If you’re a true horror fan, the Children of the Corn films may already be a staple in your collection. Revered by some, ridiculed by others, but impossible to ignore, the series’s terrifying appeal has won millions of viewers worldwide. Given that Children of the Corn is adapted from a short tale by the great Stephen King, it should come as no surprise that the movie has attracted a vast fan base that enjoys King’s mastery of writing supernatural and psychological horror.
Gatlin, Nebraska, a fictional town in the middle of nowhere, initially hosts a sequence of terrifying events in this franchise. The films follow a group of children, led by a young preacher named Isaac, as they slaughter the town’s adults as a sacrifice to a sinister figure called “He Who Walks Behind the Rows.” The youngsters believe the monster lives in the cornfields and commands them to commit heinous acts.
Navigating the scary maze of Children of the Corn movies can be a thrill ride, provided you know the optimal route. The original film came out in 1984, and the franchise has grown into a prolific series with 11 installments. To get the most out of this dark rural horror narrative, watch it in the chronological order of release, beginning with the unforgettable original and progressing to the most recent movie from 2023.
1. Children of the Corn (1984)
This first film in the series features Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton as Burt and Vicky, a couple who mistakenly drive over a child and are forced to take refuge in the deserted town of Gatlin, Nebraska. They have no idea that the town’s kids, led by a young preacher named Isaac, have created a cult and are plotting their ultimate destruction.
As a sacrifice to “He Who Walks Behind The Rows,” a demonic entity the town’s children have come to worship, Isaac convinces them to murder all the adults in town. According to Isaac, this creature needs the blood of adults to ensure the success of their maize fields. Burt and Vicky arrive at this seemingly desolate town, only to discover that these kids act, talk, and govern themselves. They quickly learn the horrifying truth of the children’s actions and find themselves fighting for their lives against the kid cult’s murderous goals.
2. Children of the Corn 2: The Final Sacrifice (1992)
The sequel Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice continues the story begun in the first film about the events that unfold in Gatlin, Nebraska. After the awful acts committed by the children’s cult, the town of Hemingford decides to adopt the remaining children. However, the evil that infected Gatlin does not remain dormant for long, as the young preacher Micah (played by Ryan Bollman) quickly falls under the grip of “He Who Walks Behind The Rows,” the same demonic entity that drove Gatlin’s children to murder their parents.
John Garrett (Terence Knox), a reporter, and his son Danny travel to Hemingford to cover the peculiar events there. Now under a dark spell, Micah is rallying the youngsters of Hemingford, and just like in Gatlin, inexplicable deaths are occurring among the town’s elders. John needs to figure out what’s happening so that history doesn’t repeat itself, and stop the kids.
3. Children of the Corn 3: Urban Harvest (1995)
The third entry takes an unexpected turn by relocating the action from small-town Nebraska to the sprawling city of Chicago. Urban Harvest’s plot focuses on two young brothers, Joshua and Eli. Their father’s mysterious death prompts their adoption and subsequent move from Gatlin, Nebraska, to Chicago. Soon after they arrive, the older brother, Joshua, tries to assimilate, but the younger brother, Eli, clings to the cult’s terrifying rituals.
Like the other child leaders in the first two films, Eli is under the sway of an extraterrestrial power, and has sworn his allegiance to “He Who Walks Behind The Rows.” Eli brings a sack of the cursed corn from Gatlin to his new school and plants it on a vacant factory lot. The corn sprouts alarmingly, and Eli starts winning over his classmates. When the kids follow him, adults start dying again, just like in the first two movies.
4. Children of the Corn 4: The Gathering (1996)
Released in 1996 as a direct-to-video film, Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering is the fourth film in the Children of the Corn series. Greg Spence, the film’s director, introduces a fresh plot to the franchise that breaks away from the events of the previous three installments. In her early acting years, Naomi Watts stars as medical student Grace Rhodes, who returns to her birthplace in Nebraska to care for her agoraphobic mother, June. Grace can’t shake the strangeness of her younger siblings, Margaret and James, and her childhood memories.
Suddenly, a mystery fever sweeps the community, and the kids who get it aren’t the same when they get better. They act irrationally and show intense hostility against the grownups as if they were under the influence of an evil force. It turns out that Josiah, a former child preacher who the townspeople had executed because they thought he used black magic, is the source of their power. Josiah has returned to exact vengeance on the town using its youth. Grace must intervene before it is too late to save the children from Josiah’s clutches.
5. Children of the Corn 5: Fields of Terror (1998)
The main characters of Fields of Terror are a group of young adults who, while on a cross-country road trip, become trapped in the lonely farming village of Divinity Falls. Here, they run into a group of kids who all worship “He Who Walks Behind The Rows.” In the series tradition, these kids have resorted to violence to appease their corn god by sacrificing any adults they come across.
