Children of the Corn

"Children of the Corn"
Author Stephen King
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Horror short story
Published in Night Shift
Media type Print (hardcover)
Publication date 1977 (magazine)
1978 (collection)

"Children of the Corn" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the March 1977 issue of Penthouse, and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.[1] The story involves a couple's exploration of a strange town and their encounters with its denizens after their vacation is sidelined by a car accident. Several films have been adapted from the short story and it spawned a horror franchise beginning in 1984.

Plot

In one final, desperate attempt to save their marriage, Burt and Vicky, a bickering couple, are driving to California for vacation. As they drive through rural Nebraska, they accidentally run over a young boy who ran onto the road. Upon examination of the body, Burt discovers the boy's throat had been slit and he was bleeding to death before he was hit. After opening the boy's suitcase, they find a strange-looking crucifix made of twisted corn husks. Knowing they will have to report this to the authorities, they place the body in their car's trunk. After arguing over where to take the body, Burt decides to go to Gatlin, a small, isolated community which is right down the road. Vicky wants to take the body to Grand Island (which is 70 miles away), but Burt argues that it would not be a good idea to take the body so far away.

When they finally arrive in Gatlin, it appears to be a ghost town. As they explore the town and visit a gas station and an empty lunchroom, the couple notice that many things about the town are out-of-date, such as gas prices and calendar dates. Vicky starts to get a bad feeling about the town and wants to leave, but Burt insists that they keep going until they find the police station. When they finally reach the center of town, they find no one there either.

Burt then sees a church with a recent date on the sign out front. In stark contrast with the rest of Gatlin—which has been neglected for years—the church is reverently cared for. After telling Vicky he's going to have a look inside, they get into another argument. After Vicky threatens to drive off and leave him stranded in Gatlin, Burt grabs her purse, and takes out her car keys. Vicky, on the verge of hysteria, begs him to leave Gatlin and find another place to call the police. He ignores her and walks away.

Inside, Burt finds that someone has torn the lettering off the walls and created a strange mosaic of Jesus behind the altar, as well as ripping out the keys and stops of the pipe organ and stuffing its pipes full of corn husks. At the altar, Burt finds a King James Bible (with several pages from the New Testament cut out), and a ledger where names have been recorded, along with birth and death dates. While reading the ledger, he notices that twelve years ago all names were changed from modern to Biblical ones, and that everyone listed as deceased died on their 19th birthday. Burt comes to the horrifying realization that twelve years ago the children of Gatlin killed the town's adults and that members of their community are sacrificed on their 19th birthday.

After hearing Vicky sound the car's horn, Burt runs from the church to find that a gang of children dressed in Amish-style clothing and armed with farm tools have surrounded the car. Vicky tries to fight back, but the children drag her out of the car and slash holes in all of the tires. Burt tries to intervene, but one of the children (a teenaged boy with red hair) throws a kitchen knife at him, stabbing Burt in the arm. The teenager then attempts to claw Burt's eyes, but he pulls the knife out of his arm and stabs the teenager in the throat, killing him. The children step back in shock. Burt then realizes that Vicky is gone. When he asks where she is, one of the children holds up a knife and makes a slashing motion.

Burt then is chased into an alley. Managing to outrun them, Burt ducks into the corn field and hides while his attackers search for him. He notices several odd things: there are no animals or weeds anywhere in the cornfield, and that every stalk of corn is free of any blemishes. As the sun begins to go down, Burt becomes lost and wanders around until he stumbles onto a circle of empty ground in the middle of the cornfield. There he discovers Vicky's dead body. She has been tied to a cross with barbed wire, with her eyes ripped out, and her mouth stuffed with corn husks. Gatlin's previous minister and police chief, who are now skeletons, have also been crucified. As Burt starts to flee, he notices that every row in the cornfield has closed up, preventing him from escaping. Burt soon realizes that something is coming for him. Before he can do anything, he is killed by a giant red-eyed monster that comes out of the cornfield. Shortly thereafter, a harvest moon appears in the sky.

The next morning, the children of Gatlin (all members of a cult that worships "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", a wrathful deity that inhabits the cornfields that surround the town) meet where Burt and Vicky were slain. Isaac, their leader, tells them that He Who Walks Behind the Rows is displeased with their failure to kill Burt, an act that the deity was forced to commit on its own, as it did with the former minister and police chief. As punishment for their failure He Who Walks Behind the Rows commands that the age limit be lowered to eighteen years old.

