another adaptation famous King short story would almost nothing do original movie Boy was right It also almost nothing do original short story;
Filmed entirely New South Wales Australia independent production therefore able during pandemic without interference Wrapped June twenty twenty wouldn’t see light day until twenty twenty three You can currently watch Shudder would like point finally not under Dimension banner;
A Promising Beginning!
The cast doesn’t have ton recognizable names series typically does Should known exercise futility when there wasn’t grizzled older character actor hold down fort Closest get New Zealand born Bruce Spence appeared Road Warrior Dark City Matrix Revolutions among many other movies;
This could should pretty good but something lost along way It has dumb stinger ending sets potential sequel promise never really bad character decisions poor script less-than-great acting Yeah know talking damn Children Of The Corn movie particularly bad considering budget fact received theatrical release Honestly think held back three years really hurt;
The Plant Monster Problem!
Eden clearly little messed rightly so even if doesn’t give right most annoying character movie Town trying recover best can;
Now here’s where story could have been interesting Main character Bo leaving town pursue education career even mentions crops chemicals dust cornfields cause hallucinations Does roll make horror result chemicals Of course not There Resident Evil remake looking plant monster He Who Walks Behind Rows this movie;
The Final Days Of Children Of The Corn!
This all One long seemingly never-ending line horror movies trying capitalize singular conceit;
This last three movies really run spectrum last gasp First discussed Genesis such bad hard say anything about how bad as Children Of The Corn It’s also little more grasp air Dimension keep rights Runaway too good series similar Hellraiser sequel directed Scott Derrickson where almost certainly going viewed fewer people simply because what where falls series;
If offensive part badly final entry fumbled budget attempt recognizable actors theatrical release should had could played better;
This currently last But know only now There always corn monsters killer children allure putting Stephen King name front center try draw audience After eleven failed attempts maybe eventually get story right But for now stay here He Who Won’t Watch These Movies Ever Again.
