In ‘Children of the Corn’, a couple named Vicky and Burt happen upon a small town named Gatlin ruled by a murderous cult of children. After exploring this deserted town, they learn from Gatlin’s only friendly child inhabitants - siblings, Job and Sarah - that the children killed all the adults a few years back. They discover that the children, led by fellow child and preacher Isaac and his subordinate Malachai, commit regular sacrifices – all to satisfy the will of a mysterious monster living in the cornfield.
This newsletter will give you some BTS access to our process. Our script notes and research points are listed below, plus a few extras!
CHILDREN OF THE CORN — EXTENDED EPISODE NOTES
WHAT MAKES CHILDREN IN HORROR SO SCARY?
~our theories~
Children symbolise innocence, so their corruption is seen as particularly horrific
Children symbolise the future, so the loss of children is seen as particularly apocalyptic
There’s a self-conscious sense of parental guilt or failure and a nature vs nurture debate is instigated when children and horror band together
Ramella, Brynne. "Why Kids Are The Focus Of So Many Horror Movies & TV Shows.” Screen Rant, 2020, https://screenrant.com/horror-movie-tv-shows-feature-kids-reason/#:~:text=Kids%20especially%20aren't%20equipped,the%20battle%20of%20good%20vs..
Kids especially aren't equipped to handle the complicated emotions of things not going their way; this can make for uncontrollable and unpredictable antagonists.
Olson, Debbie. Children and Childhood in the Works of Stephen King, Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
King’s use of child characters within the framework of horror (or of horrific childhood) raises questions about adult expectations of children, childhood, the American family, child agency, and the nature of fear and terror for (or by) children.
FOLK HORROR RECAP
Scovell, Adam. “FILM, FOLK HORROR, LANDSCAPE: The Folk Horror Chain.” Celluloid Wickerman, 2014, https://celluloidwickerman.com/2014/09/25/the-folk-horror-chain/.
The first link in this chain is the use of the landscape and the environment. […] Apart from setting a strong aesthetic theme for the films, often moving out of studios and using the visuals of the natural and the rural, the landscape explicitly isolates the characters and communities within them. This isolation forms the next part of the chain and leads to communities that develop skewed morality and belief systems of practice. This can form into a variety of different outlets but often manifests in versions of paganism, occultism, or even the simple abuse of Christianity. There’s little doubt that folk horror and its happenings rely on events being located outside of general society in both a physical and in a sociological way. These belief systems eventually lead to the final link in the chain; the manifestation due to these belief systems. This can range from summoning up something that is genuinely supernatural such as a demon or a ghost, or lead to some form of violent act such as possession, sacrifice or something else that leads to violence and eventually death.
Keetley, Dawn. “INTRODUCTION: DEFINING FOLK HORROR." Revenant Journal, https://www.revenantjournal.com/contents/introduction-defining-folk-horror-2/.
As Adam Scovell puts it, folk horror often ‘creates its own folklore’ (2017: 7). […] In evoking folklore in order to (re)-attach it to the local, the provincial, and the rural, folk horror participates in what Guntis Šmidchens describes as ‘folklorism’, which names a self-conscious use of folklore for particular ends: ‘Folklorism is the conscious recognition and repetition of folk tradition as a symbol of ethnic, regional, or national culture’. Folklorism represents ‘folklore self-consciously’, Šmidchens continues, ‘accepting it as a carrier of the past and the premodern world, and bringing an impression of unchanging, stable tradition into the present’ (1999: 56). Folk horror does not just ‘accept’ folklore as a ‘carrier of the past’, however, but actively creates it as such. Indeed, some folk horror texts not only themselves serve as folkloristic practice but also represent an ongoing practice of ‘folklorism’ within the diegesis.
~SUBSTACK EXCLUSIVE: RESEARCH NOT QUOTED IN THE EPISODE~
Film Fun Facts
The gas station attendant, Job, is played by Stephen King.
In the Stephen King universe, the town of Gatlin, Nebraska is near Hemingford Home, where Mother Abigail lived in The Stand. It is referenced in the movie as “Hemingford.”
Night Shift is visible on the dashboard of the car, when Burt and Vicky first appear in the film. Night Shift is the short story collection where “Children of the Corn” was published after Penthouse. It is also a song by Lucy Dacus.
The movie was shot in Iowa.
CORN SYMBOLISM
Stephen King frequently uses corn or corn fields in his films. It is most notably featured in The Stand and Children of the Corn, but is also seen in other works. Why do we think this is the case?
Harvest gone wrong: As corn is a symbol of harvest and fertility, perhaps this a reference to the massacres of Native Americans that occurred after Thanksgiving: a symbol of how men can result to cruelty, greed and corruption to claim land and harvest. This is particularly interesting in the context of Children of the Corn; as, the children’s desire to bring a plentiful harvest results in them embracing a false god and slaughtering their parents.
Fertility and Death: The corn could also be symbolising how closely fertility and death are connected. We also discuss the link between sex and death as a recurring theme in horror in many of our previous podcast episodes.
Let us know some of your thoughts and theories in the comments!