While the long-awaited Children of the Corn prequel has repeatedly been delayed, the prospects for the Stephen King story adaptation might have just been hurt by Blumhouse’s There’s Something Wrong With The Children. The horror genre has a long history of making kids into creepy villains, from The Omen to The Exorcist. As such, it is no major surprise to see that two 2023 horror movies share the same basic premise of children turning evil after an unexplained supernatural force compels them to attack the adults in their lives.

That said, There’s Something Wrong With The Children couldn’t have arrived at a worse time for the creators of Children of the Corn, an upcoming prequel to Stephen King’s famous franchise of the same name. Like James Wan’s adaptation of King’s The Tommyknockers, Children of the Corn seems to have been stuck in Development Hell since the prequel's filming was completed in 2020, However, not only did There’s Something Wrong With The Children effectively tell the same story as the Children of the Corn prequel, the Blumhouse horror was a stronger, scarier, stand-alone horror movie than any of the previous Children of the Corn franchise’s entries.

Related: Will Stephen King’s Children of the Corn Prequel Ever Be Released?

There’s Something Wrong With The Children Borrows From Stephen King

the kids in there's something wrong with the children

There’s Something Wrong With The Children could ruin the reception of Children of the Corn’s prequel since the surprisingly strong horror movie features an improved version of the original short story's basic premise. While King’s original short story Children of the Corn takes place years after a group of children has killed off all the adults in their town, There’s Something Wrong With The Children initially introduces its young heroes as sweet kids. While their parents are undeniably a little smug, There’s Something Wrong With The Children’s young characters Lucy and Spencer seem like genuinely nice children when viewers first meet them.

As a result, their transformation into ambiguously paranormal monsters in the latter half of There’s Something Wrong With The Children is more devastating and scarier than Children of the Corn’s antagonists. The eponymous threat in King’s story and the movie adaptations are already evil by the time viewers encounter them, whereas audiences are initially intended to root for There’s Something Wrong With The Children’s kids. This made the prospect of a Children of the Corn prequel promising, as it could have explored what went wrong for the kids. However, There’s Something Wrong With The Children beat the movie to this story thanks to the Stephen King prequel’s release date delays.

Why Children of the Corn’s Prequel Is Taking So Long

Children of the Corn 1984 and 2022 versions

Children of the Corn was completed in 2020, becoming one of the first movies to complete shooting in lockdown thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, director Kurt Wimmer’s prequel has repeatedly seen its release date pushed further and further away. In August 2022, it was announced that Children of the Corn would arrive in Fall 2022, but this release never materialized. As such, viewers hoping to see the Stephen King adaptation will be left waiting even longer for Children of the Corn despite There’s Something Wrong With The Children stealing some of the movie’s thunder.

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