Grano rosso sangue III: Urban Harvest

After the disappointing "Children of the Corn II", the 1996 direct-to-video sequel subtitled "Urban Harvest" moves the setting from a rural Midwestern town to the Windy City of Chicago. A change of atmosphere gives the "Children of the Corn" franchise a much-needed boost and this entry is sometimes scary, often imaginative and boasts some unique special effects.

A couple (Jim Metzler and Nancy Lee Grahn) adopt a pair of abandoned teens. The older one (Ron Melendez) is conflicted with his Gatlin, Nebraska past, while the younger one (Daniel Cerny) prepares to recruit an all new batch of followers to resurrect He Who Walks Behind the Rows.

The movie is pretty tense and actually works on many levels... but the finale -- while planned out well -- looks really cheap onscreen and brings about lots of unintentional laughter.

"Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest" is one of the strongest entries in the franchise, and for the first 85 of its 91 minute running time, it proves to be a first-rate thriller.

"Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest" is a somewhat tacky and unnecessary sequel to the moderately successful Stephen King adaptation and its slightly under-rated sequel.

In the film, two youths from Gatlin (the setting of the first two films) are taken in by a yuppie couple in Chicago. The older of the two fits in relatively well, but the younger has plans of his own. Planting a corn field in the abandoned property next door, he creeps out his adoptive parents and eventually converts the entire teenage population to his maze worshipping cult.

Despite a predictable plot that seems to be missing chunks (at what point did Eli win over his peers?), dodgy special effects and wooden performances by its relatively unknown cast, the film is moderately enjoyable for what it is. If you want to see some brutal and over-the-top death scenes committed by vegetation, then "Children of the Corn III" hardly disappoints. Elsewhere, however, the film comes up short, and that's all there really is to it.

The film was dumped in theaters briefly in 1994 before being thrust into complete oblivion, making room for four direct-to-video sequels and a made-for-TV remake. Look closely, and you'll spot Charlize Theron in her very first role as an extra.

"Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest" is the one of best Children of the Corn sequel of them all, in my opinion. It is about two brothers, one good and one evil who worships "he who walks behind the rows". The brothers are sent to a foster home in the big-city Los Angeles, which is an entirely different setting than what the kids are used to. After they move in with their foster family, bad things begin to happen, and people start to die in mysterious ways. And it's just a little strange that a cornfield is seeming to grow in an abandoned factory lot next door to the house...

I thought this film had some creative moments and some good things to offer. Particularly, I loved the death scene of the mother, Amanda. I won't tell you how she dies, but it was creative death scene and was very original. This is a decent movie, but it begins to drop way down within the last 10 minutes. The monster at the end was so horribly fake looking, it was extremely poor CGI effects. Also, when the monster lifts the girl up into the air, you can clearly see that it was a miniature doll that was used (it looked like a Barbie). The whole monster thing was completely ridiculous, and it's effects made the whole premise even worse.

Anyways, I enjoyed this sequel to the "Children of the Corn" series. It's stylish and has some good moments in it, but the last 10 minutes of it were a little too much for me and almost ruined the entire movie. If you are a series fan, check it out, but the horrible special effects may bring the movie down. 5/10.

This third part of the franchise see's two children from the original town massacre adopted and moved to the big city. One takes to his new surroundings well and begins to make friends while his younger brother continues his loyalty to "He who behinds behind the rows"

For a start I was glad of the new setting, however it quickly became apparent that they really weren't going to utilize it.

Eli becomes yet another child preacher and alike those before him is obnoxious and plays his well really well.

The film itself plays out basically exactly as you'd expect. Religion, a few deaths and an "Ultimate showdown" at the end.

Not good, not bad, just more of the same when by all rights it should have been really quite different.

The Good:

Follows on quite well

The Bad:

Nothing exactly stands out

Some ropey sfx at the end

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Corn cross, corn bible, whole things getting a bit corny

People who write about this movie say it's terrible. Man, this movie is a masterpiece compared to all the other Children of the Corn films. This is what the others SHOULD have been like. There are a lot of cheap, "jump"-type scares, but they're more than made up for by the overabundance of surrealistic special effects (check out the suitcase full of worms) and over-the-top, gory death scenes. Sure the plot is stupid, but when has the plot for ANY of the Children of the Corn movies NOT been stupid? This movie is a visual treat for gorehounds. There's a few disturbing dream sequences, a giant demon that looks like a malformed popcorn kernel, limb dismemberment, head impalement, an EXTREMELY graphic decapitation/spinal cord removal, scarecrows made from decomposing bodies with sewn-shut eyes and mouths, a particularly nasty head-melting sequence, eye-gouging by corn stalks, a few split-open, roach-infested heads, and a bloody crucifixtion. Definetely the goriest and most disturbing of the series.