ROX-TV takes a fresh look at a horror movie classic, the immortal “Children of the Corn”. Is there anything hiding in plain sight? Part 1 starts now…

Welcome back to the ROX-TV website. As always, we appreciate the returning readers and first timers drifting in to see what’s been going on. As you may know, especially if you’ve been following my articles for any length of time, I am a big fan of the horror-movie genre. This is severely true for the 1980’s grouping of “scary” movies. I suppose that is because I was at an age in the eighties, when being scared or frightened by on screen darkness could be achieved with relative ease. Let’s face it, when you’re a kid with an imagination, there is a tendency to get worked up depending on what is going on.

When I was little, I was un-easy about being in the basement alone, an opened closet door at bedtime seemed like a gateway to hell, and on it went. Getting scared was easy and could be triggered from just about anything. A strange noise, the woods at night, perhaps a corn field at dusk…yes being a kid can be tough. Who remembers dreading going down into the basement for an item that was needed, only to explode up the stairs because something seemed be down there? There were moments when I could clear three steps at a time and be thoroughly convinced just beyond my field of vision was some evil beast, waiting to destroy me.

I think these type of childhood scares are very relatable and transcend class, culture, and ethnicity. Fear is a real thing and can be found around the globe, on any given day and in every community. I’m not going to wade out into the weeds because I think you understand what I’m trying to convey. So anyway, during the eighties I was young and susceptible to being frightened when presented with something that “scared” me. As I would grow older and more experienced, the real world actually presented more things to worry about. Those silly unknown terrors were probably not how I would meet my demise or get damaged. As the years rolled by, the real world was the one holding onto tangible things to be scared about.

I guess I was the right age to catch a lot of the famous slasher and horror films drops (for my age group anyway). As I grew up, I never forgot those movies, that excitement and rush of getting scared by an on-screen monster. We had Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Friday the 13th to fuck with. These are probably some of the most recognizable horror movie series on the planet, with the most iconic “bad guys” ever. Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and the legendary killing machine Jason Vorhees.

These series were on over drive, cranking out movies and scaring the shit out of people. I suppose between the “big 3” the movie industry probably wouldn’t have needed to come up with much more, but they did anyway. Horror movies were a big business, and just like with all industries, when it can be proven to turn a buck, people are going to pile on for their chance of scoring some green gold (money).

The big names were there, but because of the demand and money involved, lots of other people got into the act. Some were great, some became cult classics, some were so bad they essentially were comedies, and on it went. The older I got, the more I reflected on my own past and relationship with these movies and franchises. I was always a fan but by the time I was in my mid to late twenties, horror movies were my go-to. This fascination only increased with time and today, it’s safe to say that horror movies are my favorite source of cheap entertainment.

Is it related to some bizarre sense of nostalgia? I’m sure that it might. As we get older and more jaded with how depressing regular everyday life can be, we start to romanticize the simpler times. Do basements scare me anymore? Sure but today it’s because of a sub-pump failure, not an unknown boogie man lurking in the shadows.

The movies that struck a chord or frightened me as a child, have been reduced by time to nothing more than a source of cheap entertainment. A window into the old times, that offers a strange comfort. I frequently re-visit my favorites and dwell on the story lines. I’m older now and my thought process is more advanced, which leads me to internal debates about these movies, what they really meant, and a scrutiny test that many of those older films simply can not survive.

I could go on for days, talking about all the different titles and what not, but for the sake of the readers I will be focusing on one movie tonight. The movie in question tonight is “Children of the Corn” and although it wasn’t as huge as some of the other titles of the time, the movie would endure throughout the decades as a Cult Classic and solid horror movie.

Origins

The legend goes that Stephen King, perhaps one of the greatest “horror” writers of our modern times first published the short story version of “Children of the Corn” in March of 1977. Oddly enough, the story ran in a porn magazine called Penthouse (guys over thirty-five know what that publication was all about, in a time before the internet, porn content could only be found in hard copy form, Penthouse wasn’t bad). The following year, the short story was also included in King’s “Night Shift”, which featured his first publication featuring short stories he had written. It was nominated for a few awards, and won the Balrog Award in 1980 for “best collection of short stories”. I’m sure I don’t have to tap dance around the fact that Stephen King was and is a living legend when it comes to the written word. I will kick in two words before moving on from his greatness…”The Shining”. There isn’t enough time to discuss it all here so I will continue with the story….

The Basics

The premise of the movie is simple enough. Perhaps that is why we don’t really question the images and story line as it develops. The show starts out with some context, including a small town take-over by a group of teenagers and children, who are being directed to kill the adults in town (with a big dust up going down at the diner). The street team was led by a strange looking guy named Isaac who for lack of a better description, was the self-anointed spiritual leader. Isaac maintains his power with the help of a Demon who has taken up residence in the corn and his right-hand man Malachai (an interesting actor who turns up in lots of movies over the years).

