Billy Drago:  The Preacher
Kelen Coleman:  Allie
Tim Rock:  Tim
Dusty Burwell:  The Child
Barbara Nedeljakova:  Helen

Release Date: August 30, 2011
Studio: Dimension Films
Genre: Horror
Rated R  1 hr 20 mins

CAST:

Children of the Corn: Genesis

October 22, 2011

Reviewer: Rottenbucher

DIRECTOR:

Joe Soisson

*Comments:

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For those who are actually counting, Children of the Corn: Genesis is the 8^th film in the franchise.  There was a SyFy Channel remake, but who really wants to really crunch numbers here?  But yes, it’s the 8^th film based on a short story by none other than Stephen King.  And that is where this all gets insulting, even the original was barely based on Stephen King’s short and all subsequent sequels have featured “Based on a Short Story by Stephen King” in larger letters than the film’s title.

A Vietnam veteran returns home to Gatlin, Nebraska to find the town has been overrun by murderous children.  Flash-forward to present day California where Allie (Kelen Coleman, TV’s The Office) and Tim have a vehicle malfunction, stranding them in the desert.  They stumble upon a dilapidated home with a grizzled preacher (Billy Drago, The Untouchables) lounging around.  He tells the couple they can spend the night, but to not wander around the property. They do and find a creepy kid (Dusty Burwell) locked in a shed and an exotic foreigner (Barbara Nedeljakova, Hostel, Hostel Part II).  Later, Allie revels she is pregnant and that she is now having dreams about a cult in someone’s cornfield.

The opening moments of Children of the Corn: Genesis actually feature children and a few corn stalks occupying the set.  After that, this film goes off the deep end.  With the only time we see corn is when Allie is having a dream.  The only time we see any children is when child-actor Dusty Burwell leers at the camera. Nedeljakova shows up to show off some skin, Drago shows up for some money to augment his Social Security checks and the whole cult aspect is just plain silly.  But there are some nice freeway car crashes that probably chewed up most of the production budget.

Here is probably what Dimension Films did.  They took director Joe Soisson’s script about a creepy child cult in the California desert, shot a brief sequence that they tell you takes place in Nebraska, tacked “Based on a Short Story by Stephen King” on the art and made one of the actors mention “He Who Walks Behind the Rows.”  Add that all together and we have yet another Children of the Corn film.  Seriously, if you thought stuff like Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror or Children of the Corn 666: Issac’s Return were corny, you haven’t seen anything yet. 

To its credit, Children of the Corn: Genesis does try to build on the franchise, but unless you are a serious fan, you’ll have fallen asleep by the time the reveal happens.  The flashback sequence is pretty good and the dream sequences are also more thematically true to the franchise too. But that is it. It’s pretty doubtful that Soisson’s script was intended from the start to be another Children of the Corn film.  Children of the Corn: Genesis doesn’t feel like a Children of the Corn film nor does it look like one.  Honestly, Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest has more children and corn than this film.  Fans of the franchise that have stuck around this long will now be 100% disillusioned.  Children of the Corn: Genesis should have been titled Child of the Shed: Stupidest.