Los niños del maíz: la génesis

A young couple spend the night at a preacher's home, and soon begin to suspect that he has a child locked up in his barn. Can they save the child from this imprisonment?

Pretty much the nicest thing I can say about this film is that it features Billy Drago, who is a decent actor and under-appreciated. The makeup department did a good job making him look old and rustic, and he he has much less of an exotic look about him than usual.

That positive note aside, I am a bit confused what is going on with the Children of the Corn franchise. This one has very little to do with children and very little to do with corn. Some efforts are made to connect it to the series by attempting to offer a back story (presumably why this one is called "Genesis"). But it could be changed and not affect the overall story at all.

Obviously by stamping it with the Children of the Corn label, more people will rent the film and possibly even buy it. But it does the movie a disservice in the long run. I suspect that if the franchise aspects were changed slightly, this could have been a fairly respectable stand-alone story.

Sadly, it was not the last one made in the franchise...

Movie review:Remember in 1984 a scary movie came out called "Children of the Corn"? Keep it that way, this movie will not remind you at all of it and you will be upset that you can not gain back the time lost after viewing this. The movie starts out with a man returning from the military to a dead family that was killed by the kids. The kid stalks him through a hallway and he plunges out a window to his death since he didn't want to shoot. Reason? No idea, they never touch upon that again, so basically for nothing. The movie is about a couple (Tim Rock & Kelen Coleman) that break down traveling in the middle of nowhere. They walk to the nearest house and stumble upon that of "Preacher" (Billy Drago) who refuses until he hears she is pregnant and allows them to use the phone. When Tim (character name, real creative) finds that they cannot get the car fixed until the next day, they decide to stay with Preacher and his nymphomaniac wife (Barbara Nedeljakova, who was in both Hostel movies for some reason). They are warned not to go outside which of course the wife doesn't listen to and she stumbles onto a child locked in a shed and also some ritualistic alter in a barn. Anyway, she heads back and they decide to leave but can't because some force won't let them. Strange things start happening keeping them from getting out such as slamming doors, flying furniture, etc. Preacher explains the evil is outside and doesn't want them to leave, they just want the unborn baby. Well, they try to get away, which doesn't work out so great, and that's the movie. Aside from one very funny line between the couple, this movie doesn't have much good going for it. One dream showing a corn field, which there is absolutely no explanation or reason for (sound familiar?), the usual demon child, whacko cult family....all clichés are present. It was filmed just fine, editing etc. but really, who cares? The movie is just bad, stay away. 2.5/10 IMDb 3.8 Two good laughs, one intentional is about all the points this gets, and maybe a car accident as well. That is about it.

I have to admit, I haven't followed the Children of the corn series up close, so I can't tell you, if this actually makes sense in the series. Than again Dimension doesn't seem to care, if they put a movie out there that isn't that connected to previous entries in a successful series (see Hellraiser for that). But this movie is nicely shot, has some interesting twists (though you can see them coming even before the scriptwriter put them down on paper).

In the end this doesn't add much to the horror genre, has the typical erratic character behavior (it's the grown ups who act like children, doing stuff they've been told not to do). The ending is weird too. You wonder why a certain character would accept "help" like that. But until that point you will probably have shut down your brain, just to save it. Good thinking ...

There has been a spate of movies of late it seems that want to take us back to the origins or beginning of a successful series. And so here is another. Before this, I only saw one in the series and I don't remember it. All I remember is that there was a bunch of grungy looking kids with no sense of humor and a corn field. Well in this movie they're still grungy-looking and trying their best to look evil.

A man and woman are stranded out in the middle of nowhere because their car broke down. They see some telephone lines and reason that they could follow it to a phone. It takes them to a dusty old shack. They knock and world weary Billy Drago as the "Preacher" eventually comes to the door. At first they are refused help, and as she is storming off in anger and frustration while her boyfriend is trying his best to placate her, the woman mentions her pregnancy and the preacher --being a man of God-- takes pity and invites them in.Things are a bit strained once inside; the couple are trying to have polite conversation seated across from the Preacher but he's oddly uncommunicative. Just sits there thinking WHO KNOWS WHAT while the couple look at each other nervously, desperately trying to fill the silence. A younger woman enters at some point with an accent and we learn later that she's from the Ukraine and that it was kind of a mail-order-bride kind of situation. She takes the man to a phone in another room and charges him almost everything he had in his wallet to use it while imploring him not to tell the Preacher.

After a meal where the Preacher continued his silent ways and it was time to go to their rooms the Preacher breaks his silence and tells the couple in essence to respect his privacy; that they shouldn't go wandering around beyond the outhouse in back. Thus warned, they repair to their room where they feel free to communicate the strangeness of their situation. Shortly the woman indicates that she needs to use the outhouse. At this point reader you're probably saying "Oh-oh!" Well your're right.

Well she goes out and pauses in front of a dingy outhouse a moment, hesitant. Her business is pressing so she puts her reservations aside and goes in. After a nervous p!ss she exits. She hears something; a cry of some kind. She decides to play Nancy Drew and investigate. Later, she frantically reports the findings of her investigations to her boyfriend who seems a bit incompetent to me. He challenges her; wants to make sure there is no mistake. She's miffed and challenges him back. The guy relents as if the last thing he wants is for her to lose it. She sort of towers over him like Wonder Woman dressed in shorts and combat boots so I don't blame him.

Things begin to happen; psychokinetic events. Possibly precipitated by Nancy Drew a.k.a Wonder Woman's investigations. The couple are in a panic and wanting answers. From the preacher they get something about an "evil seed" and that it wants the woman's baby. This movie is not particularly scary, or innovative, just so you know. Notwithstanding, it's not too bad. If it were a TV movie I'd give it a 7 or 8. A good movie if your're home in your socks and underwear, then. But as it is, I can only give it half that. Love, Boloxxxi.

This is even worse compared to the previous movie that I reviewed. This is the only movie that doesn't have any children as the main focus with exceptions in the opening, dream sequence, and the ending. The story is nothing interesting to talk about and is rather boring. It's mostly the characters who get lost, go to a house, notice something suspicious, and get trapped. I don't even know why they made this movie like this and add nothing new to the franchise. The whole supernatural force isn't that effective because it mostly forces the main characters to stay in the house for no reason and feels unnecessary. Also, it spends a lot of time with exposition dialogue that gets boring quickly and isn't anything too interesting to learn about. And the movie has an anticlimactic ending to it. I am going to skip the characters because all of them are rather boring and aren't that interesting to talk about. And the acting itself sucks.

Children of the Corn: Genesis is the worst compared to the previous movie. I do not recommend this movie at all.