There is a couple (Burt and Vicki) travelling through the area of Nebraska, heading to a new job where Burt will be seeing “fifty patients” on the following Monday. Doctor Burt seems likeable enough, although he turns down a few extra hours in bed with Vicki (Linda Hamilton) during the shows opening scenes. Vicki is hell bent on getting the Doctor to marry her, but Burt seems to be stalling for whatever reason. Maybe its because Vicki has come on too strong and too often with the marriage routine.

I’m sure it wasn’t the first time she had tried this, which seems silly to me. In life, things always seem to happen when they need to and for reasons which aren’t always known at the time, but often seem to be a perfect fit in the rear view. If Burt really wanted to marry Vicki, he should have been allowed to reach that conclusion on his own. The fact that Vicki is so forthcoming with here intentions strikes me as uncomfortable. What is the hurry? Burt is taking this chick with him, to a new job in another state or at least that’s how the movie portrays it. Is there something about Vicki that is driving the urgency? Perhaps Burt is keeping his options open, although he doesn’t seem to ever act “un-dedicated” to his partner in crime, at least during the movie. I will talk more about that going forward but we must wait.

For those readers with a sharp eye, at the 10:30 mark, we find Vicki and Burt cruising the open road. There happens to be a book on the dash, and that book is Stephen King’s “Night Shift” book. I guess I never really thought about what that could mean until the writing of these very words. Yes, it’s cool that Stephen has a copy of his book in there, I for one have never had a thing against some self-promotion, especially when it’s done in good taste and a tad bit sneaky.

The sticking point in my mind though is what would that really mean? To be living and doing things, like driving a car, heading to a new job, and all that other fancy shit, when a copy of a book, which houses the entire story of the real time events Vicki and Burt are “living out” in the moment. It begs the question…how could this be? What if Vicki and Burt, picked up the book and noticed they were actually characters in a short story describing their entire existence? Every action and word they were speaking was already hammered out in a hard copy book, sitting on the dash. Would reading that book and realizing they were “in a story” cause some type of cosmic breakdown for Vicki and Burt? What if they skipped a few pages before hitting the kid in the road (coming very soon) or realized that Gatlin was the wrong town to be heading to? What if they read about the “blue man”, Isaac, that dirty bastard Malachai, or learned the fate of the adults in town?

Could a universe be up ended by having a book which was the blueprint for the movie be present in the movie? While the story was still unfolding? Self-promotion could have been the motivation I guess, but maybe there were unspoken reasons for having it on the dash. I really dig things that make me think. I guess until I talk to Stephen King or the director of the movie, we may never know for sure. We had a similar thing happen in “The Shining” as well, when the person who wrote the story (S.K.) was seen in the lobby of the Overlook hotel as Jack Torence arrives for his job interview. A cool thing to be sure, I just wonder is all. What would it mean to be in a movie, which was based on a story, that the guy sitting in the lobby wrote? Curious’r and Curious’r (thank you Alice in Wonderland). Life creating art…art creating life, or just harmless fun with no other implications? I leave that up to the readers.

At the 10:40 mark, Burt is expressing his concerns about his “internship” while Vicki claims to understand Burt’s feelings, while pushing again for something that “is important to her”. Again, another stressor about getting hitched. It seems to be somewhat upsetting to Burt and perhaps this caused his mind to be working on other things, besides driving, which will become very important in a very short time.

Meanwhile in Hell town aka Gatlin

After three years in Gatlin, things are probably as strange as ever. After the murderous uprising, three years pass and we find ourselves watching one of the kids in the town getting ready to make a run for freedom. Apparently life in the town has gotten to be a little much for some of the tiny citizens. Fun is outlawed, music, games, and growing old…all which would make for a shitty existence. It became too much for one kid in particular…a young guy named “Joseph”. He’s packed his shit and is ready to leave. He didn’t swallow the poison pill from Isaac and the others, somehow managed to keep his wits about him, even while be surrounded by an insanity that has infected the other kids in town. The day he finally plans to leave, he is followed to the edge of the cornfield by two characters introduced in the opening scenes of the movie…Sarah and Job. If you remember, Sarah was the one who could see the future, it’s curious that she doesn’t warn Joseph of the impending doom that awaits him. If she could see the coming murder plot three years earlier, the arrival of Burt and Vicki to Gatlin, why couldn’t she know Joseph was about to be snuffed out? Maybe visions only come when they want or were limited in their scope, we may never know.

