When I was browsing horror dvds at the store, I came across this movie with a crazy red-eyed sheep on its cheesy 3D cover, which read "Jena Malone in CORN." I like Jena Malone (Donnie Darko, Saved!), and I glimpsed at the back, and thought "I have to see this!" I figured it was a z-grade horror movie about maniacal mutant sheep, cashing-in on the fact that somehow the latest Indie It-girl was involved in the project. Which, in all honesty, would have been all right by me, as I love cheesy horror movies and have never seen one about killer sheepies. Well, the packaging was misleading, and that's a good thing.
The story starts out with Emily (Malone), a girl in her late teens who just dropped out of college, reluctantly returning to her father's farm to try to get her life together. She is a few months pregnant, and plans on keeping the baby, even though the father is a politician who doesn't want anything to do with it. Her mother died when she was young, and she has a very awkward relationship with her father. Upon her arrival, she notices that her father's sheep are acting rather strange--they appear to be viciously fighting over a weed that is the byproduct of their neighbor's corn. After witnessing a sheep being born with only two legs, she decides to investigate this corn and its weed byproduct, and learns that it is an experiment in genetic engineering. After hearing about the death of a friend's newborn baby, who regularly ate lamb, Emily realizes she has to do something to put a stop to this. This will entail standing up to the big corporation that is testing the corn, her employers, and ultimately, her father.
This is a darn good movie, anchored by a terrific actress. Malone, who also served as associate producer, has described this microbudget film as "guerilla film-making." While it is obviously low budget (this is most evident in the silly fast-paced scenes that are ill-fated attempts at producing scares), the performances are exceptional. There are a few other flaws, including hit-or-miss sound (especially in the final scene), as well as unsatisfactory pacing and story structure. The movie starts out slow, and that works to build fear, but then it suddenly jumps to rising action and climax. While it seems silly that the lead character jumps to far-fetched conclusions based on a few things she sees, it sort of fits with the story. This movie is just as much about environmental horror (think Larry Fessenden) as it is about a girl's struggle with family relations, and the discrimination she faces as a pregnant woman. The ostensibly silly tagline for the film, "It is not nice to mess with Mother Nature," actually fits in with the recurring theme that motherhood and maternal instinct plays here. The personal and political are masterfully intertwined in a way that is rarely captured in movies today.
While "Corn" isn't a horror movie in the traditional sense, it does sort of work like a cross between "Rosemary's Baby" (including various creepy dreamlike sequences) and "Erin Brokovich." So if you are looking for a movie about crazy killer sheepies, you aren't going to get that here, regardless of what the DVD cover implies. If you are looking for a low-budget but well-made dramatic environmental chiller with a feminist bent, then check out "Corn." My Rating: 7.5/10
