Grano rosso sangue II - Sacrificio finale

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs. Revisited it recently.

This is a direct sequel of the first part and this time the adjacent town suffers when the adjacent townspeople decide to adopt the surviving children. Locals and cops find corpses of the adults and journalists try to dig in more information but once again the children forms a cult group where one of the cult member is possessed by a demonic entity. This one lacks the atmosphere n surrealism of the first part but makes up for it by adding more body count but in a hilarious way. I liked the dialogue from this movie, "Sometimes what u have learned conflicts with what u kno."

I haven't seen all the Children of the Corn incarnations and movies, but this definitely is not the final one. There are quite a few more that were thrown our way. But horror movies like to give the feeling of something being final to entice audiences to watch them.

Speaking of enticing, our two main characters are quite good looking. They might be a bit dull and not as engaging as one might wish, but still way better than the bland villain kid in this one. Well there are worse movies and better movies ... if you really want to watch it, there are some merits (no pun intended) ...

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.

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