Director: David Price
Cast: Terrence Knox, Paul Scherrer, Ryan Bollman, Christie Clark, Rosaline Allen, Ned Romero
Screenplay: A.L. Katz, Gilbert Adler
92 mins. Rated R for horror violence and gore, and for language.
“What is all this shit about the corn?”
-Actual Quote from the film
There are few franchises that just won’t die. I’m not talking about franchises like Friday the 13th or Halloween, which still maintain popularity with each release. I’m talking about franchises that just won’t die. Ones like The Amityville Horror or one we are going to talk about some today, Children of the Corn. As I watch each new film, I wonder to myself, “Who’s still watching these?” I get no definitive answer. There can’t be enough people that continue to frequent a franchise like this, with quality dwindling as each new installment drops. It’s a mystery, that’s for sure, and the only way to truly solve it is to dive right in.
Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice follows the events of the previous installment. After the police discover the town of Gatlin and all the parentless children, they move them to the nearby town of Hemingford in hopes of getting the children to new families and better lives. The problem is that the surviving children of Gatlin aren’t prepared to let go of their deity, He Who Walks Behind the Rows. When teenager Micah (Ryan Bollman, The Neverending Story III: Escape from Fantasia, $elfie Shootout) is possessed by He Who Walks Behind the Rows, he begins enacting plans to rid the town of Hemingford of adults and create a similar society like Gatlin. Reporter John Garrett (Terrence Knox, TV’s Tour of Duty, From a Whisper to a Scream) and his son Danny (Paul Scherrer, Rockets’ Red Glare, Standoff) have just entered town and are thrust into the middle, with Danny himself being courted to join the cult.
Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice starts out with a promising yet all too familiar premise of the cult spreading to a new town. It quickly begins to fall though under the weight of its super-low budget. Director David Price (Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, Son of Darkness: To Die For II) used locals in all the roles outside of the principal cast and nobody is showing any signs of acting capabilities. The acting across the board is choppy and disappointing, which many could fault the screenplay from A.L. Katz and Gilbert Adler (Tales from the Crypt presents Bordello of Blood). It’s a dual disappointment I’m afraid.
Price’s film doesn’t showcase any ability for storytelling, be it from the visual or auditory fashion. The film tries to retell the original film and instead only shows its own faults. Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice is just downright terrible. There’s no reason that there should’ve ever been a third film…Ever (to be continued when I review Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest).
1/5
-Kyle A. Goethe
For my review of Fritz Kiersch’s Children of the Corn, click here.
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