Colheita Maldita 4: O Encontro

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.

This film is religated to a special genre, what I like to call STV (an abbreviation of Straight-to-Video release). An attempt at a cheap thrill, these films are usually more laughable than scary. But the Children of the Corn franchise is probably the most interesting of this genre.

I remember renting this particular installment of Children of the Corn at the fresh young age of 14 for a slumber party with some friends. We had all seen COTC 1, 2, 3, so what the heck, why not check out 4? There was nothing particularly different about the plot: again, the children of a midwestern town all mysteriously turn evil, killing their parents in interesting, grotesque ways. There were the same laughable moments in which writers contrive clever new ways for a child to kill an adult and the same lame horror film dialogue. It was all the same. Except one thing.

The performance of the lead heroine was stunning! Not your typical STV calibar performance, but instead, WOW--complex, understated, and intense, I was very impressed with the no-name lead actress.

Fast forward to seven years later, in which I am reading an interview with my favorite new actress, Naomi Watts and she mentions, "I was in Children of the Corn IV" and ohmygosh, the planets have aligned, it all makes sense! This stellar actress was giving stellar performances long before she was cast into stellar movies.

So the short of it, if you are at all a fan of Naomi Watts, this is not a bad one to get a glimpse of her pre-Mulholland Dr. work. Yeah, it's campy and lame and gratuitously violent, but with Naomi, it's not so bad.

Rating: 4 out of 10 (on the whole), Naomi's Performance: 7 out of 10

This movie is pretty cool compared to part 2 and 3. I really like the plot. It isn't too satanic. Naomi Watts and Jamie Renee Smith play excellent parts.

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

Children of The Corn 4: The Gathering was a very good movie. All of the Children of the Corn films are usually straight to video and where made with a tight budget, but they are still good movies and are fun to watch. I had just seen "The Ring" and then, watched this, and realized Naomi Watts, star of The Ring is also the star in this film. I give Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering a 10 out of 10!