Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.0

Children of the Corn 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 28, 2021

Note: Both the US and UK branches of Arrow Video are giving fans a bit of an early Halloween treat (though US consumers may feel it's also a bit of a trick when they see what the UK folks are getting) with the release on this side of the pond of Children of the Corn in 4K UHD and with those in Merrie Olde England and environs getting the Children of the Corn Trilogy. As has been Arrow's (frankly kind of perplexing) strategy, this new 4K UHD disc does not come with a 1080 Blu-ray. However, this review will repeat relevant portions of my Children of the Corn Blu-ray review of Arrow's 1080 release from several years ago.

How does Stephen King come up with his often singular concepts? Who knows where inspiration really comes from, but in the case of Children of the Corn, King’s 1977 short story which perhaps unexpectedly gave rise to a whole film franchise, I’d like to point to a possible antecedent, one which is not exactly identical to King’s premise but which bears enough similarities to engender a certain curiosity, especially in light of a certain linkage which I'll disclose in a moment. Thomas Tryon was an up and coming actor in the fifties and sixties (The Cardinal) who kind of surprisingly gave up his performing career to become a novelist, scoring pretty spectacularly with his first effort, The Other. Tryon’s follow up came along in 1973, two years after The Other’s literary debut in 1971, and while it isn’t as well remembered today, it was a substantial bestseller at the time and led to a made for television movie featuring Bette Davis. Harvest Home posited a family moving into an isolated and somewhat atavistic community in Connecticut where certain shall we say pagan rituals turned out to still be practiced. But here’s an interesting piece of trivia I uncovered while researching background for this review: none other than a certain Stephen King offered some passing thoughts on Harvest Home in a “guest word” article for The New York Times that appeared in 1976 (you can read King’s piece here). While King’s article is really about the disparate amounts of money certain authors make for their work, his comments on Harvest Home are interesting in that he felt an editor could have pruned Tryon’s book of some of its “deadwood”, which turns out to be a kind of ironic statement since the cinematic adaptation of Children of the Corn attempts to pad what was a minimalist and not very lengthy source. Much like Harvest Home, Children of the Corn posits interlopers wandering into a rural environment where the “old ways” still hold sway, though King ups the ante in a certain way by relegating the ancient rites to practitioners who are all under a certain age (Tryon’s take on things involved the entire village, regardless of how old anyone was), as well as including a supernatural element that really isn't part of Tryon's formulation. (The whole murderous children under the sway of a supernatural entity angle may remind some other viewers of a certain Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 3 episode.)

Children of the Corn has had several previous releases on Blu-ray in addition to the Arrow release, and I’m assuming that most coming to this review are going to be more interested in a comparison of video and audio quality, as well as an accounting of supplementary material, than they will be in another rehash of the film’s by now well known plot dynamics. For those of you who do want a summary of the film’s story, either of my colleague Martin Liebman’s reviews of the previous versions will suffice quite handily (and both reviews will provide opportunities for screenshot comparisons as well):

Children of the Corn Blu-ray review

Children of the Corn Blu-ray review .

Children of the Corn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from Arrow's previous 1080 release of the film. As has been Arrow's custom with their 4K UHD releases, there is no 1080 disc of the film included with this release.

Children of the Corn is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Arrow Video with a 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. The insert booklet contains the following verbiage, which varies just slightly from the verbiage included in the booklet that came with the 1080 disc:

Children of the Corn is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with 5.1 and 2.0 stereo sound and was exclusively restored by Arrow Films for this release.

The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution at EFilm/Company 3, Burbank. The film was restored at R3store Studios, London. The film was graded in HDR/Dolby Vision at Silver Salt Restoration, London.

The original English language 4 track stereo mix was transferred from the original Dolby mag reels and was remastered to 5.1 by Lakeshore at Deluxe Audio Services, Burbank.

