GENESIS IS THE CHILLING NEXT CHAPTER
Directed by Joel Soisson
Reviewed by Deep Red
Stars Tim Rock as Tim, Kelen Coleman as Allie, Billy Drago as Preacher, Barbara Nedeljakova as Helen/Oksana, Dusty Burwell as Child, Duane Whitaker as Pritchett, Kai Caster as Boy in Dress and Derek Jon Talsma as Boy with hatchet, J.J. Banicki as Young Cole and Diane Peterson as Cole’s Mother.
OK, Children of the Corn: Genesis aka Children of the Corn VIII is the ninth Children of the Corn film as there is also a TV movie remake, Children of the Corn (2009) aka Stephen King’s Children of the Corn. This one is the eighth film in the main series and like all the films from the fourth film, Children of the Corn: The Gathering (1996), onwards Genesis was released direct to video.
TIm and Allie’s car breaks down in the middle of nowhere so they walk to a farmhouse where Preacher and his Ukrainian wife, Helen, live. Only when Allie mentions she’s pregnant does he agree to let them use the phone. Anyway, they’re invited to stay the night in the spare room and promised a lift in the morning when a man called Pritchett comes by. Allie goes to the outhouse and then starts snooping around even though she was warned not to by Preacher. She finds a strange church set-up in the garage and then hears a child crying in a storage shed. She’s almost caught by Preacher who goes into the garage and starts saying strange things so she hurries back and tells Tim what happened.
That’s when things start getting really interesting and Tim and Allie soon find themselves trapped in the farmhouse by a supernatural force.
Not a bad film at all really. I liked the cast and the story, though dialogue-driven for the most part, was interesting. Kept me watching. The story’s pretty good actually. There’s very little in terms of special effects but there’s a few cool moments especially the finale and the very last scene, into the credits, is a peach.
I like these films. They’re like the franchise that never gets mentioned or something. Some people might say “with good reason” but I think they’re great. They’ve been around since the days of the video shop, 1984 to be precise, so this one came out 27 years after the original, wow! I’m sure this one won’t be the last either, maybe another remake is in the offing, that’d be interesting.
Children of the Corn: Genesis is unlikely to get very favourable reviews, I wouldn’t expect it to, and all I can really say is I really enjoyed it. It’s just a direct to video sequel at the end of the day, you’ll either like it or you won’t. I did.