Children of the Corn

Children of the Corn is a 1984 horror film based upon the 1978 short story of the same name by Stephen King. Set in the fictional rural town of Gatlin, Nebraska, the film tells the story of a demonic entity referred to as "He Who Walks Behind The Rows" which entices the children of the town to ritualistically murder all the adults to ensure a successful corn harvest.

The series consists of:


 * Children of the Corn (1984)
 * Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1993)
 * Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)
 * Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996)
 * Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998)
 * Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return (1999)
 * Children of the Corn: Revelation (2001)
 * The Children of the Corn remake by Sy Fy (2009)
 * Children of the Corn: Genesis (2011)

---

Children of the Corn contains examples of:

 * Adults Are Useless: and dead.
 * So... justified?
 * They die by uselessness.
 * All There in the Manual:
 * Artistic Licence Biology: In the remake, Joseph Ahaz's blood coagulates within minutes, and he keeps crackling like his bones are breaking everytime he's touched.
 * Bigger Bad: He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
 * Birth Death Juxtaposition: Remake. A sex ceremony in which two of the adolescent cult members conceive a child is spliced with shots of Burt stumbling through a field filled with dead bodies. His yowl of anguish merges with the woman's orgasm screams.
 * A Child Shall Lead Them: It's even the tagline of the movie.
 * Creepy Child
 * Dawson Casting: All the actors were 18 and older in the original; however, the 2009 remake casts younger children.
 * Direct to DVD: Fourth film and onwards.
 * Downer Ending: The original short story.
 * The Dragon: Malachai acts as Isaac's Dragon, ready to kill and destroy at his behest.
 * Dying As Yourself: Micah at the end of CotC2.
 * Eye Scream: In the 2009 version, with corn husks.
 * Evil Redhead: Malachai in the first film.
 * Fan Service: The sex scene in the remake. It has nothing to do with anything else going on and takes place between two characters who aren't even named and are barely seen at any other time in the movie.
 * Fan Disservice: Revelation has a stripper as a character. At one point she gets naked and starts bathing and - Oh my God! The evil corn is stabbing her to death!
 * Ghost Town
 * Gorn: Urban Harvest has several weird, gross deaths, while the remake has a number of excessively brutal ones.
 * Human Sacrifice
 * Immodest Orgasm: The woman in the fertility ritual almost shatters the church windows with her moaning as she's getting nailed on the altar.
 * Infant Immortality: Quite widely averted in the 2009 remake. In fact, it's also toyed with when Burt, who's a Vietnam Veteran in the remake,
 * Even the original starts with.
 * It Got Worse: Year after year, He Who Walks Behind The Rows demands adults over a certain age to be sacrificed, and any time anyone in the community sins against him that age gets reduced. By the time the story begins there's only teenagers left. ..
 * Lost in The Maize: The Quintessential Example.
 * Not As You Know Them: Malachai is far more loyal to Isaac in the remake than in the original. Burt is a Vietnam Vet in the remake and has frequent flashbacks. Vicky is black and a former anti-war activist. Isaac is also nine years old in the remake and is implied to be a new leader after the old one reached the "age of favor." Isaac is also harsher and more ruthless in the remake. For example, in the original he tolerates Job and Sarah's apostasy. Finally
 * Numbered Sequels
 * Sinister Scythe
 * Teenage Wasteland: Self-inflicted.
 * Teens Are Monsters: The original group of "children" in the short story are actually in their teens when they kill the adults.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Burt in the original short story.
 * Town With a Dark Secret
 * Ultimate Evil: He Who Walks Behind The Rows. In the original short story, the implication is that his true identity is
 * What Happened to The Mouse: It's unknow what happened to Burt, Vicky, Job and Sarah after they escaped Gaitlin in the original movie, albeit the second movie does briefly mentioned that a couple (Burt and Vicky) went to Hemingford (a town near Gatlin) and told about Gaitlin and the cult.
 * What Happened to The Mouse: It's unknow what happened to Burt, Vicky, Job and Sarah after they escaped Gaitlin in the original movie, albeit the second movie does briefly mentioned that a couple (Burt and Vicky) went to Hemingford (a town near Gatlin) and told about Gaitlin and the cult.