R. G. Armstrong

This “loose” adaptation of an excellent Stephen King short story originally appeared in his 1978 collection “Night Shift”. In King's story we are given little explanation, with the tale hanging on a mounting sense of dread based around the presence of “He Who Walks Behind the Rows” before arriving at a horrifically downbeat ending. The film version begins in the small Nebraskan town of Gatlin, where child preacher Isaac (John Franklin) and his murderous henchman Malachai (Courtney Gains) lead the town’s children to slaughter the adult inhabitants and establish their own vicious theocracy that worships the strange entity referred to as “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”. A number of years later Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) are driving cross-country when they accidentally arrive in Gatlin, having previously ignored the warnings of Diehl, (R. G. Armstrong), a grizzled petrol station attendant. They’re soon in a fight for their lives when Vicky is captured by the religion-crazed children and is prepared for crucifixion. There are a number of good points in “Children of the Corn” – the premise of religious indoctrination remains powerful (though shockingly little is done with it); director Fritz Kiersch occasionally comes up with an atmospheric sequence; there’s a decent chanting-imbued score by Jonathan Ellias and the young actors do reasonably well. John Franklin and Courtney Gains, in particular are both extremely creepy and a young Linda Hamilton is strong as Vicky. Unfortunately, the film-makers make the fundamental error of trying to show “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”, who apparently appears to be little more than a giant burrowing gopher with the ability to conjure up the occasional strong wind. The special effects work is weak, which helps make “He Who Walks Behind the Rows” a bit of a non-entity. This takes all the strangeness and mystery out of the film and turns it into a simple action piece as we now have a physical villain, who can be destroyed, rather than a dark, unknowable, Lovecraftian threat of the type that was presented by King. Given this approach the happy ending almost becomes inevitable and we’re left with a straight forward “good beats evil” ending rather than something more challenging and thoughtful.… (meer)