GATEWAYS [PART 5]: CHILDREN OF THE CORN.

The 1984 film adaptation of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn isn’t known for high praise in the horror community. The general feeling isn’t that it’s necessarily a bad movie, it just isn’t anywhere near the level of other films adapted from his books and maybe this is why you don’t hear it mentioned often. Then again, it spawned seven or eight sequels so they must have done something right.

Well, as kids none of that shit mattered to my friends and I during a couple summers spent in Martha’s Vineyard. At the young age of 9 years old when horror movies were rarely watched in our circle, for a brief moment Children of the Corn meant just as much as Ghostbusters, TMNT, Jaws or anything of that caliber.

Again this was one of those instances when we caught the movie during the innocent daylight hours, probably on USA Network or TNT. Watching a horror movie during the daytime was easily accessible, felt safe and flew under the radar of any concerning parents. In addition to that, the movie itself takes place 90% during daylight hours and we subconsciously were much braver when the sun was out.

Coincidentally during the time we discovered Children of the Corn, I was doing summer weekend trips out to the island of Martha’s Vineyard to visit my friend who lived on a farm, which had acres and acres of…you guessed it… CORNFIELDS.

I’ll never forget those carefree summer days of swimming, sailing, riding bikes and watching Children of the Corn on VHS before chasing each other through rows of cornfields with butter knives from his mother’s kitchen. A few 9 year old weirdos pretending they’re Malachai or Issac, calling on “he who walks behind the rose” and getting lost in the corn. For a movie revolving around kids in a religious cult who kill adults, our version was pure childhood fun.

It’s interesting to think back to those days of having impressionable minds after watching a movie that clearly made such an immediate impact on our imaginations. Long before the bombardment of phones, social media and everything moving so fast.

Speaking of Malachai, Uncle TNUC has proclaimed in the past his love for this rad bastard. Among the things we admire about this evil redhead with the shit-eating grin, one of them is that he always reminded me of Dave Mustaine from Megadeth. So here it is….TNUC’s vision brought to fruition in the video below.