The film, which primarily takes place in the small farming town of Gatlin, Nebraska, begins with a flashback, relating a particularly gruesome incident in where the children depopulate the town of nearly all adults through a good old fashion bloodbath. Fast forward three years to the present, and we have Burton (Horton) and his girlfriend Vicky (Hamilton) traveling through the Midwest as Burton has recently graduated from med school, and has been offered an internship somewhere...but that's neither here nor there as the pair get lost, have an accident, and soon find themselves looking for aid in Gatlin...but guess what? Gatlin appears all but deserted...except for the children, who've formed some kind of weird cult, led by the incredibly creepy man-child Isaac (Franklin). Initially their idolatry seems to be centered on the corn, but later we learn it's not so much the corn as what lurks under the corn. Burton and Vicky soon find themselves in a world of trouble, as the corn is thirsting for holy sacrifices, and they're at the top of the list (I wouldn't mind initiating a religious ceremony with that Linda Hamilton...that is the soft and sexy Linda from the original Terminator movie, not the bony and intensely scary Linda from T2: Judgment Day)...
The film is based on a Stephen King short story taken from his book Night Shift, which I've never read, but I have read a number of his other books, many of which were later adapted to film, with varying degrees of success...anyone else besides me sit through Maximum Overdrive? Okay, Children of the Corn isn't as bad as that was, but it is lacking something...it's not the acting...Horton, whom I despise for no other reason than he was on that TV show `thirtysomething' was actually pretty good. As far as Linda Hamilton, well, I think she's a good actress, provided she's given something to work with, and that wasn't the case here. The real fun is watching the performances of Franklin and Gains, as Isaac and Malachai, respectively. Franklin is extremely disconcerting as the leader of the group, mainly because his appearance is that of a child, but a closer look would make you think twice as his face and voice seem to indicate some much older. Turns out Franklin, who suffered from some sort of hormone deficiency, was actually much older, like 23 at the time of the film's release. As far as Gains, he presents the most intense performance as Isaac's enforcer and right hand man, but I felt like he got into it just a little too much (in the featurette Gains speaks of his craft and how he brought his character to the screen...I do appreciate it when actors give to the screen, but I think Gains took his modest role a bit too seriously, trying to make more of it than it was...but since the production in general was pretty bland, this overacting wasn't necessarily unwelcome). These two guys come off really good as the antagonists, mainly because they're so completely annoying I wanted to beat them both to a pulp (wait for the scene when Malachai is walking down the center of the street calling for Burton to come out, yelling `Outlander!"...you'll understand what I mean by annoying). As far as the direction, I have no real complaints, as Kiersch seems capable...in the featurette he speaks a lot of what he was trying to accomplish with regards to the sense of direction, and in some areas I think he met his goal, but others I think his aspirations extended beyond his capabilities. So what's the problem with the film? It's the story...well, not the original story, but the adaptation of the story. As I said, I'm familiar with many of King's works, and I know he takes a lot of time to craft his tales, utilizing detail like it was going out of style. I think one of the things that makes his story so popular is his ability to paint a visual using words...and he also seems to do this in terms that are accessible to an extremely wide audience. And I think this is a main factor that ends up hurting many of the films that are adapted from his novels...they lack the focus on what's important to the story. I think this is why we are seeing his more recent works produced as television mini-series...because more time can be spent developing the story and presenting the details, in my opinion.