How you feel about this 4K UHD version of Children of the Corn will probably depend largely on how you feel about extremely thick, omnipresent grain, because this presentation can put even some of what I called the "swampy" looking grain in my Django 4K + Texas, Adios BD Blu-ray review to the test. Like that film, this one opens with some optically zoomed material that offers an almost impenetrable grain field, and that tendency can ebb and flow throughout the rest of the presentation. As I overtly mention in our Children of the Corn Blu-ray review of the 1080 version, grain in that release can be positively chunky at times, and the increased resolution of this release probably only ups the ante in that regard. The result is that this version kind of ironically looks almost more like 16mm at times than the previously released 1080 version. There's little doubt that this is probably going to bother some people since it unavoidably noticeable, but on the plus side this version also at least marginally improves saturation and in certain selected shots noticeably improves detail levels (the most brightly lit outdoor moments probably understandably benefitting the most). The color timing looked just a bit different to me from Arrow's 1080 version, and little things like the slightly ruddier flesh tones in the opening cafeteria scene are at least a bit varied from the 1080 release. There are still some noticeably rough patches here (something I also addressed in our 1080 review), notably some of the scenes late in the film in the supposedly abandoned house.

Children of the Corn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Children of the Corn features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 mix. While the surround track is not the most consistently immersive offering imaginable (as Marty discussed in his reviews), there is good surround placement of Jonathan Elias' score, as well as some of the ambient environmental sounds out in the cornfield. The over the top finale also offers some good and relatively robust low end activity. Dialogue tends to be anchored front and center in the 5.1 mix, but is always rendered cleanly and is routinely well prioritized. I found the low end a bit more pleasing on this release than Marty evidently did with the previous releases, and I also heard no distortion in the low end.

Children of the Corn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow also continues its developing tradition of porting over supplements from their previous 1080 release of any given title, though some of the label's previous 4K UHD upgrades have also included a new supplement or two, which this release evidently doesn't, despite the back cover kind of oddly proclaiming that Return to Gatlin, part of the 1080 release years ago, is a "brand new featurette". The ported over supplements include (titles marked with an asterisk * were newly produced for Arrow's 1080 release):

• Audio Commentary with director Fritz Kiersch, producer Terrence Kirby and actors John Franklin and Courtney Gains


• Audio Commentary with horror journalist Justin Beahm and Children of the Corn historian John Sullivan*


• Harvesting Horror (1080p; 36:15) is a retrospective produced by Anchor Bay featuring some good interviews with cast and crew.


• It Was the Eighties! (1080p; 14:07) is another Anchor Bay produced featurette, offering an engaging interview with Linda Hamilton, who seems to waffle between "hey, it was a job" and "how did I get myself into this one?"


• . . .And a Child Shall Lead Them* (1080p; 50:52) features interviews with Julie Maddalena and John Philbin.


• Field of Nightmares* (1080p; 17:19) is an interview with writer George Goldsmith.


• Stephen King on a Shoestring (1080p; 11:18) is an interview with producer Donald P. Borchers.


• Welcome to Gatlin (1080p; 15:29) offers interviews with production designer Craig Stearns and composer Jonathan Elias.


• Return to Gatlin* (1080i; 16:29) features John Sullivan hosting a tour of filming locations.


• Cut from the Cornfield* (1080i; 5:30) offers actor Rich Kleinberg supposedly talking about an "infamous" lost scene, though the conversation is quite a bit wider than that.


• Storyboard Gallery (1080p; 5:31)


• Trailer (1080p; 1:28)


• Disciples of the Crow* (1080p; 18:56) is the first (short) film adaptation of the King story, predating this film by one year.

Note: Playing times can differ just a second or two between the original versions on the 1080 disc (listed above) and this disc. I noticed no difference in actual content.

Children of the Corn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm actually quite fond of Children of the Corn, despite its hyperbolic tendencies. I've always been fascinated by the performances of John Franklin and Courtney Gains, even if they, too, tip into hyperbolism more than a time or two, and there's a palpably creepy mood once Burt and Vicky wander into the supposedly friendliest little town in Nebraska. Those who don't mind what is at times an extremely heavy grain field will probably appreciate this version's concurrent uptick in saturation and detail levels. Those who do mind an increased looking grain field should probably stick with the (already pretty grainy looking) 1080 version. As usual, Arrow provides a great collection of supplementary material for those who are considering making a purchase.