CHILDREN OF THE CORN (2020)

Studio:     Shudder/RLJE Films
Director:    Kurt Wimmer
Writer:     Kurt Wimmer
Producer:  Lucas Foster, Doug Barry, John Baldecchi
Stars:     Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey, Bruce Spence, Stephen Hunter, Jayden McGinlay, Joe Klocek

Review Score:

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Summary:

A teenager becomes a dying farm town’s last chance at survival when a vengeful girl leads the children in a deadly uprising.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Seemingly possessed after exiting a cornfield in the struggling Nebraska farm town of Rylstone, orphaned teenager Boyd goes on a killing spree to murder all of the adults at his children’s home. Sheriff Gebler and local farmers pump the building full of dangerous gas to stop Boyd, but inadvertently kill the 15 orphans held hostage inside. Sole survivor Eden Edwards ends up adopted by Pastor Penney.

17-year-old Boleyn “Bo” Williams disappoints her younger brother Cecil by revealing she was accepted to a school in Boston, which will leave Cecil stuck in Rylstone. Bo is surprised by her brother when he subsequently joins Eden as the girl leads the town’s children in a worrisome mock execution of another boy.

Rylstone’s adults assemble in the community hall to discuss their town’s corn business, which is dying due to chemicals they used at an investment corporation’s behest. Bo’s father Robert convinces other farmers that their best course of action is to immediately raze their cornfields as part of a subsidy program. When Eden interrupts to plead for the children having a say in the corn crop’s fate, the adults insultingly laugh at the kids.

Eden goes to cry in the fields. A creature made of cornstalks cradles her. Meanwhile, after failing to appeal to her father to save the corn, Bo enlists fellow teenagers Calder Colvington, Carly Cowder, and Tanika to expose the corporate scandal behind the corn’s failure with help from reporter Sheila Boyce.

Bo is alarmed to find Eden leading the children in painting cornstalk roots with pig’s blood in a pit. Bo still asks Eden to help her get all of the adults back to the community center that evening for a mock trial she hopes will convince everyone to change their minds about killing the corn.

Bo and Cecil handcuff their parents while they sleep that night, but convince them to be calmly escorted to the mock trial. However, when Bo and Calder arrive late, they are shocked to discover Eden and the kids hanged one of the farmers and imprisoned the rest of them in the sheriff’s station. Calder is beaten to death when he tries to intervene. Cecil joins Eden.

Eden’s posse gasses most of the adults to be transported to the pit where they are buried alive. Eden later explains that “He Who Walks” is sick and needs to be fed with the farmers.

Bo privately vows to stop Eden from killing the other adults still at the sheriff’s station, including Bo’s father. Carly and Tanika leave to get help in the nearby town of Candlestick.

Even though he protested the corn’s destruction, Eden has her foster father Pastor Penney killed for a different, unspecified “sin.” Bo witnesses the children collectively emitting an unnerving howl after slaughtering the pastor. Eden then sends Bo’s father and the remaining adults into the cornfield.

Planning to attack her with a knife, Bo confronts Eden at another community hall gathering, but Bo stops cold when she sees Eden preparing to behead Bo’s mother June. Pretending to be on Eden’s side, Bo proposes sending June into the cornfield instead. Eden goes a step further by saying she will just give June directly to “Him.”

Eden’s posse chains up June in a barn where Bo also finds Carly and Tanika’s mutilated bodies. Eden summons “He Who Walks” who, to Bo’s surprise, eventually emerges to pull June from her chains and drag her into the cornfield.

Eden’s posse takes Bo captive. Eden prepares to burn Bo until Bo reminds her that fire would ignite the toxic grain dust and completely destroy the fields.

Bo flees into a cornfield where she finds her dead father strung up like a scarecrow. Bo also witnesses the creature tearing her mother in two.

Bo escapes to Calder’s old car that she drives through the field until the car dies and Eden holds her under threat of shooting Bo with a cattle gun. But Bo then uses the vehicle’s cigarette lighter to ignite a leaking gas trail she created with the car.

Fire quickly consumes the toxic cornfields and explodes a barn. The creature emerges in flames. Eden apologizes to it before walking into the fields. The creature burns to ash.

While examining the scorched land later, Bo discovers Eden became a new corn creature. Bo screams as Eden’s tendrils envelop her.

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Review:

It’s no secret why sequels and remakes reign supreme in cinema.  It’s because producers are more willing to invest their money, and audiences are more willing to spend theirs, when people already recognize the property.

