Now, These Children Are Truly Enfant Terribles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Darlings, remember the 1984 movie, "Children Of The Corn?  The one where Peter Horton and

Linda Hamilton--oh, my God!!!!!!!!--play this dysfunctional married couple, who happen to drive into Midwest Hell, namely the town of Gatlin, Nebraska, and, Hamilton is offered up as a sacrifice in the corn field, that I can tell was meant to replicate the artistry of sacrificial horror, depicted in the film, "The Wicker Man," but here is one big camp fest??????????  And how about John Franklin, then all of 25, as the creepy kid cult leader, Isaac?   He goes through the entire film with one expression on his face, which, after awhile, had me laughing out loud, because, for all his so-called menace, the kid was really such a wuss.  The same with Courtney Gains, who played right hand man, Malachai.

The reason for all this was because the director, Fritz Kiersch, had no idea how to direct children, this story, or film.  Though he does get the opening sequence right--the lead-up, and depiction of the Massacre Of The Adults, which is genuinely creeping, and satisfies one's inner child, who would wish all authority figures to vanish.  Just like Tom Glazer's song, "The Battle Hymn Of The Children," with its classic lyric, "We have tortured all the teachers, and we broke the Golden Rule!!!!!!!!  Heh!  Heh! Heh!

As for this 1984 film--fugeddaboutit!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because, just a year before, an aspiring filmmaker named John Woodward, made a half hour short adaptation of Stephen King's work called "Disciples Of The Crow," and, girls, I am telling you, this is the one to see!!!!!!!!!  It blows the 1984 film out of existence!!!!!!!!!!!!

The film retains the basic plot.  The title change is because the cultish children now worship a crow god.  This works better, because the whole He Who Walks Among The Rows thing,  in the 1984 film, was so abysmal, one could tell it was just actors swiftly crawling under burlap tarp!!!!!!!  Come on, now!!!!!!!!!

The short film has more understatement and less violence.  The most violent sequence is when the child trying to escape still runs out in front of the married couple's car--bleeding, disheveled, and with a corn handled knife stuck in him.  That's as grizzly as things get.

The use of crows in this film is the creepiest since Hitchock's 1963 "The Birds," and the film, loaded with atmosphere makes ordinary shots of a corn field, a church, and a plastic toy bird bobbing back and forth into a container of corn, genuinely chilling.

And while no one is sacrificed in the film, and the couple escapes the town, now set in Oklahoma, shots of a skeletal scarecrow, crows flying across a parched sun, and an unknown souvenir the couple has been given, and have no idea about, give this film a more satisfying ending than the camp histrionics of the 1984 film.

It comes down to this--less is more, requiring  viewers to use their imagination, perceiving the horror in terms of what most frightens them.  John Woodward did wonders with this film; I wonder if he went anywhere, because, on the basis of this, he should have.  As for Fritz Kiersch, consign him to the slag heap!!!!!!!!!!!

I wonder how Stephen King feels.  After all, he wrote "Children Of The Corn" in 1977.  To think it first appeared in "Penthouse"--yes, darlings, once upon a time even sex mags were literate, if that can be believed!!!!!!--and then published in his story anthology, "Night Shift."  It is great on the printed page, and I urge you to read it.  As well as view the 1983 short, which can be found on You Tube.

When I started to write this post, I thought back to the Jonestown Massacre, wondering if this story was a reaction to that.  But King had it published in "Penthouse," in 1977, before it took place.

However, I looked up the date of the incident, and was horror struck at what I discovered.

It was committed on November 18, 1978.  What is the big deal?

November 18 is my birthday.  That year, I turned 24!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Caw! Caw! Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!