[Film Review] Children of the Corn (2020)

Movie adaptations have followed Stephen King’s work since the very beginning of his illustrious career, with Brian de Palma’s Carrie being released two years after the publication of the book of the same name, King’s first. Yet for every Doctor Sleep or Misery there’s also a Cell or Maximum Overdrive. We at least got another entry in the good side of adaptations this year with Rob Savage’s adaptation of the short story The Boogeyman. Of all the film adaptations of King though there is a bit of an oddity in that of all of them, it’s Children of the Corn that has the most sequels and remakes, with this latest being the eleventh to bear that name. The original 1984 film with Linda Hamilton has a certain charm to it, but none of the others have made a major positive impression on horror fans. In a way it’s understandable that filmmaker’s keep coming back to the idea because the core of Children of Corn is actually a really solid concept; midwestern folk horror with the eerie stretches of identical fields, creepy children, and religious fanaticism. If done right it could really make for a sinister slow burn of paranoia until the inevitable massacre. So, with 2020’s Children of the Corn is eleventh time the charm?

In Rylstone Nebraska (not Gatlin like in the original story and film) the corn crops are dying due to overuse of GMOs and pesticides. The adults led by Robert Williams (Callan Mulvey) have agreed to destroy the crop in order to gain a subsidy, much to the dismay of the town’s young people, especially Robert’s environmentally conscious daughter Bo (Elena Kampouris). Also upset is Eden (Kate Moyer), a strange young orphan with an attachment to the corn and a vendetta against the town’s adults.

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If there’s a problem with the soil, so to speak, there will be a problem with the crop, and the foundation of the Children of the Corn’s script is a weak one. There’s that old thing about show don’t tell, and Children of the Corn does far too much telling over showing. We are told about Eden living in the corn for weeks after a massacre at the orphanage in the film’s opening. The film also tells us about Bo and her brother’s issues with their mother concerning her infidelity and they don’t even have a proper scene together. Even the majority of the massacre on the adults we see the aftermath of and are just told that it happened rather than being shown this onscreen. The kills that we do see are on the whole lacklustre, the scares are non-existent and in one jumpscare’s case doesn’t make sense. In addition to this,  nobody in the movie has a reasonable reaction to what takes place. Bo watches the younger children paint the roots of the corn with pig’s blood and her only response is a disgusted expression.

Whilst there is an explanation for why Bo and her three friends are the only teens in town, all others are at a party (and wow can you imagine them coming back to this film’s aftermath) and spend too much time standing around ineffectually watching the younger kids rampage rather than trying to do something. Bo has a younger brother who is drawn into Eden’s group, but once that happens it’s as though the film has forgotten about him instead of maybe using him as a complication or a goal for Bo. There’s just nothing happening that feels like it matters, which is frustrating because there is a core idea here that can work. The anger of a younger generation at the adults selling out their future with little regard for their view on the matter could be a good foundation for building resentment in the town, as well as being very pertinent for our times. Instead it all amounts to a missed opportunity.

The film decided to take a leaf out of the book of the 2019 adaptation of Pet Sematary and changed the creepy little boy character in the original film—the fanatical Isaac—with a creepy little girl, Eden. Creepy children in horror are nothing new or unusual, and Eden is less a zealot and more a bossy brat, but there is something about Kate Moyer’s deadpan delivery that I found endearing. Elena Kampouris is a capable actress and she does the best with what she has as Bo. The two of them  manage to make the film more watchable, but it’s too little too late. 

The one time the film does go for show instead of tell is when it  really shouldn’t have. The entity He Who Walks Behind the Rows is at the centre of the children’s beliefs and sacrifices. In the original film he’s represented with a weird orange cloud of special effects, and one might think that anything would be better than that. Here the result is something that looks like the hillbilly cousin of Marvel’s Groot. There is a general overreliance of ropey CGI in the last act of the film andt all ends in a flat thud that leaves no impact whatsoever. 

Nothing ever really dies in the corn? Well if you’ll allow me to borrow from another Stephen King story; sometimes dead is better.

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