Children of the Corn Movies Ranked
9. Children of the Corn: Runaway (2018)
Just because these films are ranked higher in this list doesn’t mean they’re any good. Indeed, just look at Children of the Corn: Runaway if you need further proof.
Runaway is a prime example of a franchise constantly trying to switch things up and explore lofty ideas whilst always running up against the following simple facts: they don’t have much money, the scripts aren’t great, and the directing is cheap.
When new protagonist Ruth’s past comes through into the waking world, what could have been an interesting look at PTSD in almost any other scenario becomes a cheap, uninteresting slasher, mainly due to the film being unable, or unwilling, to show a seemingly ghostly girl (reincarnation? Hallucination? Part of the inner psyche? Who knows, and who cares) carve people up on screen.
Character arcs don’t arc, we don’t care about most of it, and thank He-who-walks-behind-the-rows that it’s only 82 minutes long with credits.
8. Children of the Corn (2023)
The most recent instalment in the franchise is another remake, another re-imagining, another attempt to capture some of the magic of the original.
The plot is pretty similar to the others; a town has its children kill all the adults (this time for not giving them a say on destroying the corn in return for government grants), and one or two dissenters amongst the ranks try to stop the slaughter in the name of He Who Walks.
In 2023, we have to upgrade the horror. In this case, we seemingly have the Saw version, with some kills very mechanical and trap-like, and even the score reminiscent of the series. Not to say they’re very good, but one or two do seem horrific, if that’s how you put the horror in horror.
The acting isn’t awful, but it’s simply all unnecessary, and the eventual reveal of this movie’s monsters is laughable even in the most serious moments. It’s astonishing, and worrying, that all the lifeblood has left the series at this point, and maybe that’s what’s poisoning the crop: bad movie-making.
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7. Children of the Corn 4: The Gathering (1996)
Despite boasting an early-career Naomi Watts, and a somewhat interesting premise of having all the children suffer illness, then recover, possessed as a kind of plague, the movie is awful. It’s almost like nobody cared, which is probably the truth.
The Gathering tries to be much more suspenseful than previous instalments, slowly creeping up on you, so a little credit is due in that respect, but it is completely stopped in its tracks by almost everything else.
There are one thousand and one dream sequences, the kids aren’t creepy, the editing is a nightmare, and the ending is about as memorable as what you ate for lunch on your 173rd day in high school. There are two bits of dialogue that are good, and the rest should be thrown in a fire.