As night falls, Malachi (the killer of the boy that Burt and Vicky ran over) and all of the other eighteen-year-olds walk into the cornfield to sacrifice themselves to He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Malachi's pregnant girlfriend, Ruth, waves goodbye to him and begins to weep. It is revealed that she has a secret hatred for He Who Walks Behind the Rows and dreams of setting the cornfield on fire, but is afraid to actually do so because He Who Walks Behind the Rows can see everything, including the motives inside human hearts. The story ends with the simple statement that the corn surrounding Gatlin is pleased.

Connections to other books

Similar themes are found in David Pinner's Ritual (1967) and Tom Tryon's 1973 novel Harvest Home. Gatlin was mentioned in It. Hemingford Home, a neighboring town to Gatlin, was also the town where Mother Abagail lived and rounded up the good survivors of the super flu in The Stand, and was also the location of "The Last Rung on the Ladder" and "1922". Also in The Stand, "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" is implied to be Randall Flagg.[2]

Film, TV and theatrical adaptations

The story was first adapted into a 1983 short film, Disciples of the Crow.[3]

A year later, the story was adapted into a larger-budget film re-adopting the original name, Children of the Corn, starring Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton. Several sequels and quasi-remakes followed.

In September 2009, the Syfy channel premiered a television film version which is based on King's short story.[4]

Short film

Film series

Television film

Cultural references

In the hit television show, Psych, Shawn referred to a cult community as straight out of children of the corn. The song "Disciples of the Watch" on the band Testament's 1988 album The New Order is inspired by the story. A key lyric in the song includes the line "Listen up children and follow me, or I'll let you pay the price of Malachi". In a later episode, Gus remarks how another character maybe recognized from Children of the Corn, to which the character claps back with how Gus looks like Bud from The Cosby Show.

The name of the 1990s hip-hop group Children of the Corn was a short for "Children of the Corner" as well as a reference to the story.

The title of the track "Children of the Korn" on the band Korn's album Follow the Leader mocks both the 1990s hip-hop group and the story's title.

FIRST Robotics Competition Team 167, established in 1997, is nicknamed "Children of the Corn".

The first of three segments of the Recess Halloween special "The Terrifying Tales of Recess" is titled "Children of the Cornchip", though there are no plot similarities.

The characters from the story are referenced in Eminem's song "Bagpipes from Baghdad" in his sixth studio album Relapse (2009).

In Episode 1 of Robot Chicken's Season 6 (entitled "Executed by the State"), one clip called "Children of the Popcorn"[5] has Orville Redenbacher (the eponymous spokesperson for the popcorn company) and his adult son stop near a field of corn, from which Children of the Corn emerge. When their child leader Cyrus ties the two up, he reveals that they will be sacrificed to "The Thing that Dwells among the Stalks".

In the Family Guy episode "Chitty Chitty Death Bang", Peter has a flashback in which the Hanson bus breaks down in front of his house. While Meg is starstruck, he misidentifies them as the Children of the Corn and opens fire on them with a shotgun.

The story was parodied in "The Wacky Molestation Adventure", a South Park episode with a similar plot.

The 2006 film The Benchwarmers references the film in a line of dialogue between a local youth (Matt Weinberg) and Ritchie (David Spade). (Kyle: Leave our field or you'll pay the consequences! Ritchie: What is this, "Children of the Corn"?)

The Dresden Files features a demon named He Who Walks Behind which serves as a powerful behind the scenes antagonist that the series protagonist, Harry Dresden, once defeated more by luck than judgement. Considering the series' propensity for pop culture references, particularly within the narration, it is almost certainly intentional.

In the Torchwood novel "First Born" by James Goss, Gwen Cooper and Rhys Williams go into hiding in a village called Rawbone, which is filled with a handful of unnervingly polite, well-behaved children - later revealed to be an alien race called the Scions. When one of them, Jenny Meredith, takes a shine to their newborn daughter Anwen, Rhys offhandedly remarks to Gwen that they've "got one of the Children of the Corn as a babysitter".

The titular character of the 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph refers to Vanellope von Schweetz as one of King Candy's "Children of the Candy Corn".

The song "M.A.A.D City" by Kendrick Lamar, has a line in which he compares the Children of the Corn to the kids that live in violent neighborhoods such as those in Compton, California.

See also

References

  1. ↑ King, S. (2008). Night Shift. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 9780385528849. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
  2. ↑ "These Stephen King Connections Will Blow Your Mind". buzzfeed.com. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
  3. ↑ "Disciples of the Crow (1983) - IMDb". imdb.com. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
  4. ↑ "Children of the Corn (TV Movie 2009) - IMDb". imdb.com. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
  5. ↑ http://www.adultswim.com/videos/robot-chicken/children-of-the-popcorn/

External links

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