Los niños diabólicos II: el sacrificio final

I was fifteen when I first saw Children of the Corn 2. And I loved it. Then again, I hadn't seen much horror at the time. However, over twenty years later and I find myself realising how little I knew about decent cinema when I was a teenager.

Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed Children of the Corn 2 yet again, but now I found myself laughing heartily all the way though. Seriously, some comedies don't make me laugh as much as this film did (now, in the cold light of my adulthood).

If you can ignore the use of the word 'final' in the title (there are about four more Children of the Corn films afterwards) and be prepared not to take this story that seriously, you may just enjoy some of the most ludicrous death scenes ever committed on the elderly. The story follows a boy and his single parent father, coming to the nearby town in search of a story as to what happened to the adults who were now found to have been murdered by the children of the town. Once this pair arrive, both instantly fall in love with beautiful women and discover that a young lad by the name of Micha, leads a group of local children to stare intently at adults before dropping houses on them. If you watch this movie you will realise it has some of the most intense staring ever committed to film. Besides the beautiful women and staring brats, there's also a wise old native American, some 'Predator-vision' from the monster (or 'he who hides behind the rows') and a sheriff who tries to kill people like he was a Bond villain.

How this film was supposed to be taken seriously, I'll never know. Just know what you're getting before you watch this. Take the biggest pinch of salt you'll ever take, suspend your disbelief like you never have before and sit back and enjoy one of the most daftly funny horror films ever made.

I was underwhelmed by the original Children of the Corn (1984) film, I expected something a lot more impressive and walked away very dissapointed.

It took 8yrs before it got a sequel and the movie more or less picks up from the last. All the corpses of the residents have been found but the psychotic religious fanatic children haven't changed at all and once again set about purging the adults.

It comes down to a reporter and his son to stop them, but though it makes for an interesting follow up the movie itself isn't very interesting.

A couple of decent deaths and a passable premise don't make up for just how generic it feels. Nothing stands out, everything feels rather copy and pasted.

The Final Sacrifice tries to flesh out the mythology and background of "He who walks behind the rows" but in doing so kind of damages what they'd already built. Sometimes simplicity is the key.

If you liked the first I'd say this is essential viewing, if you didn't then take into consideration that this is more of the same.

The Good:

One death scene was great

Follows on nicely

The Bad:

Simply fails to entertain

Squanders potential

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Rifling through a persons belongings left in a car is suitable small town etiquette

BINGO!

This time the remaining mean spirited kids are moved to a new location where they bring their usual kill-crazy antics and it's up to a tabloid journalist (Terence Knox) and his rebellious son (Paul Scherrer) to save the town from "He who walks behind the rows!" and save their love interests from sacrifice in this surprisingly watchable sequel, which is against genre odds better than it's lame predecessor. While the King story has nothing to do with the sequel, there are some entertainingly nasty scenes such as a voodoo nosebleed as well as a wheelchair smacked with a semi truck. Also as Scherrer's love interest, Christie Clark comes off very well. While Terence Knox looks like a cross between Treat Williams and Michael Pare. It's no masterpiece but for a campy horror sequel, Children Of The Corn II works as mindless entertainment.

2/5 Matt Bronson

This film begins with a somewhat discredited journalist by the name of "Garrett" (Terence Knox) and his rebellious son "Danny" (Paul Scherrer) driving through Nebraska and stopping at the town of Gatlin where a horrifying story is developing about kids murdering their parents just days earlier. Checking into a Bed & Breakfast, Garrett meets two people who will subsequently become involved what appears to be a continuation of the preceding horror. The first is the friendly female proprietor of the Bed & Breakfast named "Angela" (Rosalind Allen) while the second is an anti-social teenager by the name of "Micah" (Ryan Bollman) who the other children seem to look up to but seems to be nursing a certain dislike for the other townspeople. One other key character is an attractive teenager named "Lacey" (Christie Clark) who becomes romantically involved with Danny despite the fact that Micah seems to be having more influence on him from day-to-day. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, despite the fact that it took 8 years to produce this sequel, the film itself doesn't quite measure up to its predecessor. Admittedly, there was a new twist concerning a secret being held by the townspeople and the presence of two female actresses like Rosalind Allen and Christie Clark certainly added to the scenery, the overall picture was adequate at best and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Apparently it's not a good idea to sit in the nosebleed section of a church; black contact lenses lend evil powers to anyone who wears them; you should never climb under your house in search of your kitty, especially if evil-looking children are lurking about. These are just some of a few lessons to be taken from the sequel nobody expected that snowballed into the franchise nobody wanted, "Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice."

Picking up after the events of the first film, a tabloid-journalist and his teenage son are passing through a small neighboring town of Gatlin, Nebraska shortly after those corn-husking little munchkins laid it to waste. Looking for his big break, the father/journalist decides to stay in town for a while. After merely a few days in town, he receives his fair-share of white-man's guilt from the resident Native America, uncovers a moldy corn conspiracy (a plot point which goes virtually nowhere) and plows the field of a innkeeper. Meanwhile, his son attempts to sow some seeds of his own with the girl-next-door who appears to the only one under the age of 18 in town who isn't under the trance of the mysterious maze.

It must be said that by no means is "Children of the Corn II" a particularly great film. Like the first, it's pretty basic and predictable. It seems as if the script for the first film was tweaked just slightly to concoct a sequel and it shows with plot-holes the size of Nebraska (see what I did there?). Director David Price -- whose resume is as equally unimpressive as the film's script -- loves to inject a lot of ridiculous gore into the film, but forsakes logic in doing so. You'll see corn husks slashing throats, a nosebleed that somehow turns into an earache and a house falling on a woman who doesn't seem to understand she can either try crawling out or hide in between the beams. Nevermind that, though. You don't come here for logic, and Price knows that. With his made-for-TV movie cinematography, you can be rest assured you'll know exactly what you're getting into within the first five minutes of the film.

But what about the cast? Kudos must go out to Ryan Bollman who does his best to look as menacing as possible as the leader of the kiddy cult. Someone ground that kid! On the other side of the coin, you have Terence Knox, resembling what would happen if Bill Pullman and Alec Baldwin gave birth to a bloated baby. Knox seems to be apathetic about the whole thing, as best evidenced by his reaction to the death of a friend by the end of the film. He steps it up a notch when he is caught sinning rather vigorously by his son, but this scene is so uninteresting, you'll feel the same sort of apathy toward it as the actor does the film. I guess you just can't expect Academy Award material with these films, but would it hurt to have actors who care about more than cashing in their paychecks carrying a film?

When all is said and done, in spite of its glaring flaws, "Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice" is easily the best sequel in the "Children of the Corn" series, but that's not saying much. When you consider the films that followed in its wake, it's almost a back-handed compliment. Then again, the first "Children of the Corn" wasn't ground-breaking cinema by any stretch of the imagination, so the fact that any sequel to it can deliver the most basic entertainment is a miracle in and of itself. To that end, "The Final Sacrifice" is a rather schlocky but suitable guilty-pleasure follow-up. If you've suffered through enough "Amityvilles" or "Howlings" then there is no reason you can't sit through this one as well.