It was 42 years ago that a Stephen King horror movie started a trend that the author himself hated. Before King published his first novel, Carrie, the horror author had been pumping out several short stories he sold to magazines for years. In 1978, after King became famous for Carrie and ‘Salem’s Lot, he released a short story collection called Night Shift, which put several of those stories together in one book. The collection included several stories adapted into movies, including The Mangler, The Boogeyman, Trucks (Maximum Overdrive), Sometimes They Come Back, The Lawnmower Man, and Children of the Corn.
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That last movie, Children of the Corn, hit theaters 42 years ago, released on March 9, 1984. Directed by Fritz Kiersch, the movie stars Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton as a young couple stranded in a small town in Nebraska, where they find the town empty of all adults and soon end up running for their lives from a cult of children. However, Stephen King hates the fact that the movie ended up spawning countless sequels, with King saying he wished there weren’t so many movies based on one short story.
Children of the Corn Has Countless Bad Sequels
The first Children of the Corn received lackluster reviews, and most critics dismissed it as a cheap horror movie with few redeeming qualities. However, there was something about it that connected with fans, especially when it hit home video. The studios realized they could milk it for all it was worth and turned it into a franchise. While Fritz Kiersch didn’t return for the sequels, some of the actors made their way back until, eventually, the only thing that remained was the theme of a cult of murderous children following “He Who Walks Behind the Rows.”
Nine years after the first movie’s release, Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice was released by Dimension Films, and it ended up as the last film in the franchise to get a theatrical release for almost 30 years. It turned out not to be the “final” sacrifice since straight-to-video releases started hitting regularly. Between 1995 and 2001, there were five sequels released, and then another in 2011 and a last one in 2018. There was also a remake in 2009. A reboot in 2020 from Kurt Wimmer also hit theaters. That is a total of 11 Children of the Corn movies based on one short story.
Even worse was the quality. While the original film has a lot 36% Rotten Tomatoes score, that is high compared to what came later. Wimmer’s reboot has an 11% score. The 2009 remake has a 0% score, as do the sequels in 1999 and 2001. That three movies in one franchise can have a 0% RT score, and the studio still makes more, is shocking.
The Original Children of the Corn Has Become a Cult Classic
While it seems shocking that studios made so many Children of the Corn movies, the original has become a cult classic. The film was a box office success, thanks to the ultra-low budget, but it still took nine years to get a sequel. Linda Hamilton has been open about hating the movie, calling it the worst film she has ever appeared in. As for King, he was talking to Deadline about his least favorite adaptations and said, “I could do without all of the Children of the Corn sequels. I actually like the original pretty well. I thought they did a pretty good job on that.”
However, fans seem to disagree. Horror conventions always promote Children of the Corn because fans want to meet the two actors who played the main villains. Both John Franklin (the cult leader Isaac) and Courtney Gains (his first lieutenant Malachi) have become regulars at conventions, and fans love to meet them, proving the film’s enduring legacy. Linda Hamilton hates the movie, and Stephen King has fond memories of it, but 42 years after its release, Children of the Corn remains as beloved by horror fans today as it was decades ago.
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