Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return

Entering this sixth entry to the long drawn out COTC series, I was intrigued at the thought of Isaac's return. The original film is one that I enjoyed a lot, so there were hopes that this could bring the series back to it's successful roots. Unfortunately for me, this ended being a major flop.

We meet Hannah who is traveling to Gatlin, the infamous town from the original Children of the Corn. She lets viewers know that she was born there 19 years prior and has visions of some kind from that horrible place even though she was just a baby. Hannah is also planning to search for her mother, who she was told had died. When she gets into a mini car accident, the town sheriff pulls her over and has a reaction when she sees Hannah's name. After being taken to the Gatlin hospital, she finds Isaac in a coma like state. As soon as she touches him, he opens his eyes awaking him from an almost 20 year sleep.

Hannah soon meets a young man named Gabriel that she takes a liking too. Unfortunately for her, he seems to be working with the sheriff and local doctor against her. It is mentioned by them that the prophecy states Hannah must find out the truth of her birth. While she explores Gatlin, we discover that Isaac has a son. The prophecy that Isaac speaks of states that Hannah must sleep with his teenage son and create the new generation of child cultists to carry out the wishes of He Who Walks Behind The Rows. With no one in Gatlin that she can trust, will Hannah escape the horrific prophecy? Or will Isaac succeed in carrying out what he calls the wishes of "He Who Walks Behind The Rows".

The idea of bringing the series back to the original and making a direct sequel to that one was a great idea on paper, but there were significant flaws in the making of the overall movie. Firstly, the acting might be the worst of all sequels to this point. John Franklin was still as good as ever, playing Isaac one last time. He was made for this evil role. Everyone else struggled. Even Nancy Allen and Stacy Keach, who have always delivered in horror, seemed so out of place in a sixth Children of the Corn film. A lot of the younger cast weren't all that good either, with Natalie Ramsey (Hannah) being the exception. The quality of the film was also tough to look at, there was a constant beige/tan filter over the entire movie throughout. It looked really low budget after some stronger sequels.

There were some real positives in this as well. I loved the idea to bring Isaac back and bring us back to what happened after Linda Hamilton and Peter Horton walked away from their broken down car in Gatlin. Using the teenage Rachel and Amos characters that we saw in the original was extremely clever and tied a lot of things together in an interesting way.

Unfortunately, the flaws of COTC 666: Isaac's Return outweigh the positives. This was my least favourite of the series to this point.

4/10

My friends and I continuously rent movies to watch as a group -- the worst, most horrible, cheesy hilarity we can find in Blockbuster, that is. We got hung up on the Children of the Corn series from the start. Corn and demonic children, what a FANTASTIC combination! We laughed through each and every Corn flick up til 666, which we rented last night. All those wonderful earlier films about He Who Walks Behind The Rows... and for that! How disappointing! :( It wasn't even that funny this time. Where were all the _children_?!?! My suggestion: don't even bother. I give this film a 3/10, just because they didn't have as many continuity mistakes and the gore was actually sort of gory.

Bringing back the original 'star' of a TV show or film series is usually a gimmick employed to get a series back on track, with varying degrees of success. Here it only goes to prove that not only is John Franklin a bad actor, but his writing skills are similarly questionable. It may be 'interesting' to see how he envisaged the series continuing, but it makes a less than interesting film. This is dull, confusing sepia-toned drivel, with neither plot or substance, and almost no children or corn! What's that all about?

Even number 5 is better than this...

This astounding sixth addition to the Children of the Corn had potential from the start. The antagonist from the 1984 original was returning and being played by the very same actor, it had so much potential to steer the franchise back on course.

Alas it wasn't meant to be. Sadly Isaac returns into a mess of a film with a terrible cliched concept, an outstandingly dull pace and a film that contributes nothing to the series at all.

Credit where credit is due it does have a great twist and the final scene is great, but then immediatly ruins it by having a poor finale to that.

Starring the excellent Stacy Keach Isaac's Return should have been great but poor writing killed it stone dead.

The Good:

Decent twist

The return of Isaac and same actor is great

The Bad:

Very boring

Disapointing ending

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Calling a sixth movie 666 is tacky when it has nothing to do with the source material

I thought "He who walks behind the rows would be taller

I first saw this in the early 2k on cable tv.

Revisited it recently.

Although this is the first film in the series to feature John Franklin reprising his role as Isaac and also the only one which is loosely connected with the original film, this 6th part in the series is annoyingly slow n boring. The only thing noteworthy is the twist.

It has very few body count n the known face is Stacey Keach.

There is a scene in the movie where in the middle of the night, a woman enters a hotel room (how she got the key is beyond me) n tries to touch another woman lying in bed, but leaves once she realizes that the person lying is awake. The other woman doesn't do anything inspite of being awake but follows the intruder's truck until dawn into the middle of the corn-field and then later the purpose changes.

Another wonder scene, a couple on the run for their life n chased by cultists enter a barn, have shower n then sex (but very lousy one). And later the girl walks off from the barn as if nothing happened.