CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984)
Label: Arrow Video
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 82 Minutes
Rating: R
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Stereo, English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p UHD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Fritz Kiersch
Cast: Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R.G. Armstrong, Julie Maddalena, John Philbin, John Franklin, Courtney Gains
Eighties killer-kiddie classic Children of the Corn (1984) scared the living Hell out of me when I caught it in my pre-teens on good ol' VHS. I grew up in a very rural area in Upstate New York with plenty of corn fields throughout the area, so the idea of a dark Lovecraftian force known as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" who spurred children to slaughter all the adults in their town really burrowed down into my psyche and dark imagination in a big, bad way. Even as a kid I found the idea of kids killing all the adults rather frightening, and while the movie affects me differently now thirty-five plus years later I think this one holds up mighty finely when back-up by some youthful nostalgia.
The film opens on a Sunday morning in the small town of Gatlin, Texas. The adults are gathered at the local diner for their usual post-sermon coffee and breakfast when the kids suddenly rise up and poison/massacre every last one them, all the while the creepy kid cult-leader Isaac (John Franklin, The Addam's Family) peers through the window with a smile. We get some decent carnage as the kids poison the coffee pot, hacking and slashing the adults and slicing off the proprietor of the diner's hand with a meat slicer! Now, the carnage is mostly relegated to splashes of blood but I love it when the kid with the milkshake mustache catches a face full of the red stuff!
Three years later young couple Vicky (Linda Hamilton, Terminator) and her boyfriend Burt (Peter Horton, TV's Thirtysomething) are travelling through rural Nebraska when a young boy emerges from the corn field right into the path of their car. They put him in the car and drive into the nearby town of Gatlin, which at first seems deserted, but soon enough they discover the kiddie-only inhabitants are nothing to be trifled with, as creepy cult-leader Isaac and his evil-ginger sidekick Malachi (Courtney Joiner, The 'Burbs) capture Vicky and put her on a crucifix made of corn, to be sacrificed to their Lovecraftian lord, He who Walks Behind the Rows.
Based on the Stephen King short story "Disciples of the Crow," this is probably the first King adaptation I saw as a kid, it was chilling to me as a kid, though now I can see it for the somewhat problematic thing that it is, padded for time to stretch the short-subject source material, adding a young girl with clairvoyant visions, but that the creepy kid cult-leader as played by John Franklin (who was 24 when he made this!) still manages to make my skin crawl with his eerie sermons and odd demeanor. Then we have his sidekick Malachi, whom develops a feud with Isaac over the proper way to worship their dark Lord, culminating in some treachery.
The finale is fun piece of work, both frantic, frightful and field-burning, but the visual effects might be a bit problematic for those who weren't raised on this vintage slice of horror - they do not really stand-up to the test of time, but the scenes of He Who Walks Behind The Rows burrowing beneath the surface of the ground and the way it displaces the dirt looks very cool, and the fireball is wonderful. To this day I cannot pass a corn field and think of this film, it's left it's mark on me for sure, a testament to the iconic nature of this one.
Audio/Video: The Children of the Corn (1984) arrives on 4K UHD from Arrow Video befitting from a new 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative. This looks great, easily surpassing the already great looking 2017 Blu-ray Arrow released. The UHD benefits from a Dolby Vision HDR10 color grading that is used with a light touch; the increased resolution better resolves film grain and looks tighter, but it still has some noisy looking grain in the earlier and darker scenes. Colors are more nuanced with better contrast, the warm Midwestern sunlight bathes it, with deep blacks and nicely detailed textures throughout. No Dolby Atmos upgrade on this one but audio on the disc comes by way of uncompressed English LPCM 2.0 or DTS-HD MA 5.1. I still prefer the stereo track, which has a nice presence to it, though the surround does open up the sound stage and with the score bleeding into the surrounds, optional English subtitles are provided.
Arrow Video carry over all the extras from their 2017 Blu-ray beginning with an audio commentary from with John Sullivan of www.childrenofthecornmovie.com and horror journalist Justin Beahm, and Sullivan shows up again for a 16-min location revisit showcasing the filming locations current day.
Screenwriter George Goldsmith is interviewed and gets into his early career as a small town investigative reporter before dropping that for screenwriting, working on Master of Kung Fu TV series and Force Five, and adapting the work of Stephen King. another cool extra is the short film Disciples of the Crow (1983), which is one of the infamous "dollar baby" King adaptations, this one coming out a year before the feature length movie. There are also over fifty minutes of interviews with actors Julie Maddalena and John Philbin (Return of the Living Dead), all in you're looking at over three hours of extras and that's before you get two the two feature length audio commentaries!
Special Features:
- Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative by Arrow Films
- 4K Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original lossless stereo and 5.1 Audio Options
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary with John Sullivan of www.childrenofthecornmovie.com and horror journalist Justin Beahm- Return to Gatlin - A brand new featurette revisiting the film's original Iowa shooting locations with John Sullivan of www.childrenofthecornmovie.com (16 min)
- A Field of Nightmare - A brand New interview with Screenwriter George Goldsmith (17 min) HD
- ...And The Corn Shall Lead Them - A Brand new interview with Actors Julie Maddalena and John Philbin (52 min) HD
- Stephen King on a Shoestring - an interview with producer Donald Borchers (11 min) HD
- Audio commentary with director Fritz Kiersch, producer Terrence Kirby and actors John Franklin and Courtney Gains
- Harvesting Horror - The Making of Children of the Corn - retrospective piece featuring interviews with director Fritz Kiersch and actors John Franklin and Courtney Gains (61 min)
- It Was the Eighties! - an interview with actress Linda Hamilton (14 min)
- Welcome to Gatlin - The Sights and Sounds of Children of the Corn, an interview with production designer Craig Stearns and composer Jonathan Elias (15 min)
- Cut From the Corn - an interview with the actor who played "The Blue Man" in the fabled excised sequence (6 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min) HD
- Storyboard Gallery (6 min) HD
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin
- Short Film: Disciples of the Crow (1983): Originally shot as Children of the Corn, this short film adaptation of the eponymous Stephen King Story was made one year before the 1984 feature version of the version (19 Minutes) HD
Children of the Corn (1984) still works it's 80s killer-kids magic all these years later, a testament to both Stephen King's original story and to the direction of Fritz Kiersch, this is a film that will be scaring audiences for years to come. Arrow Video's 4K UHD release looks great and has some fantastic extras, sadly no Atmos upgrade, but this is the definitive release of the film on home video and well-worth the upgrade if your set up for 4K UHD.