Written and directed by Kurt Wimmer, a psychopathic twelve-year-old girl in a small town in Nebraska recruits all the other children and goes on a bloody rampage, killing the corrupt adults and anyone else who opposes her. A bright high schooler who won’t go along with the plan is the town’s only hope of survival. Starring: Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey, Bruce Spence, Stephen Hunter, Jayden McGinlay, Ashlee Juergens and Sisi Stringer.
Any horror film is pretty much fair game for a remake or reboot in this day and age, and especially those based on stories by Stephen King, so it’s no surprise Children of the Corn found itself another adaptation. It’s never an easy task to add a new spin and a modern perspective to a story to make it stand out, to justify its creation and there’s another layer of difficulty when the original adaptation was made in the 1980s.
The 80s were a special era of horror, the films have this presence which can somehow both be straight horror and parodical of themselves, they can be good, bad and so bad they’re fantastic, there was almost always value to be found. So with all that in mind, did Kurt Wimmer manage to justify this new creation? The quick answer is no, not really.
Unfortunately, while the way that he approaches the story, dealing with the larger timeline was a good idea, the execution lacks impact both visually and thematically. It sets off on a decent note, the opening is strong but it quickly loses energy. It doesn’t have a solid basis to its story, it touches upon environmental issues and toxins, even creatures, but feels as though it never takes a firm grasp on any of them.
Which basically leaves it as a back and forth between Eden (Kate Moyer) and Bo (Elena Kampouris) and while both of the performances are decent, they’re not enough to fill out the entire film. Moyer’s Eden is filled with determination and righteousness, she’s unrelenting and unforgiving but it is all very predictable. The same goes for Kampouris’ Bo, she’s too stereotypical, you know exactly who she is and what she’ll do because we’ve seen that character time and time again.
As the progression of the story struggles, so does the direction and particularly the use of effects. Introducing the film’s creature, monster, however you want to categorise it, was a big misstep. The VFX work is nowhere near strong enough to pull it off convincingly, instead it adds an almost laughable quality to it, which if it were still the 1980s would work but not today. It’s akin to the quality of a video game in the 2000’s, not realistic and not entertaining to watch.
Taking that particular choice out of the equation, the direction isn’t bad but it’s massively missing any dark edge or personality to Children of the Corn. There are some good violent moments that any horror fan will enjoy but they’re fairly short lived. Had it embraced that, and gone for a truly bloody, all out carnage style, taken a few tips from Jason, Freddy or Michael, it might have actually been more enjoyable.
Children of the Corn is unfortunately yet another disappointing remake, especially as the genre of horror has had such a surge of originality in recent years. You can see the idea behind it but the execution just falls flat. The performances are the strongest thing it has going for it but that’s simply not enough. It’s predictable, familiar and plays things far too safe, which when added to some rather awful CGI work, it doesn’t have a lot to offer.
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