Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992)

User Rating:

3.6/10   

Director:

David Price

Writers:

Stephen King (short story "Children of the Corn")
A L Katz (written by) ...

Release Date:

29 January 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

These children are home alone ,too. But their parents won't be coming back.

Plot:

Belated sequel to the '84 film. 8 years after the first, authorities discover the mutilated bodies of adults in the secluded town of Gatlin...

Plot Keywords:

Children | Corn | Sequel | Church | Cult

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Terence Knox	...	John Garrett
Paul Scherrer	...	Danny Garrett
Ryan Bollman	...	Micah
Christie Clark	...	Lacey Hellerstat
Rosalind Allen	...	Angela Casual
Ned Romero	...	Frank Redbear
Ed Grady	...	Dr. Richard Appleby
John Bennes	...	Rev. Hollings
Wallace Merck	...	Sheriff Blaine
Joe Inscoe	...	David Simpson
Kellie Bennett	...	Mary Simpson (as Kelly Bennett)
Robert C. Treveiler	...	Wayde McKenzie (as Rob Treveiler)
Leon Pridgen	...	Bobby Knite
Marty Terry	...	Mrs. Burke / Mrs. West
Ted Travelstead	...	Mordechai

Also Known As:

Children of the Corn II (USA) (working title)
Children of the Corn: Deadly Harvest (USA)

MPAA:

Rated R for horror violence and gore, and for language.

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (FotoKem)

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Finland:K-16 (uncut) (2000) | Australia:M | Germany:18 | UK:18 | USA:R (certificate #31607) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1993) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Liberty, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Corn Cobb Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: When the old woman in the wheelchair is hit by the truck she flies through the window of the bingo parlor, even though it's perpendicular to the angle of the impact.

Quotes:

[first lines]
David Simpson: God... the smell!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995) (V)

Cheese with some good wine

"Children of the Corn II" is a decent enough sequel if only for a few mild flaws.

**SPOILERS**

Arriving in Gatlin, Nebraska, news-reporter John Garrett, (Terence Knox) and his son Danny, (Paul Scherrer) get wind of a story about the youth in the town murdering their parents. Settling in with Bed-and-Breakfast owner Angela Casual, (Rosalind Allen) they soon meet with her adopted resident Micah, (Ryan Bollman) a survivor of the tragedy. When he finds out about the kids still being in the town, he is warned away from Lacey, (Christie Clark) a local girl who doesn't appear to have any connections with them. As a series of brutal murders occur, all signs point to the cult of children in town, who are revealed to be worshipers of the corn-stalks around town. When the children reveal their plans to the town, they try to stop them before they carry it out.

The Good News: This isn't terrible, and did have some good moments to it. One thing it does do right is play around with the supernatural better than expected. The very first attack in the cornfield is really fun, as is the different meetings held among the corn-stalks. There's even a few other really good scenes that come from the supernatural plays, and this one becomes all the better. There's also some rather great moments that come from the film. The cornfield attack is one of it's best scenes, since it involves a great amount of suspense with the approaching storm, a couple of really good action moments and a few really great deaths packed in. There's a really tense moment later on where a couple make a particularly gruesome discovery among the corn that provides a good shock that comes out of nowhere. That all of the film's deaths come off as quite good is something to applaud, and the moments provide some fun at certain points. The scene in the Church is great, as is the wheelchair death, and it's nearly impossible not to be entertained where the house comes into play. Even better than that is where the remaining adults are trapped inside a burning building, which is one of the better scenes in the film. The last big plus is the finale, which is just all sorts of good cheesy action-packed fun, some wonderful ideas and an overall really great way to end the film. All-in-all, this is just cheesy good fun.

The Bad News: This one wasn't that bad, but there were a few problems. The most obvious one is the flaw concerning the back-story. It's implied to be a continuation of the first one, where the survivors are bused into foster homes of a neighboring town, yet that raises a few problems. Firstly, it's never stated whether or not this was true, despite giving plenty of evidence that this was the case. The events of what happened there were well-known, yet the children here are allowed to go away without being questioned, as well as having a method of still getting in touch with each other quite easily. Those doesn't make any sense at all and are quite annoying. The pacing is a little off, as the romance angles cut into the middle of the film when the mysterious stuff starts happening, and way too much times goes by before anyone thinks anything is going wrong. The biggest one, though, is that it's way too cheesy. The film's concept and several of it's big action scenes do reek of cheese, and the film as a whole does reflect this. These really keep the film down somewhat.

The Final Verdict: While not a completely worthless sequel, it does have enough to make it interesting without being all that terrible. This is really more for fans of the series, who will find the most out of this one, while the others are pretty much left to take this on their own, even though it's better than expected.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and mild sex scenes