First adapted in 1984, there are now a whopping ten Children of the Corn films, despite almost all of them being boring enough to induce sleep. While Stephen King has written an ever-expanding mountain of horror stories, some long enough to be told over multiple films, it’s a bit perplexing just how much of his shorter work has also been adapted for the big screen. One such short story (clocking in at less than 50 pages) to get the feature film treatment was Children of the Corn, a selection from King’s Night Shift collection.
The horror genre is full of unlikely franchises, but Children of the Corn might just be the most inexplicable this side of Amityville. While somewhat highly regarded today, Children of the Corn received negative reviews, and was hardly a box office stunner, although its low budget ensured a tidy enough profit. It’s not really surprising all following Children of the Corn films went direct to video, but what is surprising is just how many have materialized over the years, especially since most of them bear zero connection to their predecessors, and don’t seem to be favorites of anyone.
Easily the biggest sin the Children of the Corn franchise commits though is being boring. Both good movies and bad movies can be entertaining, but it’s impossible to save a film that bores the viewer for extended periods. Most of the Children of the Corn films are about as exciting as working in a corn field.
How Children of the Corn Became Horror’s Most Boring Franchise
![How Children of the Corn Became Horror’s Most Boring Franchise](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Children-of-the-Corn-poster.jpg)
One thing that hangs like a sharp scythe over the Children of the Corn movies is an air of abject laziness. Outside of Children of the Corn 3: Urban Harvest, which earned points with some for its over the top gore, giant stop-motion monster massacre, and change to a city setting, nearly all the Children of the Corn sequels follow the same formula. Normal people end up in or near Gatlin, Nebraska, the corn cult does creepy things, then attempts to kill everyone, especially the adults. This is usually done to appease a nebulous deity named He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
The characters change, and so do some of the minute details, but for the part, nearly all the Children of the Corn movies are an exercise in repetition. Outside of weak, underdeveloped plots, the Children of the Corn sequel scripts are populated by bland, mostly forgettable characters, which is especially striking when one considers that the lead of Children of the Corn 4 is a young Naomi Watts. The low budgets of each film are also quite apparent, and serve as a constant reminder that these movies were thrown together on the cheap in order to inhabit the new release sections at video stories, or for the more recent films, streaming services.
What’s probably most perplexing of all is that clearly, the Children of the Corn films have an audience. If they didn’t, Dimension Films wouldn’t have been steadily pumping out sequels since the early 1990s. Yet, unlike other direct to video franchises like Tremors or Puppet Master, Children of the Corn really doesn’t seem to have any kind of visible fanbase. One could argue they’re a guilty pleasure, but movies this boring and perfunctory are unlikely to inspire pleasure, guilty or otherwise.