‎Children of the Corn (1984) directed by Fritz Kiersch • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Children of the Corn

1984 Directed by Fritz Kiersch

In their world adults are not allowed... to live.

A boy preacher named Isaac goes to a town in Nebraska called Gatlin and gets all the children to murder every adult in town.

Peter Horton Linda Hamilton R. G. Armstrong John Franklin Courtney Gains Anne Marie McEvoy

93 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Rainey Dawn ★★★★½ 1

These are some of the brattiest and most terrifying "creepy kids" ever on film. IDK who is worse: Malachi or Issac? Issac is the (evil) reverend that started it all but it is Malachi that has the strongest lust for blood - murder or umm sacrifices "to He Who Walks Behind The Rows"" and will even defy Issac to kill.

This film is a classic horror in it's own right. It's a part of the 60's through 80's horror classics that many of us grew up with. The film is downright terrifying at times. It's a supernatural horror film that has stood the test of time - quite a good one if you ask me.

I've never read Stephen King's…
Review by Connor Carey ★★★

A decent little B-Movie. "Children of the Corn" certainly has not aged well over time as it feels very dated at times and at others it's hard to know weather or not they were going for laughs or scares but this movie entertained me from start to finish and I admittedly had a good time with it. I wouldn't call this a good movie more of a guilty pleasure but it has an original premise and some decent performances.
Review by nathaxnne walker ★★★ 6

Federal subsidies for increased ethanol output, being a terrible and costly biofuel program which takes more energy to make than it supplies, only makes sense as an effort to supplicate He Who Walks Behind The Rows.

Children Of The Corn is not a good movie but I do like the eerie corn-based religious artifacts and Our Saviour Linda Hamilton as always. The fact that I have watched this movie on purpose multiple times speaks to something I guess. I am drawn to folk horror and Children Of The Corn is America's effort at Heartland Folk Horror in an era marked by an accelerating death of family farms due in large part to the aggressively state-sponsored consolidation and spread of big…
Review by Travis Lytle ★★★

Creepy children. Creepy children spouting pseudo-Bible verse. Creepy children spouting pseudo-Bible verse and murdering people of over the age of 18. These are the main ingredients of "Children of the Corn," a horror film based on a short story by Stephen King, and they are the ingredients that make the film an effective genre outing.

The film wrings all it can out of its murderous-children-in-a-small-town plot. Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton, playing the couple who stumble upon Gatlin, Nebraska only to find it devoid of adults and full of the aformentioned creepy children, are put through tense and bloody paces as they try to stay alive and maybe even save the children. Though the narrative may not satisfy everyone thanks…
Review by JayFrost ★★★★★ 3

One of my favorite movies by Stephen King based on his short stories. What I mean about short stories is why make more based on the same damn thing? Lol anyway the second one is good too. :-)
Review by Taylor

I can't even give this movie a star rating. This was my absolute favorite film in sixth grade. I was obsessed. In my diary I wrote about this movie and how if I became president I would force everyone to watch this movie. I have no idea why! I called everyone "outlander" or "interloper". I thought Malachi was not only the best name ever (I made my friends call me that), but I thought he was so cool because of his outlander speech. Yikes.

This was interesting to rewatch and it definitely had that nostalgic value going for it but I don't know how much I would've liked this if I had been watching it for the first time.

Recent reviews

Review by runaround ★★★★★

Awesome movie
Review by Austin Russell ★★★½ 2

So I've been interested in this series for a while now, just because it's similar to the Hellraiser franchise in that there are way too many sequels to what was originally a simple concept. I was also interested because apparently its based on a Stephen King short story. So, since it's on Netflix, and I have nothing better to do today, I figured I'd start the Children of the Corn series.

This first one is actually kinda fun. It's not very scary, even if it's supposed to be a "horror movie," but it is hilarious at times and very dramatic. The most interesting stuff to me is the stuff with the children, because they've established their own kind of society.…
Review by Connor Carey ★★★

A decent little B-Movie. "Children of the Corn" certainly has not aged well over time as it feels very dated at times and at others it's hard to know weather or not they were going for laughs or scares but this movie entertained me from start to finish and I admittedly had a good time with it. I wouldn't call this a good movie more of a guilty pleasure but it has an original premise and some decent performances.
Review by Cait Cibulsky ★★

1. why come so many redheads look exactly like this? malachai was absolutely delivering us a touch of eddie redmayne jupiter ascending edition

2. was there a hint of insightful commentary about christianity in here? maybe so.gif but like boring burt being like 'what kind of religion would ask children to kill their parents' before noticeably dropping the name isaac i was like hmmm

3. as my friend sean said, 'this could have been an email'
Review by Cliff Galiher ½

SAW: at home in HMB, with Dad
Review by Andrew Ford ★★★½

More thoughts on this to come (likely in podcast form), but I found this extremely compelling for about two thirds of its runtime, before a hyper-active, effects-heavy conclusion saps the film of the menacing atmosphere it had managed to cultivate.

I mean, there are some shots in here - specifically when Burt and the kids are up in the hayloft, looking out over the corn fields - that are genuinely jaw-dropping, almost Night of the Hunter-esque.
Review by Alex Gutiérrez ★★½

This is basically a long Goosebumps episode, only this time it has a great premise but the usual low budget execution.

The movie is by no means terrible, it develops the story of the cult in a decent way but obviously not the best. You don't need to read the story to tell it's a bad adaptation. The acting is cheesy in a bad way and the horror elements are not well transported (kids + horror narrative is a great mix but I just didn't feel it with this one). The soundtrack is really hit-and-miss. Most of the songws with the children chants gave me mixed feelings, but there were also the typical 80s synthetic songs that should have been used more.

I guess I can recommend it for an old-school movie marathon, but nothing else.
Review by Madeleine Arend ★★★★★

nom for Masterpiece Theater collection
Review by Mathew Buck ★½ 1

Stephen King adaptations are wildly variable in quality, and this sits very much on the lower end of the spectrum despite it's cult following from those that saw it in the 80s. Although the film's opening scene of kids slaughtering a small town has a startling charge to it, that early momentum dissipates almost as soon as we meet our lead characters: in the same year as her breakout performance in The Terminator, Linda Hamilton finds herself being condescended to by her doctor boyfriend Peter Horton, who spends most of the film being surly and unlikeable. Far too much of the film is Horton wandering around the now-empty town, which is also vacant of any kind of atmosphere or suspense,…