Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996)

Plot Outline: A young woman returns to her hometown to look after her mother who is seemingly going crazy. When she gets there, the children in the town all become feverish and have convulsions. After a horrific night, the children change. They rename themselves and start viciously killing off adults who get in their path. It seems as though a young preacher who was murdered by the townspeople years earlier has returned from the grave to extract his revenge!

The Review: "Based on a short story by Stephen King" so proclaims the title credits - a short story that was what it said - short! So how can you churn out four films (up until this one anyway, there's been more since) on a short story which wasn't very good in the first place? Someone needs to explain that to me because I just don't see how this film came to be. It's got even less to do with the short story and the previous three films. Gone is "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" and the children's devotion to corn. In fact the only link I can see is that some deaths happen courtesy of a very nasty corn scythe. Now the children are following some ghostly child preacher who has no relevance to corn whatsoever. It's just a film about kids killing adults so someone obviously thought it would be a good idea to throw the Children of the Corn title in there to sell a few more videos. The film plods along predictably and just about everything is so by-the-book you'll know what is coming a mile away. There is some decent gore however, including a body being completely severed and a head being lopped off. I can't escape this review without mentioning the certain aspect of the film's main star: a young Naomi Watts. Looking very cute (why didn't chicks that hot grow up with me) and showing off her natural acting talents, she's probably the only good reason to see this film. I bet she's crossed it off her resume since however!

Final Verdict: Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering is a bad sequel to a bad sequel to a bad sequel to a mediocre film. The only thing you'll gather from this film is boredom. And plenty of it.

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