Shudder Saturday: Children Of The Corn (2020)

For many of my age, Children Of The Corn feels like another of those fun little movies that everyone saw as soon as it hit VHS. I'm not sure how well it did in cinemas, if it did well at all, but it was a film that felt like a popular choice for us horror kids . . . perhaps because it allowed us to watch some actual "horror kids" onscreen. Everything should have ended with that one film though, allowing us to view it as a cherished cult classic that was too weird to turn into a franchise. But no, now we have a franchise. And I've seen all but one of the damn things. Missing that one wasn't a deliberate decision. I just lost track of how many bloody instalments there are in the series.

This is the second remake, using the word quite loosely. It has corn. It has some killer kids. It also has writing and direction from Kurt Wimmer. And it's not good.

Kate Moyer plays Eden Edwards, the main child at the heart of all the nastiness this time around. It's all to do with the power of the corn, of course, and action is spurred on by the adults in a small community making the decision to get rid of their crop and use the fields in a different way. The main adults to feel the wrath of the children are Robert Williams (Callan Mulvey) and Pastor Penney (Bruce Spence). Robert might have a route to safety though, being supported and assisted by his daughter, Boleyn (Elena Kampouris).

The longer it has been since I last saw the 1984 Children Of The Corn, the more fondly I remember it. I know that I'm being unfair when I compare any remakes or sequels to something I am viewing with some nostalgia filters firmly in place. But that feels like less of a problem when other attempts to adapt the material seem to step further and further away from the simple joy of it. All you need is a small town, a lot of corn, and evil kids killing off the adults. While this film has those elements in place, the ratio feels all wrong, leading to the end result feeling completely fumbled.

Wimmer isn't exactly a sign of quality, considering the wildly varying quality of his filmography, and he seems to spend his time here making every wrong decision possible, from poor pacing and a lack of real scares/tension to a disappointing scarcity of memorable characters. And don't even get me started on how ridiculous the ending is, even in comparison to the silliness of the original movie.

At least Moyer is great fun, doing her best to make the whole thing watchable as she toys with the adults around her. She's the only real highlight though. Kampouris isn't a good lead, and not helped by her character being so poorly written, and Mulvey and Spence play people you actually just want to see meet a nasty end. Not because they're necessarily evil, although it's certainly suggested that one is more deserving of death than the other, but because they're main characters who feel designated for some kind of special fate.

Bad writing, bad effects (although they remain better than most of the eye-hurting CGI from the many other films in this series), and bad performances make this a sadly wasted opportunity, considering it looks to have secured a relatively decent budget for being such a late entry into a cornfield that should have been razed many years ago.

3/10

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Noir-vember: Dark City (1998)

A man wakes up. He's confused. He has no memory of how he got wherever he is. And there's the corpse of a woman uncomfortably close to him. The man immediately goes on the run, trying to piece things together while a cop pursues him, as well as some individuals who seem much further removed from the law. It's a standard noir set-up, all very familiar, until we start to see the sci-fi elements also incorporated here. A group of people with the power to change the environment, to uproot individuals from their lives and place them elsewhere, with all new memories implanted.

Surprisingly influential (The Matrix and Inception being the most obvious examples that spring to mind), and as intriguing to watch now as it was back when it was first released in 1998, Dark City is a thought-provoking piece of work that also never forgets to keep audiences entertained. It's a genre mash-up that could easily be fumbled, playing with some of the classic tropes before a major shift in tone as the sci-fi aspect of the plot becomes clearer, but director Alex Proyas does a great job of keeping the various plates spinning.

The cast are a big help, with Rufus Sewell used well in the lead role, all anxiety, panic, and confusion for most of the runtime. William Hurt is the Inspector pursuing him, and he's a man capable of taking a step back and trying to see some bigger picture that is somehow evading him. Kiefer Sutherland is amusing enough as a devious doc, Richard O'Brien is as spooky as he often can be, playing one of the other individuals chasing Sewell, and you also have solid turns from Ian Richardson, Bruce Spence, and one or two others. Melissa George and Jennifer Connelly are the two main female cast members. George, making her cinematic feature debut, somehow makes the stronger impression, despite having the "lesser" character, but I'll never pass up any opportunity to enjoy Connelly onscreen, even when she's left slightly adrift by the script.

Based on the story idea by Proyas, the screenplay is credited to him, Lem Dobbs, and David S. Goyer. It's not exactly full of the best dialogue, and seems almost too wary at times of making things as hard-boiled as they could be, but it works very well when bringing together the characters and the ideas at the heart of the plot, providing answers during the finale that can also lead to some more questions in a way that should satisfy sci-fi fans.

There are some moments that feel restricted by the tech of the time, but not nearly as many as you would think. Overall, it's easy to believe that you're watching a film about a city being manipulated and experimented upon by powerful strangers who can alter buildings, fixtures, and entire cityscapes, in minutes. The design work throughout is excellent, as are the practical effects, and all of the visuals are accompanied by a fine score from Trevor Jones.

Although I don't dislike the more recent films from Proyas as much as other people (having not yet seen Gods Of Egypt, but I really liked Knowing), it's always a pleasant surprise that he began his feature film career with the one-two combo of The Crow and this. Both of which have stood the test of time better than, for example, the slick blockbuster entertainment of I, Robot.

8/10

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