Children of the Corn (film series)

Children of the Corn
Official film series logo
Created by	Stephen King
Original work	Children of the Corn
Films and television
Film(s)	Children of the Corn (1984) Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return Children of the Corn: Revelation Children of the Corn (2009) Children of the Corn: Genesis Children of the Corn: Runaway Children of the Corn (2020)
Short film(s)	Disciples of the Crow

The Children of the Corn film series began with Children of the Corn, released in 1984 by New World Pictures. After the release of Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992) 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: Urban Harvest (1995), including the reboot series with Children of the Corn: Genesis (2011) and Children of the Corn: Runaway (2018). In 2009, a television remake of the original film aired on the Syfy network, via Fox 21 Television. A prequel to the 1984 film and 11th entry overall, titled Children of the Corn (2020), was released on October 23, 2020.

Films[]

Key

	Denotes theatrical release
	Denotes direct-to-video release
T	Denotes television release

U.S. release date	Film	Director(s)	Screenwriter(s)	Producer(s)	Distributor
Original series
March 9, 1984	Children of the Corn	Fritz Kiersch	George Goldsmith	Donald P. Borchers and Terence Kirby	New World Pictures
January 29, 1993	Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice	David Price	A. L. Katz and Gilbert Adler	Scott A. Stone and David G. Stanley	Dimension Films
September 12, 1995	Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest	James D. R. Hickox	Dode B. Levenson	Brad Southwick and Gary DePew
October 8, 1996	Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering	Greg Spence	Stephen Berger	Gary DePew and Jake Eberle
June 21, 1998	Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror	Ethan Wiley	Ethan Wiley	Jeff Geoffray and Walter Josten
October 19, 1999	Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return	Kari Skogland	Tim Sulka and John Franklin	Bill Berry, Jeff Geoffray and Walter Josten
October 9, 2001	Children of the Corn: Revelation	Guy Magar	S. J. Smith	Joel Soisson and Michael Leahy
August 30, 2011	Children of the Corn: Genesis	Joel Soisson		Aaron Ockman and Joel Soisson	Dimension Extreme
March 13, 2018	Children of the Corn: Runaway	John Gulager	Joel Soisson	Michael Leahy	Lionsgate Films
October 23, 2020	Children of the Corn	Kurt Wimmer	John Baldecchi, Doug Barry and Lucas Foster	Freestyle Releasing
Remake
September 26, 2009	Children of the Corn T	Donald P. Borchers	Fox 21 Television Studios

Short film[]

Cast and crew[]

Principal cast[]

Key

• A ^V indicates the actor or actress lent only his or her voice for his or her film character.
• A ^C indicates a cameo appearance.
• A dark gray cell indicates the character was not in the film.

Production[]

Development[]

Based on the short story by Stephen King, the first Children of the Corn film follows a couple who are besieged by mysterious children in a small town called Gatlin, Nebraska. Its first sequel begins immediately after the events of the original, and focuses on a reporter and his son who are investigating the events of the first film.

Beginning with the third installment, Dimension elected to produce standalone films that were not necessarily narratively connected.^[1] The third film follows two brothers from Gatlin who are forced into foster care in Chicago; the younger brother, under the influence of He Who Walks Behind the Rows, begins to grow corn in an abandoned lot behind his new family home, wreaking havoc. The fourth film returns to a rural Nebraska town where a young medical student attempts to uncover a mysterious illness striking the children of her hometown; the fifth film follows a group of young people who encounter the children, led by a man, Ezekiel, of He Who Walks Behind the Rows, when staying overnight in an abandoned farmhouse.

Part six follows a woman, born of the cult from the first film, who returns to Gatlin to uncover the identity of her birth mother, while the seventh installment focuses on a woman who travels to a small town outside Omaha to investigate the disappearance of her grandmother; there, she encounters bizarre children in the fields surrounding her grandmother's apartment building.

The 2009 remake follows the general plot of the first film, focusing on a couple who encounter the children in Gatlin. The ninth film and a reboot, Genesis, follows a couple who lodge with a mysterious preacher in the California desert, who appears to be leading a bizarre cult.

Reception[]

The first Children of the Corn (1984) was distributed by New World Pictures, receiving a theatrical release in the spring 1984. Its sequel, The Final Sacrifice (1992), was acquired for distribution by Miramax, and was released theatrically in January 1992 under Miramax's Dimension Films division.^[2]

After Dimension's release of Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice, the company would acquire rights to the series^[3] and would release numerous follow-up sequels directly to video, beginning with Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest, released in 1995.^[4] After the release of Revelation in 2001, a television remake of the original film was commissioned by Dimension,^[5] but ultimately distributed via Fox 21 Television Studios, airing on the Syfy channel in 2009.^[6][7]

In 2011, the ninth installment and a reboot, Genesis, was released direct-to-video under Dimension's Extreme label.^[8]

Box office performance[]

Home media[]

The entire series has been released on various home media formats. While all ten of the films have been released on DVD, only the first seven films were released on VHS before the format was phased out. Additionally, Children of the Corn (1984), Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest, Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror, Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return and Children of the Corn: Genesis have been made available on Blu-ray disc.

See also[]

• List of Dimension Films films

References[]

Works cited[]

• Caputo, Marcello Gagliani (2016). Guide to the Cinema of Stephen King. Babelcube. ISBN 978-1-507-16438-9.
• Perren, Alisa (2012). Indie, Inc.: Miramax and the Transformation of Hollywood in the 1990s. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-74287-1.

External links[]

• Children of the Corn I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, Remake, at the Internet Movie Database.