New Stephen King Movie Is Being Absolutely Torn To Shreds, Here Are Some Of The Awful Reactions
The critical consensus is in, and the results are abysmal: critics really hate Stephen King's latest movie adaptation, Children of the Corn.
Known for his terrifying and lengthy collection of horror novels, Stephen King has been fortunate enough to see many of his written works jump off the pages and onto screens in both film and television formats. And, with so many classics raking in the big bucks over the years, stories like It, Salem’s Lot, and Pet Sematary have received reboot after reboot, with audiences coming back for more every time. Unfortunately, this can’t be said about The Dark Tower writer’s newest reimagining, with the latest telling of Children of the Corn receiving abysmal reviews ahead of its March 3 theatrical release.
The results are in on Rotten Tomatoes, and critics are taking dig after dig at filmmaker Kurt Wimmer’s reimagining of the Stephen King classic. Variety critic Owen Gleiberman referred to Children of the Corn as “a virus that keeps coming back but growing weaker each time,” adding that nothing was chilling or thrilling about this installment. Speaking of installments, Wimmer’s version of the film is the eleventh of the franchise, something that Bloody Disgusting’s Meagan Navarro noted in her review, writing that while “expectations might be low…nothing about Children of the Corn worked.”
Another zinging piece of feedback came from Awards Radar’s Joey Magidson, who cheekily quipped that the film “should have stayed hidden in the fields since the crops have gone very, very rotten.” Noting the time it took for the latest telling of Stephen King’s classic novel to see the light of day, Movie Nation’s Roger Moore wrote that the film couldn’t blame COVID for its failure, as it was “rotten in execution long before the masks came out.”
This was a major swing and a miss for the sprawling fanbase of Stephen King, who has turned out for every film premiere and television telling of their favorite novels by the master of scares. While 2022 saw the arrival of Firestarter and Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, the Children of the Corn reboot is a tragic way for the fandom to kick off 2023. Luckily, there are other projects just around the corner, with Salem’s Lot and The Boogeyman also preparing to land a round of on-screen adaptations.
As for the critically despised Children of the Corn, the reboot took a major departure from Stephen King’s original story, which may have something to do with all the hate being thrown its way. In it, audiences are transported to a down-on-its-luck town that’s hit a rough patch after the fields for its main export – corn – have died in droves. Rising to the challenge of making the adults pay for what they’ve done, a possessed 12-year-old girl named Eden (Kate Moyer) convinces the other towns-children to turn against the adults with a bloody vengeance. The only hero standing in Eden’s way is a local teenager (Elena Kampouris).
First receiving a makeover in 1984, Children of the Corn was a campy delight that received mixed reviews from Stephen King’s fandom. Differentiating from the latest adaptation, the original featured a young boy leading the pack of murderous kiddos and also revealed that all the adults had been killed at the beginning of the movie, whereas this time around, some were left to be tortured at the hands of those who walk among the rows. Also, whereas a teen is the town’s only hope of salvation in the 2023 flick, that task fell upon two adults who were just passing through in the 1984 film.
It’s true that some things are just better left alone, and it seems like it’s time for Children of the Corn to reap its final harvest. While many of Stephen King’s projects have managed to be major hits among fans and critics, it seems as though this franchise has been over-farmed.
