🎬 Children of the Corn (2020)
Prequel to
The 2020 film "Children of the Corn" marks the third direct adaptation of Stephen King's classic 1977 short story, following the original 1984 film and a 2009 television movie. Written and directed by Kurt Wimmer, this version was conceived as both a reboot and a prequel to the broader film series, making it the eleventh installment in the long-running franchise. It was also the first theatrical release based on King's story since 1993's "Children of Corn II: The Final Sacrifice."
The film stars Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey, and Bruce Spence, and shifts the focus to a young girl named Eden who becomes entangled with the sinister forces lurking in the cornfields of Rylstone. Unlike the original story's focus on adult protagonists stumbling into the children's cult, this version centers more on the children themselves and the origins of the murderous fervor that grips the town's youth. The plot involves a massacre at a children's home and the town's desperate attempts to contain the spreading influence of the entity in the corn.
Despite its ambitious attempt to reinvigorate the franchise, the film faced a troubled release. It premiered in Sarasota, Florida in October 2020, but did not see a wider release until March 2023, when it was distributed by RLJE Films in theaters and on the streaming service Shudder. Like many of its predecessors, it was met with negative reviews from critics and performed poorly at the box office, grossing just over half a million dollars against a ten-million-dollar budget.
Stephen King's original short story, first published in Penthouse magazine, remains a landmark of horror fiction. Its premise of a rural town overtaken by a murderous child cult worshipping "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" has proven remarkably durable, inspiring a franchise that has persisted for decades through sequels, remakes, and now this prequel-reboot hybrid. The 2020 film attempts to return to the source material's darker roots while expanding the mythology, though it ultimately struggled to find an audience or critical favor.
"Children of the Corn" is a horror short story by American author Stephen King, first published in the March 1977 issue of Penthouse magazine. It was later collected in King's 1978 anthology Night Shift. The story is set in the fictional rural town of Gatlin, Nebraska, where all the adults have been murdered by a cult of children who worship a malevolent entity they call "He Who Walks Behind the Rows," which resides in the surrounding cornfields.
The narrative follows Burt and Vicky, a bickering married couple driving cross-country who stumble upon Gatlin and find themselves at the mercy of the murderous children, led by the fanatical boy preacher Isaac and his enforcer Malachi. The story explores themes of religious fanaticism, the corruption of innocence, and the dark underbelly of rural Americana, all set against the claustrophobic and sinister backdrop of endless cornfields.
"Children of the Corn" has become one of King's most enduring and frequently adapted works, spawning a long-running film franchise that began in 1984. The story's central image of sinister children and its unique setting have cemented it as a classic of modern horror fiction, though the original short story is notably bleaker and more contained than many of its cinematic offshoots.
