Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Nov 10, 2004 11:45:23 GMT -5
Plot:Two young Gatling residents are orphaned after the younger brother kills their father. So, the terror of Gatling goes urban when the two boys are placed in the custody of two foster parents. The younger brother brought some corn seeds along for the road and plants them in the courtyard of an abandoned warehouse, in an elaborate plan to bring He Who Walks Behind the Rows to the city. He winds up possessing his high school peers, and soon his older brother feels called to stop him.
Cast:
Daniel Cerny
Ron Melendez
Jim Metzler
Nancy Grahn
Michael Ensign
Mari Morrow
Jon Clair
My thoughts:I had read comments on this film, most calling it one of the better "COTC" sequels, and the film didn't disappoint.
My review:The film picks up right after the events of part 2. Eli, a leftover from the past 2 Gatlin incidents, now resides with his stepbrother Josh, and his stepfather, Joshes father. When Joshes dad pursues Josh in a drunken rage (were given the impression through dialogue that Joshes dad is an abusive drunk), Eli tells Josh to he'll handle him so that Josh will be spared. Eli winds up using his supernatural abilities (and boy does this corn brat have some abilities) to kill his stepfather via turning him into a human scarecrow, in what is a very cool scene in this horror fans opinion. This scene sets the very serious tone for the entire film. As opposed to the second film which came off as a cheesey 'Wizard of Oz'-ish kind of sequel with it's horrid bible-babble dialogue and lame music. After this incident, Eli and Josh are taken in by child services and placed into the care of a surburban Chicago couple 'The Porters'. Josh is excited about starting a new in a new place, but Eli, who by this point has been established as the quote unquote *evil one*, brought a little bit of Gatlin with him to Chicago. Corn seeds, which he plants in an abandoned factory behind his house, hoping to spread the evil influence of He who walks behind the rows to the city. Meanwhile, Josh has made friends with a kid named Malcolm who lives next door, and his sister.
Their first day at their new school, Josh and Eli are put into separate classes. Eli doesn't like being separated from his brother, which is established mainly in this scene alone. Ironically enough, being separated from Eli, makes Josh more inclined to fit in with the other kids, which is evident in a scene where he joins a pick up game of b-ball during recess. This new attitude of Joshes doesn't sit well with Eli, as he feels he is losing his hold over his brother to the 'unbelievers' as he calls them. Meanwhile after a terrifying dream, and some bad vibes, Mrs Porter coaxes her husband into cutting down Elis newly grown corn patch. It's obvious she feels an evil presence or something similar to that within the corn patch. However, after Mr Porter is talked into trying some of the corn by Eli, he realizes he may have a gold mine on his hands. Seems Elis dad created a special strain of corn through experiments, thus enhancing it's overall taste. Mr Porter decides to market this corn rather than destroy it. This pleases Eli, thus he who walks evil influence will now have a means of being spread throughout the world. (ironically enough this fits right into the phrase, money is the root of all evil which translates into greed being a sin, which is what these movies really represent, sinning, and the reprecussions of it). With his stepbrother Josh becoming more and more lost to him, Eli decides to put his ultimate plan into motion, when he slips a few cornseeds into a pot in the school kitchen. Now the schools children all will be under he who walks evil influence after they've eaten their lunches, laced with Elis corn seeds. A priest at the school, has horrific nightmares of things to come, and past murders commited by the Gatlin children, and Eli himself. With every passing day, the nightmares get worse and more vivid. Mrs Porter decides to cut down Elis crop herself, but Eli calls upon he who walks to thwart her attempt. Mrs Porter escapes, but dies in a freak accident afterwards, in a scene that even made me cringe. The kids at school have completely been transformed, and now follow Eli. The priest tells his staff hes worried about the sudden attitude change of the schools children, but the staff likes the attitude change, and are totally oblivious to the fact that it's not a good one. Eli and Joshes social worker comes across some disturbing newspaper clippings which detail the death of Elis biological parents. Eli however manages to kill her before she can spill the beans. But someone mails the info to the Porters, and Josh gets his hands on it. He informs Malcolm, and both go to the priest Frank for help. However, Eli has already disposed of him. With time running out, Malcolm and Josh head back to Gatlin to retrieve the source of Elis power, his satanic bible, which is buried in the cornfield. See before Eli left Gatlin, he left his bible, which is the source of his power, buried in the earth with he who walks, so that he may watch over it, and Josh figures that Elis like a worm, and his power comes from two places, but his bible is the ultimate source of it. Josh manages to retrieve the bible, and arrives back in Chicago. x Malcolm who is killed prior to that when corn vines rip his spine entirely from his body. With the priest out of the way, and Malcolms sister under his influence, Eli begins the harvest with his new followers. Josh arrives just in time to stop him. The two of them battle, (nice sfx in this scene with the flaming sickle which shoots fireballs), and Josh manages to kill Eli. Elis true form is revealed when he returns near the films climax as a large corn monster. He wastes most of his followers, before being brought down by Maria and Josh. The ending leaves it open for a sequel of course which turned out to be "Children of the corn 4:The Gathering". However, that film wound up having nothing to do with 3.
Pros-Daniel Cerny gave a great performance as Eli, perhaps the best performance of a corn kid out of all 7 of these movies. If you saw this kid on the street, you'd even believe he was actually evil, tis how good Cernys performance was. The kills were also solid, and very graphic which is what part 2 lacked. The score was very well done, and the dialogue was refreshing, and didn't over do it with the religious babble, but rather added a tinge of darkness and pure evil to the whole story. I also liked how this film added to the mythology of the "COTC" movies. It gave me a deeper view of the reasons why these kids kill. It also puts things in perspective, while there is alot of truth in the things that Cernys character Eli preaches, thats also why makes what he preaches is so dangerous.
Cons:The ending could've been done better, with the whole corn monster thing. Also, a few plotholes involving Eli and he who walks, which were minor, but still hampered the story a tad.
Overall:A great sequel, definitely one of the better ones in this series.