Children of the Corn

I recently decided I was going to try and not re watch  any movie I'd seen within the last five years.
Instead of limiting my choices, I've found myself revisiting things I'd consigned to background noise and I'm pleasantly surprised.  This morning's movie, Children of The Corn (1984), is a terrific example of this.

I remember when it came out in the mid eighties, the cover to Stephen King's short story collection Night Shift was changed to the poster art in a tie-in.

The movie stars a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton and a pre-Thritysomething Peter Horton as Vicky and Burt, a couple driving to Seattle by way of Nebraska.  Unlike their bickering counterparts of the short story, they're a cute couple- Vicki sings along with a "school's out" song to celebrate Burt's graduation from med school and his getting a position in Washington state.

Of course their journey is interrupted by them running over someone in the middle of the road, a child who was a good as dead, since he'd had his throat cut.

Since the movie starts with a flashback to the small town of Gatlin being taken over by it's children, the slaughter of diner patrons after church being effective since they really do look like small town churchgoers eating at a diner after the service, the boy's death wasn't as much as a surprise as it was in the short story.  In fact, the flashback is kind of a flaw for me- what I loved about the short story is the eerie discovery, the reader is along for the ride with Burt and Vicky as they discover this town, empty of adults, a sense of unease seeps from the pages.
The viewer knows what the couple are getting into even if the reader doesn't.

The monster at the center of all this is... something.  Wisely unseen, He Who Walks Behind the Rows, works through the children, appearing for the most part as a travelling disturbance of earth, rather like a large mole, but later re-animates the body of a follower and appears as a technicolor stormcloud.

Despite some of the special effects not aging gracefully (the technicolor stormcloud), Children of the Corn holds up pretty well, thanks to a foundation of a good Stephen King short story and two pretty above average -for an eighties horror film- leads.

Apparently, there are eight sequels.  I've seen the second movie in the series, IN A THEATER!, because a classmate and an acquaintance had roles.  I may re watch that, but from what I've  read about the others, I'll probably be avoiding them.