The film was shot and completed in 1993, but was not actually released until two years later, in 1995.
It is well known that this film, along with the subsequent sequels, only exist because Dimension Films wanted to hold on to the rights to Stephen King's Children of the Corn. The studio would have to produce a new film every couple of years to keep the rights to a film adaptation of the novel.
James D.R. Hickox hadn't actually watched the first two Children of the Corn films before agreeing to direct this one.