Children of the Corn: Genesis (Joel Soisson, 2011, USA)

For the ninth entry in the Children of the Corn franchise, Children of the Corn: Genesis starts promisingly enough. A soldier returns home from Vietnam and finds his mother dead on the floor. The soldier draws his weapon, and a child appears out of a bag and runs away from him. The soldier encounters another body. A confrontation with the child leads the soldier to have flashbacks to Vietnam. His suicide by gunshot is thwarted when he is struck by a crucifix and falls out a window. This is one of the better set pieces in the whole franchise, but unfortunately, the rest of the film doesn't live up to it.

The rest of the film feels like a spec script (most likely inspired by Warren Jeffs) that was turned into a Children of the Corn film by Dimension. There is very little corn and virtually no children in the film. Instead, we get a couple, like Burt and Vicky in the original film, who breaks down in the California desert and take refuge in the home of a religious wacko and his Russian mail-order bride. The wacko is played by veteran villainous character actor Billy Drago, while his wife is played by Slovakian actress Barbara Nedeljakova (Hostel). 

The film starts decently but quickly comes messy and confusing, culminating in even more absurdity. There is an ending scene that uses very obvious stock footage, making the film feel even cheaper than it is. There is an entire psychokinetic aspect of the story, and Drago begins pitting the couple against each other psychologically. The couple (Tim Rock and Kellen Coleman) are probably some of the more likable characters in the entire Corn franchise, but that's not saying much. Overall, Genesis is one of the lesser entries in the Corn franchise.

 

4/10