Horror Movies

It's rather rare that I sit and watch horror films by myself. A great many I do not care for, especially the more recent slate. But the occasions that I do watch horror films, I'm usually in favor of the protagonists, 20 minutes with jerks tropes not withstanding. There are a few notable exceptions to this, but it holds true for the most part.

However, I just watched the original 1984 Children of the Corn. While I've probably seen the film before (as I'm a big Stephen King fan and at one time sought to watch all of his films), I have no real recollection of it, so it was as if I was watching for the first time (if it was not indeed the first time in earnest). Now, I had sympathy for Job, Sara, and Joseph. Young children, forced to witness and be accessory in the murders of all the adults in town. I didn't really have much sympathy or interest in Burt or Vicky from the beginning, and as the film went on, I grew to dislike Vicky for her lack of anything resembling competence or character relatability. It seemed she served only to assert they take the exact opposite course of action that Burt wished to take in a given situation. Burt, at least, seemed some what relatable as he behaved like a person thrust into this situation would (at least until the part he started beating up children for no reason. Yes, yes, they were members of a murderous cult, but really, he didn't know that they were trying to murder him when he started with that.)
But honestly, the character I found most sympathetic was Isaac. Religious fanaticism not withstanding, he was strong leader, who knew for a fact that his deity not only existed, but wanted specific things. Malachai, on the other hand, struck me as nothing but a jealous, bloodthirsty brute more interested in killing than actually appeasing He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Isaac had a soft spot for Job and Sara, allowing them to break the rules with little consequence, a fact that irked Malachai to no end. Malachai's ultimate betrayal of Isaac, and taking Vicky away from the ritual clearing to try to lure Burt out seemed like the reason that He Who Walks Behind the Rows came with intent to destroy the cult, in my opinion. Burt's speech about religions failing made him somewhat likeable, but really by that point I had lost interest, and just wanted Isaac to kill everybody, because he was right all along. I was passably okay with the ending, except the whole leaving all the rest of the children to their fate and only taking Job and Sara with them thing.

But that's not really the film I wanted to talk about. I also watched the second film in the series, the 1991 Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice. From the opening of the film, I absolutely hated the protagonists. Even more than just not really caring about them, I actively loathed them. Especially Garrett. I could not stand anything about him. The film did nothing to improve my opinion of him, from his lack of regard for other people's feelings and opinions in pursuit of his story, his complete disregard of his son's feelings and opinions for his entire life, not to mention his sudden and inexplicable urge to tell him what to do, to his complaint about his $135 shoes getting ruined by wading through a creek, I never grew to like him, or even respect him as a journalist, a father, or a human being in an unreasonable situation. Danny, I felt a bit more sympathy for, but ultimately, he was kind of bland, achieving something resembling character growth only after being asked to sacrifice the girl he liked, and even then, he went from having a modicum of depth in his relationship with his father to wanting to patch things up because..... why? Nothing about the lead female characters was at all interesting or worth mentioning, as they served only as love interests for their male counterparts. It was so utterly boring, I skipped most of the scenes of them interacting with one another. Frank Red Bear was almost an interesting character, until it became clear his only role was fulfilling the Mystical Native American role. Even having a line saying "Sometimes, what you've learned and what you know contradict each other." Sigh.

However, this film totally re-affirmed my sympathy and support of He Who Walks Behind the Rows and his chosen prophet, Micah. With the snazzy Native American origin story given to He Who Walks Behind the Rows (a tribe of farmers grew lazy and complacent, exploiting the animals of the land and neglecting the farms and plants, causing the children to ultimately rebel and kill them, creating the vengeful spirit), and Micah's sympathetic story (he, along with all the other surviving Gatlin children were shipped off to the next town over, where the populous pretended to accept them, but really just wanted access to their corn crop, so they could sell it and make a huge profit), made me really, really want Danny to join them in earnest and have the rest of the town perish. The ending was super disappointing as well. Garret and Frank straight up murder a couple teenagers, and Danny isn't able to go through with killing the girl he likes. Frank, though fatally wounded, runs over Micah with a combine, and as he's getting sucked in, he begs Danny for help. Meanwhile, Garrett yells at him to run away with the women folk as he retrieves Frank's body. And then, the four survivors leave, Danny and Garrett have put their harsh words and lifetime of resentment behind them and.... that's it. What kind of an ending is that? Not only is Garrett a murderer (he caught a spear thrown at him, and then threw it back, impaling the poor child who threw it in the first place), but somehow, because he showed up and helped fight off the cult, he and Danny have resolved their issues somehow? And the women are totally swooning over their manliness because spending a few days with a boy and a jackass and having them not kill you and help not kill you is the quickest way to a woman's heart, right? Wow. I understand why of all the films, this one was so poorly received.