More people probably know the Children of the Corn movie than they do the Stephen King short story it's based on, but the two are quite different. To be fair, Children of the Corn really isn't one of King's top-tier stories. It's not bad by any means, but it's outdone by several other tales included in 1978's Night Shift collection, including The Boogeyman, Night Surf, and Quitters, Inc. Still, its premise is an interesting one, so it's not hard to see why it's been a target of adaptation.
One thing fans might not know is that the 1984 movie actually wasn't the first adaptation of Children of the Corn. That honor goes to a 1983 "Dollar Baby" short film called Disciples of the Crow, one of the rare such shorts to eventually get a home video release. The 1984 film is obviously the one more known, although it was hardly a big budget production itself, being produced for less than $1 million. Such were the thrifty ways of Roger Corman's New World Pictures production company.
In some ways though, Disciples of the Crow is actually closer to King's story than the Children of the Corn movie, despite making its own changes, such as moving the setting to Oklahoma and naming the town Jonah. Here are the big ways Children of the Corn 1984 differs from its source material.
Children of the Corn: Major Differences Between The Stephen King Book & Movie
Perhaps the biggest difference between Stephen King's Children of the Corn short story and the 1984 movie adaptation comes in the lead characters of Burt and Vicky. In the book, they're a married couple on the verge of divorce, and spend much of the story at each other's throats. In the movie, they're not married, and actually appear to be in love, getting along most of the time and genuinely caring about each other. It completely changes the dynamic of the plot.
Another big change is how the story is presented. The short begins with Burt and Vicky driving, going through Nebraska, hitting the boy, and ending up in a deserted Gatlin. The film visually presents the initial killing of Gatlin's adults by Isaac's corn cult, and fills in some other background info. There are no flashbacks on the page, and everything known is revealed by things Burt finds or that Isaac says.
Finally, the ending is completely and totally different between the book and film. The Children of the Corn movie sees Burt and Vicky defeat He Who Walks Behind the Rows and the Corn kids, and leave with nice kids they're seemingly adopting. The story is much, much darker. Vicky gets massacred in a horrific way, with her eyes removed, presented as a sacrifice to He Who Walks Behind the Rows. The demonic entity also kills Burt, and then demands an additional sacrifice from his flock, which turns out to be Malachi. Isaac, meanwhile, survives.