Joseph bids the kids farewell and starts heading towards his last moments on earth. Sarah and Job also have something strange going on themselves. Although three years have passed since the end of the world as they knew it, they don’t appear to have aged at all. Perhaps the budget didn’t allow for additional magic affects ($800,000 dollar budget at the time), so all they could do was let the kid’s hair grow out some or be unkept, but they definitely haven’t aged at all. Perhaps characters don’t age in the world they all find themselves in. A strange side effect of the world within a world? A place where all that would be, was already written, on the dash of Burt’s lame yellow cruising machine.

As Jospeh leaves, he tells the kids “You better mind him until I get back” referencing Isaac. I don’t think anyone who was escaping such an “evil” place would ever return under any circumstance, so I question Joseph’s words but I don’t hold it against him. Fostering hope, especially among children is a very noble idea. Kids have no real concept of time when they are young and need continual encouragement to remain hopeful when faced with horrible situations. Failing to instill hope in a child, can lead to despair and much worse. Someone who loses hope at an early age, has an awfully long time to grow hate and eventually act out their revenge, if it gets to that point. Sometimes I fear America is reaping the results of this type of shit. We have removed faith in goodness from our society and the harvest season is approaching. I worry about a world without empathy, compassion, and love…not to mention kindness and a dash of humor. I don’t want to know what people are against, tell me what the fuck you’re for. People with bad intentions will never tell you what they support, and instead will only find things to hate. Steer clear of these MFERS.

Collision of worlds

Joseph sets off into the corn, which is a bad idea since that is where the “demon” resides. Elsewhere Vicki and Burt are flying down a paved road. All three of them will be colliding very shortly. I ponder all the things that would have to happen for Burt’s car to strike Jospeh. A road trip full of hundreds of miles, hours, and variables too huge to compute…a child living in a town for three years before choosing the exact time to leave, and sadly the only path that will lead him to Vicki and Burt. What are the fucking odds? I’m no mathematician but I assume it’s a mind-boggling number of the highest order. Do you ever wonder what it takes for people in real life to experience the same collisions? I do. Makes you wonder if there was any coincidence at all or if it was all fated, pure destiny, and pre-ordained. Lately I’ve been leaning towards a thought process that does not allow for deviation from the “plan”. Have you ever tried to do something you were not meant to? I have many times, and no matter what I wanted to do, I was only ever allowed to do what I was supposed to do. Free will? Could be an illusion, but that’s only an opinion.

At 14:30, Vicki again sneaks in a jab at Burt for “no room for commitment”. Her knit-picking is deliberate and she seems to have a one track mind when it comes to Burt. She wants what she wants, regardless of anything else. Burt is displeased. Jospeh pushes on through the corn, things are going from bad to worse. The corn parts a way for Joseph, we are shown a spider and web, which might pay homage to the corn field (web) and Malachai (spider), leaving Jospeh as the “fly” so to speak. The creepy singing commences and you just know that Jospeh is out of time. This is the pride before the fall. Did Joseph think he could out-wit Malachai and the evil on their own turf? He falls and we learn that the answer is ultimately “no”.

The last act in Vicki’s obstruction of Burt’s driving has finally arrived. Although Burt is driving, Vicki finds a map which they probably didn’t need at the time, opens it up and leans into Burt. This distraction will provide the final blow to Jospeh’s short life and lead to his permanent entombment in the trunk. If only Vicki had read ahead in Night Shift…

The good doctor plows into Jospeh, but when he comes to a halt he doesn’t seem that concerned about the kid he just ran over, instead he checks Vicki’s head for any damage. Since the car didn’t suffer from the “crash” and they seem fine…it begs to question what the hell is going on. “Listen to me, there is something very wrong here” Burt says to Vicki as he requests that she go back to the car and wait. They must have got lost…

Something wrong is right. Burt wasn’t paying attention and hit a person in the middle of the road, who was not dead at the time of the collision. It seems the fatal blow came when the lame yellow Buick ran over the Joseph. This proposes an interesting question about reasoning and justification. Is it murder/accidental vehicular homicide that killed Joseph? The good doctor will justify his innocence by his reasoning. He will convince himself that he was not responsible for killing Joseph because something else was going on.

Vicki finds time to take a nap, while Burt investigates further. If I stood on the edge of a lake, watching a person in a small boat sinking and who cannot swim…I suppose I could argue that the person would die when the boat went under. Now, lets just say for the sake of argument, I decided to shoot a cannon ball at the boat, causing the guy to be killed, what would that mean? It could be argued that the person in the boat was going to die (drown) and if I completed an action that sped up the process….do I have any guilt or responsibility in the ultimate inevitable? While Burt claims that the kid was basically dead already from the “wound” he didn’t cause, the car did finish him off. Oddly Burt finds no responsibility in this and in turns places blame on the unknown.

End of Part 1, keep checking back for Part 2…

Signing Off,

Mike Shepard

ROX-TV Head Writer

shepard2909@hotmail.com