But you have to wonder what the true value of brand equity really is for many dead-horse horror properties.  Sure, it’s easier to get a movie made, marketed, and distributed when someone can say, “Oh, Amityville?  I know what that is!”  Except how many of those memories then stop to think, “When was the last time that franchise had a ‘good’ movie and how many viewers will actually watch a new one just because they know the name?”

Current case in point: “Children of the Corn.”  Since Stephen King’s seminal short story was originally published in 1977, there have been theatrical movies, a TV remake, and enough direct-to-video sequels to ensure everyone everywhere still knows what “Children of the Corn” is, even after six decades.  Yet too many of those films range from bad to very bad, making for a name horror fans associate with a mediocre-at-best track record.  Consequently, that crowd of aware viewers goes into “Children of the Corn” movies with subterranean expectations, and rightly so given the title’s tarnished reputation.

Regarding reputations, readers who know mine for being a harsher-than-most critic might come here expecting another dismissive review for the dogpile demanding that writer/director Kurt Wimmer’s 2020 version of “Children of the Corn” be banished to the trash bin.  Instead, they’re now wondering, “What gives with the three-star score?”

Believe me, I’m the last person who expected to find me defending a widely derided “Children of the Corn” movie as “not that bad,” even “decent.”  Obviously, the words within those quotation marks aren’t electrifying endorsements that anyone associated with the film would be eager to repeat from the rooftops.  But it’s genuinely unfair for mainstream media columns to reductively refer to this remake as “unwatchable” and “lazy” when the film is, on a purely objective level, neither of those things.

First, let’s address supposed laziness.  Kurt Wimmer has come, arguably fallen, a long way since his work on major studio pictures that include remakes of “Point Break” and “Total Recall.”  Regardless of where he was versus where he is now, Wimmer is still a filmmaker experienced in creating high-grade productions, and here, his crew applies that same level of polish as best as a lower budget will allow.

This “Children of the Corn” movie is put together better than most “Children of the Corn” movies.  Experienced actors exhibit earnest effort.  Locations and faces are properly lit.  A consistent musical score accurately complements mood.  Camera setups collect coverage from multiple angles so editing can acquire visual rhythms.  Sparingly used VFX don’t immediately scream “cheap.”

In short, this movie doesn’t look like anyone’s first rodeo.  And when you’re regularly immersed in an indie horror world overrun with amateurs recording slapdash footage on cellphones in their basements and backyards, you know that true professionalism makes a big difference in how watchable something is.

Now that we’re on that point, “Children of the Corn” is not nearly as hollow as predominantly negative reviews claim.  The story, about an evil little girl leading a revolt against a small town’s adults while a teenager tries to stop her, incorporates a variety of arcs involving farm industry economics, local politics, law enforcement scandals, sibling rivalries, domestic dramas like divorce and child abuse, and coming-of-age wanderlust.

Whether any of those themes make for an engaging horror film, specifically a “Children of the Corn” film, may be a different topic altogether.  While the script stirs all of those elements into the pot, the primary flavor of fright gets lost in the mixture as “Children of the Corn’s” first 40 minutes get hung up on establishing events that aren’t exactly exciting, and background bits that aren’t exactly important.

Certain points of the plot demand more than a dollop of disbelief suspension (This tiny town has almost 20 orphans in its children’s home?).  Some beats go absolutely nowhere (What does it matter that heroine Bo’s parents are dealing with the end of their marriage?).  Other beats are tonally strange (Bo and her brother really have to handcuff their parents to force them to attend a meeting, and they are ok with that?).

What “Children of the Corn” does have, however, is creepy kids, a cornstalk creature, fiery explosions, chases, a few gruesome kills that tear out one man’s eyeballs and tear another woman in two, and a clear plot.  Those may seem like essential ingredients for horror entertainment, because they are, although some “Children of the Corn” films have neglected to include them.

Allow me to take the questions out of parentheses and pose some likely ones regarding whether or not this “Children of the Corn” is ultimately worth a watch.  Some simple yes or no answers may make up your mind, or reframe an opinion that’s already formed.

Is this the worst “Children of the Corn” movie ever?  Not even close.  Is it in the bottom half of the dozen or so “Children of the Corn” movies that already exist?  I don’t think so.  But is it on par with a majority of indie horror movies merely meant to engage your attention for 90 minutes and nothing more?  I do think so, and that item alone separates this comparative wheat from the plentiful “Children of the Corn” chaff.  Maybe that’s not saying much, but “not much” can say a lot when we’re talking about a title that isn’t worth what it used to be anyway.

Review Score: 60

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