The town of Rylstone, Nebraska is slowly dying and becoming a ghost town. The local economy relied on growing corn and the current crop is failing due to a decision to go with a genetically enhance strand. Boleyn Williams feels sure they can regenerate the land, but her father is advocating for the crop to be  destroyed and taking Government money for that destruction. Meanwhile Eden Edwards has been having her own revelations out in the corn field, and is strict advocate of he who walks, worst still she is swaying the local kids to her way of thinking. The only thing standing in Eden’s way is the adults, who mock and do worse to their kids, and Boleyn who isn’t getting that old time religion. Eden decides it’s time to cease the day, and make a few changes around Rylstone.

In an attempt to match the Halloween franchise for the most movies of the same name Children of the Corn also has three movies of the same name with rumours of a fourth movie on the way, because who wants to stop scrapping the bottom of barrel. And surprisingly like Halloween the third movie of the same name in this franchise isn’t yet another remake, we’re talking a new approach to the topic matter. And before anyone gets ready for me beating this movie to death, I’m going to have some nice things to say about it in among pointing out flaws and mistakes made by the movie makers.

Kurt Wimmer has decided to explore the background to the events leading up to the adult massacre, the actual massacre itself, and the immediate aftermath. He takes a weird dual approach to things, he who walks behind the rows is now a giant corn dolly, I kid you not, and there’s also a lot of screen time spent trying to explain things away due to corn mould. Both approaches in this movie are mutually exclusive, but could have worked well in perhaps more seasoned hands. There’s also a weird subplot going down about genetically modified crops and how we really don’t understand the fire we’re dealing with. That’s a lot to get through, Wimmer drops ideas when he needs to thankfully, so get ready for a pretty mush schizo experience as the movie dips and dives in different directions rather than having a narrative whole.

Inexplicable Isaac has had a sex change and is now the backwoods cult leader Eden. Actually not a bad choice, Kate Moyer (Eden) nails a memorable character you are either going to love or hate or love to hate. There’s a real down home “oh shucks” feeling to the character that worked for mine. And hey we are at least saved from any resurrection of the ginger god of doom Malachai! Talk about your kid that needs some discipline post haste, Eden can be truly nasty as the script requires. Her face off with Boleyn (Elena Kampouris) is a highlight of the movie, with a decent amount of cat and mouse shenanigans going down.

Wimmer’s horror tactics continue the schizo feeling of the movie. We get some bloody scenes, chick ripped in half straight down the middle being I guess a real disturbing highlight, interspersed with long periods of almost tedium as Eden makes decisions about as quick as the Right being forced into an environmental policy. While I would like to say this adds to the tension, it kind of doesn’t as the feeling is beside one dude the adults deserve their fates. So we get scenes of carnage, including a live burial the Nazis would have been proud of and not much more. In fact, the important deaths all happen off scene as “He Who Walks” is shy for the majority of the movie’s run time. Maybe Wimmer should have worked on the creature being the major danger and done a slasher, rather than this Nebraska tale of fear and loathing. We do get a decent amount of child abuse, implied, and the sort of community that would have all voted for Trump and who would have still been scratching their heads as their world burned as a result. The overall feeling, I was left with from a horror perspective is a huge missed opportunity.

On the bright side the cinematography is on the winning side of things. As we edge into the movie we get a sensational view of corn rustling in the breeze, and throughout the movie corn is a central motif with some wide angle shots showing just how extensive the crop is. There’s a real feeling of the town, that isn’t Gatlin, being isolated and a forgotten corner of the State of Nebraska. Extra points for the camera work avoiding any obvious elements that would have identified the shooting location as being NSW Australia, nary an Emu walking across the set at any stage.

Speaking of the filming location, also extra points for Kiwi actor Bruce Spence getting a gig as Pastor Penney. Spence delivers a Spence performance which really hasn’t changed since his turn as the Gyro Captain in Mad Max 2, or The Road Warrior for anyone up north reading. If you want someone to play an eccentric backwoods preacher in your movie, then look no further than Bruce.

Guess I should point out this version of Children of the Corn isn’t really happening in the same narrative as the rest of the movies in what really is an uneven franchise of mainly misses. And full marks to Kurt Wimmer for at least trying for something different from the usual kids massacre adults story lines that the franchise regurgitates to a disturbing degree.

Guess if I run across a Children of the Corn movie I am kind of going to drive into town rather than stay on the freeway and by pass it. There’s a sort of feeling of being caught in the franchise’s headlights and being drawn in. Thankfully this time round I got a movie that wasn’t too bad, there’s some good aspects to the flick rather than the audience being corn holed by yet another cheap badly thought out waste of time. So hell yeah recommended to those wanting to check out how to breath some life into a worn out franchise where everything that could have been down has been paved over by a two lane blacktop previously. Damn this probably means I’ll check out the next movie in the franchise I run across, and get a far worse experience.