A long-delayed remake of Stephen King's Children of the Corn finally gets a release date. King’s short story about a small farming town taken over by murderous religious zealot children was first adapted into a feature film back in 1984. That movie is not exactly considered a classic, but nevertheless, nine more Children of the Corn films have been released over the decades, the last arriving in 2018.
Nine more Children of the Corn films might seem like more than enough, but there was actually supposed to be a tenth released, a prequel movie that finished filming way back in 2020 and was actually shown in a pair of theaters that same year. However, thanks to COVID, plans to release the movie wider were delayed until fall of 2022. But after that release plan fell through, it began to seem that fans would never get to see the newest entry in the very-long-running Children of the Corn series. Now however, RLJE Films and Shudder have stepped in to acquire distribution rights, and the movie is finally getting a theatrical release on March 3, 2023. Children of the Corn will then be released digitally on March 21, 2023 (via Deadline).
Everything We Know About The New Children of the Corn
This newest Children of the Corn movie is different from most of the prior entries in the franchise in that it is actually slated to get a theatrical release, the vast majority of its predecessors having been released straight to video or TV. Another thing distinguishing the new film from the majority of Children of the Corn movies is its approach to the material, as it actually tackles everything that led up to the kids taking over the town, allowing this new film to perhaps address the biggest plot hole in the original movie: how did the kids manage to keep their takeover of an entire town secret from the rest of the world? The new movie’s synopsis reads as follows:
A psychopathic twelve-year-old girl in a small town in Nebraska recruits all the other children and goes on a bloody rampage, killing the corrupt adults and anyone else who opposes her. A bright high schooler who won't go along with the plan is the town's only hope of survival.
This intriguing prequel to/remake of Children of the Corn marks the return of Kurt Wimmer, who hasn’t directed a feature film since 2006’s Mila Jovovich vehicle Ultraviolet. The movie’s cast includes Bruce Spence, who will be instantly familiar to cult movie fans as the Gyro Captain from The Road Warrior. The cast also includes Elena Kampouris (Jupiter’s Legacy), Kate Moyer (Station Eleven), Callan Mulvey (Avengers: Endgame), Stephen Hunter (Thor: Love and Thunder) and Erika Heynatz (Farscape).
The news that Children of the Corn is finally getting a release obviously comes as a relief to the film’s producers, after a long and troubled process that included the set being visited by Australian police over allegations that COVID protocols were not being followed (per the Daily Mail). Whether the movie was worth all the trouble, and the three-year wait for a release, remains to be seen. But at least the film now will be seen by more than the few people who caught its handful of 2020 screenings.
Source: Deadline