Lost in the Maize: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"He began to walk in that direction, not having to bull through the corn any more. The row was taking him in the direction he wanted to go, naturally. The row ended up ahead. Ended? No, emptied out into some sort of clearing..."''|'''[[Stephen King]]''', ''[[Children of the Corn]]''}}

* In Dorothy Canfield Fisher's short story "Sex Education" a town preacher lurks in a cornfield waiting to jump and rape any young girl dumb enough to wander nearby. [[It Gets Worse]]: It's heavily implied by the female characters that a number of other men in their town have similarly questionable hobbies, also involving young girls and cornfields.

* In ''[[The Stand]]'', a number of characters dream about being chased through a cornfield by the Dark Man.

* In ''[[The Lovely Bones]]'', Susie is [[Short Cuts Make Long Delays|cutting through]] a cornfield on her way home from school when a neighbor lures her into a secret underground room, rapes her and kills her.

* The Jerome Bixby short story "[[It's a Good Life]]", where the [[Reality Warper]] Anthony Fremont literally sends people who do anything he doesn't like to the cornfield behind his family's home. Served as the basis for a memorable ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode.

* [[Stephen King]]'s short story ''[[Children of the Corn]]'' served as [[In Name Only|loose inspiration]] for an endless string of movies which are probably the example that a lot of people remember, and contributes a great deal to cornfields being associated with creepiness. The page quote above, from the original story, gives an example.

 

* The series finale of ''[[Carnivale]]'' has the climax take place in a cornfield, with Brother Justin chasing after Ben with a [[Sinister Scythe|scythe]], no less.

* An episode of ''The Middle'' had the teenaged son lose his little brother in a cornfield maze, and he kept running into the creepy [[Crusty Caretaker|caretaker]] who told him about how he had lost his own little brother in a cornfield all those years ago.

* The ''[[Bones]]'' episode "Mummy in the Maze".

 

* [[Sufjan Stevens]]' ''Illinois'' album has a short track about a [[Real Life]] corn maze, titled "[[Drone of Dread|A Conjunction of Drones]] Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze".

 

* In ''[[Batman Doom]]'', one such maze pops up near the beginning of the level with the Scarecrow boss fight. It's full of gangsters and even spotting the passages is a problem (the automap helps). Once you're past this part, the rest of the level is thankfully free of confusing view-obfuscating maize.

 

* The [[Halloween Episode|Halloween-themed]] ''[[Skin Deep]]'' story "The One-Eyed Bear" centers around a road trip to an annual haunted corn maze attraction in Verona, MO referred to, appropriately enough, as [https://web.archive.org/web/20130110190811/http://www.themaize.com/sites.php?ID=&username=moverona The MAiZE]. (See [[Real Life]], below.) In keeping with getting lost, they stumble onto the attraction while fleeing from a nightmare and a [[Our Demons Are Different|demon]], only to be menaced by a [[Friday the 13th|hockey-mask-wearing, chainsaw wielding maniac]] {{spoiler|who is actually both a performer in the haunted maze and a bugbear in human guise}}.

 

 

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[[Category:Just for Pun]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]