Les Démons du maïs 4 : La Moisson

"Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering" is the fourth installment in the "Children of the Corn" series, and was surprisingly a decent sequel. After the horrible monster effects in Part III's finale (which almost completely ruined the movie for me) I was hoping "The Gathering" would head in a new direction, which it did. This sequel concerns a small town in the midwest. Naomi Watts plays Grace, a medical student who returns to care for her mother, and in turn, her young siblings, who begin to display a strange illness manifesting in all the town's children. Turns out that the cult of children are back, trying to recruit more young'ns (after killing their parents) into their organization for "he who walks behind the rows".

No doubt, one of the most memorable things about this film is Naomi Watts' performance, who showed chops even her in her first lead role. I'm sure most people who see this will recognize her from the hit Japanese remake "The Ring."

Even still, "Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering" is one of the standout films of the series for a variety of other reasons. It is well-shot, for one; while it is a direct-to-video picture, it surprisingly doesn't really look like one. There is an unnerving sleepiness to the film that plays off of the bucolic midwestern set pieces, and some phenomenally creepy sequences featuring Karen Black as Watts' agoraphobic mother. The film makes ample use of its dusty farmhouses and the sinister images of children lurking across the road.

Granted, the film does show its B-movie teeth in some of the murder sequences, which are far- fetched and at times absurd, but the splatter factor here is strong and the gore effects are rather convincing overall. Another obvious but vital element to this film working as well is it does is the strength of the performances. Watts, again, is great in her first lead here, and Karen Black is phenomenal as she always is— the role leaves her plenty of room to act out the eccentricities she does so well. Even the performances from the children are above-average for a film like this.

Overall, if you're a fan of the series, this is one of the better (and perhaps maybe the best) sequel. It's a "Children of the Corn" sequel, so obviously it is not a flawless film, but it is well-shot and there are a handful of genuinely effective moments to be had, and the film paces itself well without devolving into schlock. Enjoy your straight-to-video splat with a side of Watts and Karen Black— how can you go wrong? 7/10.

I first saw this in the late 90s on cable tv.

Revisited it recently.

Part 3 is so horrible that inspite of being on the series' marathon, i took a 5 months gap between this n part 3.

Late 80s n early 90s were my vhs days. Late 90s n early 2k were my cable tv n theatre days. Those were the days man.

This is the fourth in the series n much better than its predecessor.

Also this time the rural settings is back.

The film marked the first time Naomi Watts received first billing n she did a fine job.

The movie has lots of jump scares via dream sequences.

It is also very gory.

Fingers get chopped via a scythe, a fat doctor gets sliced into two parts, a fat alcoholic gets decapitated, etc.

A cop while investigating a murder along with other cops goes in the corn fields chasing a kid and later he gets killed while the remaining cops doesn't seem to bother where he disappeared or what happened to their fellow cop. Some mighty good direction there.

Also, a girl is submerged in a bathtub of blood n hell lottuva time passes but she is later revived back. This is another feather for the director.

Deciding that there should be a comment here that explains slightly more if a movie "sucks" or not, which is not much of an opinion. While none of these films with the exception of the first film are masterful, this is the best of the sequels. It has more of a supernatural element than some of the others but still manages to keep things moving and even a little suspenseful. This fourth installment also has a very high rating on the gore scale as well with some rather gruesome killings. If you have not yet seen this one but have others in the series it is worth the time. However, all said, it is for hard core genre fans only.

If a franchise is lucky enough to get to the fourth movie then it needs to be ready to adapt, it needs to be ready to change so that things don't get boring but stay true to its origins.

Here in "The Gathering" we see all the towns children get sick with a mysterious virus only to awakan claiming to be someone else. Soon the killings begin and it comes down to a young Naomi Watts to combat their evil scheme.

Going in I expected the worst, all 3 previous movies had failed to impress and could not be referred to anything beyond passable. Somehow this has been the best one so far and is true 90's horror at its core.

I think the whole Children Of The Corn concept has gotten somewhat over convoluted by this stage and doesn't even remotely resemble Stephen Kings creation. Regardless this is a passable enough little fluff piece that should keep fans of the series entertained.

The Good:

Looks great

Some inventive kills

The Bad:

Still suffers many of the franchises weaker tropes

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

A scythe to the genitals might be an unpleasant way to go

basically c.o.t.c 4 has nothing at all to do with the last three movies at all it's basically children killing some adults but there's corn fields so really that is thee only connection it has with the rest of the movies there is no cult gatherings of a preacher leading a group of children to rebel against the adults it's just thus dead preacher you see some times through the movie thats about it. the acting good and the plot is OK but would've been better if there was a bit more sense to it like more detail as in why the the two main leading adult character's think something is up with the children instead of automatically knowing something is. like the first death sequence where after Marcus's mum's dead he just goes over and climbs over the corn and into the corn field. and the farther presumes somethings weird about him instead of thinking hey his mums just dead he might be in shock. but watch it for yourself you might just like it