Children of the Corn 4: The Gathering [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

I grew up during a time period when FANGORIA magazine was popular, liquid latex was the choice medium for all special effect needs, and Horror films in general were at the height of their popularity. Those were the days of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Leatherface. It was a simple time period full of killer dolls, rabid dogs, deadly Summer Camps, wise cracking demons and evil houses. It was also a time where Horror movies seemed to be escalating in audience demand and eventually, a whole new wave of the Horror scene hit the home video market. Horror directors were finding it easier to put out Horror movies with the latest trend called "direct to video" releases, which didn't require a big budget release. The method was easy. Just make the movie, slap it on to a VHS and get it out into the stores.

Now, at the time I didn't enjoy a lot of these type of movies, mainly because I just didn't give them much of a chance. Like a lot of things that most people typically dislike from their current generation, it just wasn't very easy to get into the latest "direct to video" Horror movies that filled the local rental stores. At the time, they seemed cheap and stupid. For the most part, some of them were. The biggest culprit in this problem was the endless sequels to certain Horror film franchises. HELLRAISER and CHILDREN OF THE CORN seemed to be the main ones to blame. After all, some of those HELLRAISER sequels are just awful! The "masters" of 1980's Horror (FRIDAY THE 13th and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) never seemed to fall victim to the "direct to video" curse.

With that being said, now that it's been about ten years since the rise and fall of "old school" Horror, I find it easier to look back on some of these "direct to video" Horror movies and enjoy them. That is before Wes Craven ruined Slasher movies with his all too egotistical SCREAM series, yet the cheaper "direct to video" Horror films actually had some pretty good releases. They weren't classics by any stretch of the word, but at least some of them retained what made Horror movies so much fun in the 1980's. Interesting special effects, horrifying gore and (most importantly of all) a sense of fun and enjoyment. If you ask my opinion, the SCREAM series and all of it's clones (URBAN LEGEND and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) turned the Horror scene into a ridged and "serious" exercise of the art form. Those movies were okay, they just got old after a while because it seemed like all Horror films were following in those foot steps. Thank goodness that time period is over!

Which brings us to the movie at hand here, CHILDREN OF THE CORN IV : THE GATHERING. Hey! Did you know this? Naomi Watts was in this film!?! I had no clue for many years, until recently when I decided to give one of the random CHILDREN OF THE CORN sequels another chance. Turns out I picked right because this movie isn't anywhere near as bad as I would have thought it was. If you've already seen the movie and still think it's bad, move along. I'm sure nothing I say here will change your mind. Outside of the bad cover art (can we say "cheap photoshop" anyone?) and the rather small and short production, this movie is actually kinda' fun!

Naomi Watt's plays a young woman who goes back home to her Mother (played by the always enjoyable Karen Black), who happens to live in a small town very similar to the one in the first CHILDREN OF THE CORN story. The plot to this fourth movie is rather contrived but that shouldn't hold anyone back. This movie is basically just a vehicle to get the killer children going again. The story concerns a child preacher becoming resurrected from the dead, and possessing all the kids in the entire small town. Faster than you can say "pass the corn", the kids are chanting evil phrases and chopping up the people with huge sickles!

What makes this movie work (in terms of just enjoyment) is that a good amount of the death scenes are left untouched and unedited. People get sliced to pieces, bodies get stabbed, blood gets splashed around and general weirdness ensues through the whole movie. It's nothing on the level of the original film (or the Stephen King story for that matter) but then again, it's doesn't need to be. This is just some random sequel, pumped out by the film studio and the director had fun with what they were left to work with. THE EXORCIST this is not.

The biggest problem with this movie (and I know nit picking a "direct to video" release is like beating a dead horse) is the over all pacing of the film. The entire movie builds up some rather cheap tension and then dashes it all with a quick, anti climatic ending that doesn't wrap things up for the viewer. It's a shame really because some parts of this fourth movie are actually pretty creepy!

