5 nostalgic horror movies to watch on Netflix this weekend
5. Children of the Corn
Release Year: 1984
Director: Frtz Kiersch
Writer: Stephen King (short story), George Goldsmith (screenplay)
Starring: Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R.G. Armstrong, John Franklin, Courtney Gains, Robby Kiger, Anne Marie McEvoy, John Philbin
Children are innately creepy. This is a fact that horror stories and films utilize on a regular basis. Despite their lack of filter, you never really know what they’re thinking – they’re sticky little mysteries with a natural drive for deception. They live from one moment to the next, seeking instant gratification with absolutely no patience. And they can be loud.
Based on a short story from master of horror Stephen King (written in 1977), Children of the Corn follows Vicky (Linda Hamilton) and her boyfriend, Burt (Peter Horton), as they journey east to Seattle for Burt to start a new job as a physician. When an injured young boy stumbles into the road and is hit by Burt’s car, the couple go in search of help in the nearby town of Gatlin.
Unfortunately, Gatlin is run by a horde of reckless and ruthless children who have sacrificed all of the adults in town as a religious offering to a bloodthirsty deity (referred to as “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”) who they believe to be based in the town’s ample corn fields. The children have been converted to this horrific cult by a particularly vocal (and incredibly unsettling) child named Isaac.
Children of the Corn is a fun jolt of outrageous 80s rural horror with a roster of unnervingly devout children and a completely ineffectual male lead (sorry, but Burt is the worst). It’s a great film to revisit every now and again so you have a reminder to scream “Outlander” at those who displease you.