There have been a number of horror franchises which created umpteen sequels, normally with diminishing returns, and this adaptation of a Stephen King short story is as guilty as any. So I thought it was time to have another look to see how the original film holds up today, and you know what, it wasn't half bad. In fact it was more than half good. The first three-quarters or so which found young couple Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton (just before her "Terminator" breakthrough) stranded in a deserted town where, it turns out the youngsters, who have been following a young "messiah", have killed off all the adults and worship the surrounding endless cornfields, is actually quietly frightening. It is part of their religion that the members of this new community must sacrifice themselves to He Who Walks Behind the Corn (or somesuch) on their l9th birthday. No pesky adults here, thank you very much, as Horton and Hamilton are pursued.
In fact the two leaders of the cult, the spokesman and his murderous henchman, were suitably scary for much of the film. However, the movie falls apart in the final quarter when an unnecessary monster is introduced and needs to be destroyed. Frankly the children blindly following this perverted religion were monstrous enough. This first film from director Fritz Kiersch, who hasn't made much of interest since, actually maximises its obviously miniscule budget and does in fact deserve the cult following it achieved on video.
1 comment:
I totally agree. Most of the film wasn't bad, but the ending let it down. I have never seen any of the sequels.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/acoward15/andy-the-bastard
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