Burt and Vicky are driving through nowhere Nebraska on the way to their new town when apparant tragedy strikes. Burt, taking his eyes off the road for a split second runs over a young boy standing in the middle of the road. Realizing that the boy was already dead before he was run over, Burt and Vicky quickly leave to find some help. Ending up in Gatlin, a small, seemingly deserted farming town, they soon realize they should have kept going.

This movie is based on a short story written by Steven King. It was my first exposure to a movie made out of one of his books. It definately left an impression.. Out of all the books converted, I can only think of The Stand as being a better movie. With a simplistic {in a good way} storyline, and low budget effects, it is far superior to garbage like IT, The Tommyknockers, and worst of all The Langoliers.

Unfortunately for Burt and Vicky, instead of finding a nice deserted town, they find an entire cult of children eager to harvest their blood for the children's corn god. The leader of the cult, Issac, sends his enforcer Malachai, and the other children after Burt and Vicky. With Vicky soon captured, Burt must find a way to get her out alive, and stop the corn god from consuming them both.

Considering that this story was only 30 pages long, I think the screenplay writer did a remarkable job. The children did not rise up against their parents until near the very end of the story. He had to fill in all the gaps on his own, and did it well. Most of King's stories have 10 times more to work with, and are butchered.

If you are looking for gratuities of any kind, this is the wrong film. There is no nudity, not alot of blood and very few kills are actually shown. Most of the kills are very suggestive, much like the original Psycho shower scene. While I love blood and gore as much as anyone, this did not put me off at all. The movie gets moved along at a nice pace, taking time to let Burt and Vicky try to figure it out for themselves, instead of just being attacked straight off. It lets the suspense build nicely. It's nice to see some actual suspense in a movie, instead of going right to the gore. I think that is why I like it just as much now as the first time I saw it. And other movies from around the same time have fallen from my very fair graces...

8 out of 10 hands in the meat grinder.

I just rewatched this film for the first time in years. I have concluded that not only did I enjoy this in the 80's but I enjoyed it more now. This is definitely one of Stephen King's better book to film translations and overall a bit underrated.

The story's creepy enough, evil cult kids kill off town adults led by David-Koresh-in-training Issac. The question here is are the kids crazy or is the evil they worship real.

Malachi is the showstealer here. He is very frightening and creepy as the lead butcher. Overall though, most of these kids did a good job in their roles.

The last 20 minutes are what truly make this film. I wont give anything away but it involves a whole lot of other surprising twists. I only wish it went on a little more. Oh, and dont forget to look for the scene that clearly influenced Tremors (you'll know it when you see it.)

The horror in this movie comes on many levels and I enjoyed it very much. Its a timeless movie that deserves for any horror fan to take a look (or a second look). Trust me, if you havent seen it you will not be dissapointed. Solid original story, well casted, nicely paced, and yes scary.

6.5 out of 10 cornstalk covered towns