Children of the Corn

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Fritz Kiersch directs. João Fernandes behind the camera. Jonathan Elias scores. Harry Keramidas cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $0.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Grossed $15M — a 18.2× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
• 342 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 4Part of the "Children of the Corn Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 5Directed by Fritz Kiersch, shot by João Fernandes. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by Jonathan Elias. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor Harry Keramidas shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton and R.G. Armstrong carry the top of the cast.
• 9Marketing tagline: "And a child shall lead them...".
• 10IMDB entry: tt0087050 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 11Classified under 13 themes, including "small town", "sacrifice", "halloween", "children gang".
• 12Released under 16 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography

João Fernandes

Original score

Jonathan Elias

Editing

Harry Keramidas

Costume design

Barbara Scott

Makeup / hair

Erica Ueland

Stunt coordinator

Bruce Paul Barbour

Runtime

92 min · 1h 32m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$800,000

Box office

$14,568,989

Return

1821% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Children of the Corn (1984) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

38% 🥫 Rotten

Metacritic

45/100

IMDB rating

5.6/10 · 61,879 votes

MPAA

R

Part of

Children of the Corn Collection

Adapted from a popular Stephen King short story, the Children of the Corn film series began with a 1984 adaptation by New World Pictures. Set in the fictitious rural town of Gatlin, Nebraska, the film tells the story of a malevolent entity referred to as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" which entices the town's children to ritually murder all the town's adults. After the release of its 1992 sequel and the series' acquisition by Dimension Films, the subsequent installments were released directly to video, and bore little to no narrative continuity, beginning with Children of the Corn III, and ending with 2018's Runaway.

• 
  Children of the Corn

  1984 · this one
• 
  Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice

  1992
• 
  Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest

  1995
• 
  Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering

  1996
• 
  Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror

  1998
• 
  Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return

  1999
• 
  Children of the Corn: Revelation

  2001
• 
  Children of the Corn: Genesis

  2011
• 
  Children of the Corn: Runaway

  2018

Also by

Fritz Kiersch

• 
  Crayola Kids Adventures: Tales of Gulliver's Travels

  1997 · ★ 9.0
• 
  High Tide

  1994 · ★ 6.7
• 
  Swamp Thing

  1990 · ★ 6.3
• 
  Tuff Turf

  1985 · ★ 5.9
• 
  Winners Take All

  1987 · ★ 5.8
• 
  Fatal Charm

  1990 · ★ 5.5

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Children of the Corn (1984) Original Trailer [FHD]

  Trailer
• 

  ▶
  Arrow Video Channel Trailer

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Children of the Corn Clip - Opening Scene HD

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  Original Trailer

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Children of the Corn 1984 TV trailer #2

  Teaser

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2019-05-21
  ★ 6/10

  And a child shall lead them... Who would have thunk it, that one of Stephen King's short stories would spawn a gargantuan movie franchise? Children of the Corn is one of those movies that horror fans of a certain age, who started to blossom in the 1980s, remember fondly but agree that now it's a bit, well, corny. Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton get trapped in a village of the damned where the children have killed the adults and established a religious order that gives worship to the devil of the corn. Isaac Chroner (John Franklin) and Malachai Boardman (Courtney Gains) head the creepy kid cult, corn does sway, blood does flow, poor special effects do down the devil, yet it's atmospheric as heck fire and still a bunch of fun if you forgive it its dated foibles. 6/10

  Read full review ↓
• Wuchak2019-08-01
  ★ 5/10

  Children of the damned… in the cornfields of the American prairie A young couple traveling through the endless cornfields of Nebraska (Peter Horton & Linda Hamilton) visits a town so far off the beaten track it’s not even on the map. Yet it seems abandoned, except for some kids scurrying around. Horror ensues. “Children of the Corn” (1984) takes the remote Plains town setting of “The Last Picture Show” (1971) and gives it a horror spin based on Stephen King’s short story. The later “Husk” (2011) used the same template. King, however, wasn’t pleased with the results, as conveyed in his statement: "My feeling is like a guy who sends his daughter off to college. You hope she'll do well. You hope she won't fall in with the wrong people. You hope she won't be raped at a fraternity party, which is pretty well what happened to Children of the Corn." The uninhabited town with scavenging kids makes the film come across as a post-apocalyptic flick. The protagonists are likable and the movie works up some creepy rural mood. People have described the film as sacrilegious, but it’s clear that the kids’ hybrid religion is not a true expression of Christianity since it’s clearly sullied by “he who walks behind the rows.” One of the picture’s criticisms is the ambiguity of this thing, but I suppose enough is revealed to put the pieces together. Still, the lack of exposition is disappointing. And the gaudy effects in the last act are lousy. Another arguable negative is the portrayal of the cult with the use of child & teen actors. I think they did pretty good all things considered. The growing schism between leader Isaac (John Franklin) and chief disciple Malachai (Courtney Gains) is interesting. It’s just difficult to portray diabolic cults, like witches and satanists, without getting eye-rolling and laughable. In any case, imagine the casting auditions for Malachai wherein the producers are looking for a tall teenage boy with a mean face and shocking mane. Courtney Gains enters the room and answers some questions when the producers state: "This is going well; you've just about got it clinched. But, as a formality, could you shout ‘Outlander’ at the top of your lungs?” The movie runs 1 hour, 32 minutes, and was shot mainly in Iowa. GRADE: C+

  Read full review ↓
• Dr Nostromo2026-07-02
  ★ 4/10

  41/100 A couple stumbles into a small town populated by a malevolent and fanatical cult of children. Finally got around to seeing this and I expected it to be a product of its time. And, I was right ...and less. The first 50 mins could have been condensed down to 15. In fact, at about the 50 min mark, one of our protagonist says, "Things just aren't happening fast enough", to which I blurted out, "Oh, I agree. Absolutely!" All sense of suspense had long since left the building in search of better pacing. Things picked up but the climax was all rather lame and ho hum. sigh -- DrNostromo.com

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• PL

  Planet Productions

  US

• AN

  Angeles Entertainment Group

• CI

  Cinema Group

• HA

  Hal Roach Studios

  US

• GA

  Gatlin

• IN

  Inverness Productions

Key crew

• ProducerDonald P. Borchers
• Executive ProducerEarl A. Glick
• ProducerTerrence Kirby
• EditorHarry Keramidas
• Visual EffectsMax W. Anderson
• Associate ProducerMark Lipson
• Executive ProducerCharles Weber
• CastingLinda Francis
• Art DirectionCraig Stearns
• Set DecorationCricket Rowland
• Makeup ArtistErica Ueland
• Special Effects CoordinatorWayne Beauchamp
• Special EffectsEric Rumsey
• Stunt CoordinatorBruce Paul Barbour
• StuntsKerrie Cullen
• StuntsMike Frizzell
• Costume DesignBarbara Scott
• Short StoryStephen King

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• small town
• sacrifice
• halloween
• children gang
• human sacrifice
• paganism
• evil preacher
• preacher
• based on short story
• religious cult
• killer child
• folk horror
• cornfield

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1984-03-09R

Also known as

International titles

• Cosecha negraAR
• Filhos do MalBR
• Kukuričné detiSK
• Dödlig skördFI
• Children of the corn - Les démons du maïsFR
• Horror KidFR
• Djeca kukuruzaHR
• La cosecha del terror: los niños del maízMX
• Niños diabólicosMX
• Dzieci kukurydzianego polaPL
• Deca kukuruzaRS
• Otroci koruzeSI
• Stephen King's Children of the CornUS
• 镰刀梦魇CN
• Colheita MalditaBR