Gore Hounds, check it out for some neat death scenes! People get lacerated cuts, fingers chopped off and stabbed brutally with corn sickles! Naomi Watt's fans, check it out to see what she was doing before THE RING (remake), KING KONG and EASTERN PROMISES. Everybody else, just rent or buy the first movie in the series. Unless you came from the same Horror back ground and scene that I did, this movie won't please many people. For "hardcore" Horror fans and collectors of CHILDREN OF THE CORN stuff only!

Over and out!

I gotta tell ya, this series isn't rocketing down the drain with the sorta speed I woulda imagined. In fact, this one is actually better than 3 in a number of ways, though not enough better for it to actually be, ya know, good, so it's actually less entertaining. But hell, I didn't mind seeing it, and it was amusing enough for me to continue on with the series.

This one isn't directly related to any of the earlier films. It's more of a knockoff than a sequel, really. There's no reference to Gaitlin but it is still in Nebraska, in uh, some other town. Also, there is corn, but it ain't directly related to the action in any way. Still, ya have got a lotta evil children with Old testament style names, so it's got the same basic flavor. This one involves Grace, who came back to Nebraska to take care of her crazy, ailing mother. She's a med student and goes to work in the local doctor's office while she's there. A strange plague breaks out, affecting various children, but no one else. They all seem to recover spontaneously, but definitely aren't the same, anymore. I gotta tell ya, I kinda like this plot. The execution isn't very good, but it's got a decent base. I think they coulda made a decent script from this premise, and this isn't as laughable as the kinda ultra-cheap horror usually is.

Though this movie has got a fair bit of gore in it, it's actually trying to be more conventionally scary than the prior sequels seemed to be. It can't pull this off, but it is a bit less silly than some of the earlier stuff. Still, it has got some decent gore, and they use the scythe a whole lot. There wasn't nearly enough scythe action in the prior CotC films.

This movie gets some extra attention cause it stars Naomi Watts. Some people will tell you that her performance here is a lot better than you'd usually see in this kinda film, but ehh, I dunno. It's better, yeah, but not that much better, and still the stuff of B-movies. Karen Black is a lotta fun as her crazy mother, however. No one else makes much of an impression.

This movie has some pacing problems, as a bit too much of the gore is stuffed towards the beginning, and it fails to really build in anyway. It just kinda meanders along, arrives at the climax, and then ends.

Yeah, I guess I'm done. I sufficiently diverting little B-movie. Those who want to see this know who they are.

Grade: C

... Not many of them are scary. I will admit though the first texas chainsaw massacre did. Recently ive been watching the COTC series(an exausting 7) and it seems the more they make the less of a story we get. It went from not many killings and a good story(COTC 1) to basically no story and alot of blood, killing, and horribly effected creatures(COTC 3)but i will say that of the series, 4 is definitly one of the best. Yeah there is a lot of killing, blood, and some baaaaad acting(the black girl who dies) but it actually has a story to it.. Honestly im not lieing. the story doesnt really get told till toward the end but the story is actually good and seems like it took more than 5 min to come up with. It starts with a mother who has 2 children living with her. she is suffering from bad dreams where children attack and kill her.They scare her so bad taht she is even afraid to leave the front yard. When her other daughter heres she is getting worse she decides to stop in for a visit to help around with things. From there she notices that all the kids begin to get sick with the same "illness." as the movie moves along, you find out about a certain child that did not age and when the people he was with considered him useless they burned him and threw his soul into the bottom of a well. A stupid drunk in the movie(arent they all) brings the spirit up and now he is needing a certain child to help bring him back to power. I wont go into it more since this is a movie you should watch not just read about. The movie itself is not really scary but it is fun to watch. If you enjoy the COTC series you will like this one. Dont worry, it isnt nearly as bad and corny as COTC 2 and 3. The other good thing about this movie is that it is a break from the "He who walks behind the rows" tale and there is no dark bible spouting like the other ones. This one doesnt bring up the rows monster at all. and its good that we could take a break from that for one movie. My only question is, how is it that the leaves are strong enough to wrap around someone and drag them all over the place? i wouldnt think the corn leaves would be that hard to break?