Friday, September 25, 2009
SyFy Channel Presents - Children of the Corn Tonight
Well Outlanders, tonight marks the premiere of Donald Borchers "re-harvesting" of Stephen King's Children of the Corn. For lovers of the original short story by Stephen King, this is said to follow the Night Shift collection entry, depicting the original not-so-happy ending that was changed in the original movie. The film, which was produced last September in the Quad-City area of Iowa, stars Kandyse McClure, David Anders, Daniel Newman and Preston Bailey as "Isaac". Children of the Corn can be seen tonight at 8 PM Central so be sure to check your local listings for the broadcasting time in your area. In the meantime, check below for a special SyFy preview.
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Yay, just alittle less than 3 hours away. From what clips I have seen, they have copied the screenplay right from the short story - that is except for the added parts like Malachi saying "We Are Your Destiny" (which pales in comparison to "We want to give you peace). It would still be nice to see this, since I am all for something like this (Deciples of the Crow people!)
There are only accouple of things which could ruin this for me:
1. the kid playing Isaac cannot act
2. they used Sci-Fi's own CGI houses to render "HWWBTR" (big green mass with football-sized eye balls)
3. COTC2:FS doesn't get a US DVD release
Plus I love all that is happening today. Encore is pulling a "Stephen King" tribute day, and for the past couple of days they have been showing the original alot (and showing some prety good trailers for COTC). But honestly, some foul play is afoot since while the remake will be on, "The Green Mile" (not on Encore, Spike) and on encore and the original COTC will be on also at the same time. Someone is competing for ratings for diffrent King films, eh?
Just one thing now: when can someone write a book covering the history of the COTC series (short story and film) and what are we to expect from Dimension's want to make a second remake of the original COTC after they have scraped Joe Harriss' plan for "COTC 8".
Usually I would also talk about the production of such a film before I actually review it, but screw it.
This new “COTC” - first one in nine years and first good one in 16 (I love FS). Story wise, it is very true to the original short story. So true that it in fact copies lines from the book. Vicky and Burt are the biggest improvements because of this. Hell, they even made good use of the prom queen/Vietnam War backgrounds of the characters only hinted at in the short story. Plus a lot of things which were cut out of Burt’s visit to Gatlin’s one church were used great supplementary when we see the children worship.
Acting wise - it blows most of the films in the whole series and most SciFi Channel originals. But Burt and Vicky are from award winning shows (Heros and Battlestar Galactica respectively) so it is not that shocking. Obviously a plus. The children are also a plus, including the new kid who is playing Isaac. John Franklin does make you have a feeling a “creepy”, but this new kid - when he just looks at you like when he looks at Malachi’s wife at the end for her impure thoughts - can put dread into your chest. Just too bad he wars shorts a la Ichiro from “Godzilla’s Revenge”.
Kudos have to go to some things though: one, Burt getting physical with some of the kids. Then we see some gruesome deaths of little kids. Damn, this film took over what Freddy was supposed to do. The corn does seem to have what King said was lacking to the original film adaptation, it does seem to have a persona of it’s own. Last but not least, they took the safe road and not done anything for a physical appearance for “He Who Walks Behind The Rows”. They could have done something with some cheap CGI, and they could have made a cheap design or a very awesome design, but I like it that they kept it in the minds of viewers what He looks like.
But now, we got to go to the negatives. I was psyched when I heard that John Elias would be co-composing this film, including getting a separate credit for the use of the original theme. It would be the second time a composer came back for the series (the other being David Litch, COTC2 and COTC3)And I love the times which the editors decided to use the old theme, but honestly it could have been use a lot more and could have made the film more effective.
Another thing to bitch about is that no matter how true you want to stay with the book, two scenes from the original are in my opinion needed - badly. One was a redo of the coffee shop massacre and Joseph’s hunting down. Borchers being the master director for this material as he has shown, he would have done fantastic, especially since it would be different than the original’s version due to that I bet he would show the blood, but it was a missed opportunity. But then again, an Uncut version is coming out, but there comes another bad thing.
The uncut version may or may make the biggest sin of this production something which ruins it plainly: the ritual sex scene. What the hell were they thinking? “Children of the Corn” - the series - has been one of the only slasher series not to have sex in it ever. Part 3 got close but saved us and Revelations showed some nipple - but nothing sexual - just nudity. But this film, god, it was unneeded. What I would have liked to see was more preaching from Isaac or use the screen time for more killing. But honestly, it is just bad. Uneeded. That kind of stuff is just bad. It could have been one of those things we could have assumed. Honestly.
Overall, it is my second favorite film in the series (the original is my favorite, FS is tied with this film). Another remake is being planned by Dimension and Borchers said in a report that he wants this film to spawn a TV series, so let’s just see what happens. Just too bad that Joe Harris’ idea from COTC8 has been scrapped by how things have been going as of late. 4/5
Hey, thanks for the extensive comments on the new SyFy version! That's what we like to see from the fans.
I'm surprised that there is even a still-running website. It's like all of the popular sites died between COTC 6 and 7. While I am mostly a Japanese cinema fan, I got to set aside for some corn. Plus I might as well be one of the only people who give this film a positive review (other than Ain't It Cool news).
I'll just say that I didn't like it. I tried to watch as long as I could thinking it might get better, but an hour and a half in, I gave up. (Yeah, only 30 mins left, but I was done).
Burt & Vicky really annoyed me. It was a chore to watch them. The scene where Vicky finds the corn effigy in the suitcase is just way over the top. I might could understand her reaction if it was something really strange or bizarre, but it looks like something you might buy at a Cracker Barrel and hang on your kitchen wall.
The guy that played Malachi didn't have any where near the intensity that Courtney Gains had in the original film. And I didn't see a strong dynamic between Isaac and Malachi in this film, like I did in the original.
I guess I'm spoiled by the original film. I'd rather watch it twenty times in a row than watch this remake again.
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