The cult includes the younger brother of one of the stranded group members, Allison. As she tries to free him from the cult’s clutches, she learns disturbing details about the community’s past and the deadly strength of the monster they worship. Stacy Galina is impressive in her role as Allison, while Eva Mendes makes a splash in one of her debut film roles. In addition to Alexis Arquette and Ahmet Zappa, the cast also includes Fred Williamson.
6. Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return (1999)
The return of Isaac Chroner, the child preacher and foe of the original 1984 film, makes Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return thrilling. Hannah (played by Natalie Ramsey) travels back to Gatlin, Nebraska (the original film’s location), searching for her biological mother. To her dismay, she discovers that Gatlin has become a ghost town under the hands of the now-adult Isaac Chroner (played once more by John Franklin), who has awakened from a coma caused by the events of the first film.
Cult leader Isaac is back at it, encouraging the town’s youth to worship “He Who Walks Behind The Rows.” Hannah’s birth on the same night Isaac went into a coma has led him to believe that her arrival was fortuitous and would hasten the arrival of their god. The film explores the legend of “He Who Walks Behind The Rows” and Isaac’s quest to fulfill the prophecy.
7. Children of the Corn: Revelation (2001)
In Revelation, Claudette Mink stars as Jamie, a woman who returns to her childhood home in Nebraska to look for her lost grandmother. The police have been useless, unwilling, or unable to investigate the disappearance thoroughly. Jamie takes matters into her own hands and begins looking into the mysterious events that have been occurring near her grandmother’s apartment building.
The children who live there act strangely, and a field of corn surrounding the farmhouse appears to have grown overnight. According to their religion, “He Who Walks Behind The Rows” wants to wipe out the adult population. Jamie becomes entangled in the children’s deadly plot as she investigates further into the mystery and finds horrible facts about her family’s background.
8. Children of the Corn (2009)
A reimagining of the classic horror film from 1984, Children of the Corn, was produced specifically for television. A more faithful adaptation of King’s short tale, this version is directed by Donald P. Borchers (who also produced the 1984 film). The film retells the scary story of Gatlin, Nebraska, a hamlet inhabited entirely by children who pray to a demon called “He Who Walks Behind The Rows.”
The children believe that this creature demands the sacrifice of all adults to secure a bountiful maize harvest. Burt (David Anders) and Vicky (Kandyse McClure) are a couple whose car hits a boy on the highway and gets them lost in Gatlin. The portrayal of the pair is vastly different from the original. The 2009 film depicts Burt and Vicky’s relationship as tense, adding an emotional depth missing from the original.
9. Children of the Corn: Genesis (2011)
Children of the Corn: Genesis introduces a new story that only tenuously ties to the franchise’s main plot. The film follows Tim (Tim Rock) and Allie (Kelen Coleman), a young couple lost in the California desert. They drive to a rundown farmhouse where an unsettling elderly preacher (Billy Drago) lives with his strange wife. The couple quickly learns that the pastor has a small boy locked up in a shipping container and that the boy possesses frightening powers that no one can explain.
As they get deeper into the mystery, they learn of a sinister conspiracy involving the kid and the “Children of the Corn” legend. Children of the Corn: Genesis takes a different approach than its predecessors by establishing a new environment to investigate the cult of “He Who Walks Behind The Rows.” It moves the action from the rural Midwest of the first two films to an isolated and foreboding California locale.
10. Children of the Corn: Runaway (2018)
Children of the Corn: Runaway centers on Ruth, a young pregnant woman who fled the homicidal child cult in Gatlin, Nebraska, 13 years earlier. Ruth, played by Marci Miller, is on the run and eventually settles down in a small Oklahoma town, finally trying to escape her tragic past.
She gives birth to her son, Aaron, and attempts to establish a new, regular life for both. As Aaron matures into his teenage years, though, Ruth worries that the evil influence of “He Who Walks Behind The Rows” may have followed them. She has bloody visions, and people in the community start dying under inexplicable circumstances. Ruth must face her demons from the cornfield cult’s past if she and her son are to survive.
11. Children of the Corn (2023)
The first film adaptation of King’s story to hit theaters since Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992) is the latest installment, Children of the Corn (2023). The film was announced as the 1984 film’s remake in 2020. However, producer Lucas Foster later stressed that it would be a new version of King’s story, with “almost nothing to do with” the first picture.
The plot centers on a young girl with psychotic tendencies who lives in Gatlin, Nebraska. To satisfy her bloodlust, the girl rallies the other children in town, and they go on a killing spree, executing or injuring many of the town’s adults.