Children of the Corn (1984) on Netflix
Burt and Vicky are driving to Seattle when a boy stumbles into the road and is struck by their car. In Gatlin, they find a cult of children in control.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb5.6/1063,493 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes38%
Trailer
Plot summary
Gatlin, Nebraska, is a farm town ringed by cornfields. When the crop fails, nine-year-old Isaac Croner takes the town's children into the corn and forms a cult around a deity called He Who Walks Behind the Rows, and the adults are killed as sacrifices. Three years later, Burt and Vicky drive through rural Nebraska toward Seattle, where Burt will work as a physician. A boy named Joseph runs out of the corn and into the road, and Burt's car strikes him; the boy's throat had been cut beforehand. Seeking help, the couple reaches Gatlin and finds it nearly deserted. Diehl, an elderly mechanic who is the only adult left in Gatlin, refuses them service and tries to steer them away. Isaac and his follower Malachai lead the children.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Children of the Corn (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Screenwriter George Goldsmith revealed that much of the story was a metaphor for the Iranian Revolution, with the town taken over by zealots acting for an evil God based on the Ayatollah Khomeini, while Burt and Vicky became analogous to the American hostages.
- Stephen King wrote the initial screenplay, and financing from Home Box Office and 20th Century Fox fell apart when Fox pulled out, leaving the project $2 million short and causing the rights to be brokered so often that King could not name all the entities that held them.
- King and Goldsmith debated the rewrite in a phone conversation: King argued that Goldsmith did not understand the horror genre, and Goldsmith countered that King did not recognize that film is a visual, external experience unlike novels and short stories.
- Director Fritz Kiersch explained how Courtney Gains won the role of Malachai by using a prop knife to hold a casting assistant hostage at the audition.
- According to producer Donald Borchers the film was first offered to Sam Raimi, who wanted more preparation time, then to Tommy Lee Wallace, who turned it down; Borchers eventually went with Fritz Kiersch, who worked in advertising.
- Because of seasonal changes, the production's cornstalks had to be propped up and painted green so that they would appear to be living on camera.
