Children of the Corn Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Okay, so I've never been much for the company of kids. which may make me extra-susceptible when it comes to the evil deeds and manipulations of a perfectly precious child on-screen. It's an easy button to push, though -- after all, who would ever suspect, let alone harm a vengeful little moppet?

None of that appeal escapes tomorrow's release, Orphan, and it certainly isn't the first time that horror and horseplay have mixed on film. While I'm tempted to include that little girl from [REC] (and also Quarantine, I suppose) for giving me the willies, I won't because she wasn't the chief antagonist, and the only reason I'm leaving Children of the Corn off the list is, well, I haven't actually seen that yet. And although it doesn't hit Stateside shelves until this October, keep an eye out for the very tense import, The Children.

But worry not: even with the exceptions, there's certainly no shortage of other brats to choose from.

Since I've gotten away with confessing my relative apathy towards highly regarded horror classics The Shining and Suspiria, it seems perfectly safe for me to go ahead and admit that I've not yet seen Children of the Corn. I know, I know, that one isn't exactly in the same league as those two, but it does hold a reputation in its own right.

Now that a Sci-Fi Channel remake is getting into gear, I'll likely make a greater point of getting around to it (sorry it has to come to that, but call it somewhat of a personal trend). Monika Bartyzel brought up the first round of casting news, and now from Shock Till You Drop comes word that young actor Daniel Newman has been cast in the role of Malachai on the production, which just began filming in Iowa this week.

I'm going to take a stab and guess that an announcement of this singular import means that Newman will be playing the leader of the Children. If I'm wrong, you lot can go on and have your laugh, but if you're familiar with either Stephen King's original short story or the 1984 adapation, then I suspect that you get the idea of this Corn kernel.

Hey, why'd the laughter stop?

The most buzzed-about rumor of today -- the kind that will probably become next Thursday's minor Variety story -- is that Darren Lynn Bousman, an emerging king of low-rent horror, will be directing a remake of 1984's Children of the Corn. Bousman is responsible for all the very successful Saw sequels, and seems to be vying for an official membership in the Splat Pack -- a support group of blood, guts and gore filmmakers to help each other get their work made without an NC-17 rating. Children of the Corn is probably one of my favorite horror films, to boot. It's the one that I remember watching in most vivid detail -- aside from The Exorcist -- but only because the film somehow, to my mind, blurred the boundaries between movie screen and reality.

Children of the Corn was based on a Stephen King story, in which one prophetic little boy becomes a Jim Jones Jr. under the noses of the adults in his town; his preachings cause the town children to murder all of the adults so that they can congregate in the cornfields by themselves. The 1984 film, which ramped up the religiously-motivated carnage, starred a young Linda Hamilton and Peter Horton. Bousman has not been quoted as officially taking on the project, but IESB says that their sources gave them the green light to report. IESB also called Bousman's agents at Endeavour, who responded with an awkward "no comment." Next on Bousman's to-do list, is of course, Saw IV, so don't look for Children in the immediate future, if it happens at all.