Kurt Wimmer’s Children of the Corn remake was quietly unleashed in only two theaters in the US, and has a 2021 wide release apparently in the cards, but the movie couldn’t have arrived at a worse time. Originally adapted in 1984, Children of the Corn is a short story from horror icon Stephen King’s early collection, Night Shift. The simple story’s critically dismissed adaptation, starring The Terminator’s Linda Hamilton, went on to spawn horror’s most boring franchise with a string of inexplicably popular sequels.
As perennially popular as the Children of the Corn series seems to be with audiences – though not reviewers – Equilibrium director Kurt Wimmer’s upcoming remake of the original 1984 movie couldn’t be arriving at a less fortunate time. 2021’s Children of the Corn will reportedly be an R-rated prequel to the original movie; anyone familiar with the plot and themes of the franchise can probably hazard a guess at why this is a terrible time for the movie to be remade.
For anyone who isn’t familiar, a brief backstory of the Children of the Corn franchise is necessary. The original 1984 movie, adapted relatively faithfully from King’s story, sees a bickering young couple come across an abandoned small town whose inhabitants have seemingly vanished. The duo soon discovers that the town’s adults were murdered en masse by their kids, who have since taken over the town under the guidance of pint-sized cult leader named Isaac and his goon, Malachi. It’s a campy, goofy horror movie based on an obvious classic fear — the anxiety young couples feel about being forced to conform to societal norms and being pressured into parenthood, traditional gender roles, giving up the freedom of their youth, etc. The movie taps into these themes effectively, just like the more recent suburban satire, Vivarium. But there are a few reasons that a Children of the Corn prequel isn’t such an easy sell in 2021.
Generational Warfare Is At An All-Time High
Whether it’s Boomers mocking Generation Z, Generation Z mocking Boomers, or everyone mocking Millennials, generational warfare is a huge phenomenon in 2020. Children of the Corn could easily play into a cultural trend of demonizing youth despite their behavior having comparatively little impact on the state of the world. It feels more than a little mean-spirited to members of Generation Z – the only generation too young to make their mark on society – as the murderous villains of a big-budget horror movie, when recent social horrors such as Parasite and Ready Or Not have instead found a more believable source of villainy in the form of uber-rich elites.
While there are valid arguments against classifying entire generations based on their perceived cultural identities, any movie whose villains are defined by their age is bound to end up stereotyping people of that age. As a result, depicting Generation Z as villains rather than victims of an unequal system is pretty poor form for a movie that is endeavoring to combine social commentary with horror. Claiming that a Children of the Corn remake isn’t intended to be a socially conscious horror in an age of such intense generational division comes across as clueless.
Children of the Corn’s Fanatics Are The Wrong Age
In the original Children of the Corn movie, the adults are offed by their offspring because the kids are part of a religious cult who wants to turn back the clock and re-establish Old Testament cultural norms. This was a scarily familiar phenomenon for a lot of ’80s viewers, as the emergence of yuppies saw the children of hippies embracing conservative values and shocking their parents by trying to turn back the cultural clock to 1950s America. As the likes of the 2021 Candyman remake have illustrated, there’s still plenty of cultural anxiety surrounding America’s return to antiquated, damaging cultural norms.
There’s never been a better time for socially conscious horror movies thanks to pervasive and ongoing fears and changes to the social structure and culture. However, America’s youth are hardly the ones responsible for growing cultural anxiety. As such, the image of some bloodthirsty preteens enforcing outdated religious rules looks a little ludicrous when, in reality, many members of Generation Z are not only politically progressive, but are also unable to affect much change. Unlike more grounded social horror outings such as American Horror Story‘s season 7 social satire Cult, Children of the Corn’s portrayal of Gen Z zealots could also end up giving the generation whose choice of political representatives are more responsible for growing social fears a free pass.
Small-town America Has Never Been More Demonized
As seen in shows like Lovecraft County and Stranger Things or the iconic fictional town of Derry, Maine from Stephen King’s IT, small-town America has become the hub of contemporary horror’s depictions of social evils. On the topic of depicting victims as villains, the image of a backward community hiding from modernity sees some movies lay the blame for inequality on towns that aren’t entirely responsible for their lack of amenities, and have a legitimate reason to feel forgotten and disenfranchised. Where the likes of The Devil All The Time and Twin Peaks: The Return located the heart of America’s evils in a seemingly idyllic small town of the 50s. Relocating the action of a Children of the Corn remake to a contemporary small town could play into stereotypes that these communities are composed of regressive die-hards who are afraid of change and modernity. This is an unfair depiction that, once more, blames the town’s kids for their problems instead of portraying the real villains responsible for their unequal lot in life.
How the Children Of the Corn Remake Could Still Work
Despite these issues, there’s hope for Wimmer’s Children of the Corn redo yet. The remake could address the current generational divide in its story of kids killing their guardians. Since the movie is a prequel, it could depict the kids’ rampage as a chilling warning sign of the horrors that could come to pass if Boomers, Gen X-ers, and even Millennials don’t start taking the concerns of the younger generation seriously. Global climate change protests, as well as protests for police reform and action, prove that Generation Z isn’t interested in accepting the world handed to them by previous generations. As such, Children of the Corn could be turned into a darkly comedic horror story and cautionary tale worthy of The Twilight Zone that sees the kids of 2020 meting out vengeance on members of the older generations as biblical revenge for the damage they did to the world Generation Z is inheriting.
