If you don‘t want your kid to kill you, then don’t name it a name from the Bible. The farmer from the beginning of Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest didn’t know about this simple rule, and he paid for it with his life when his son Eli killed him, while his other son, Joshua, watched. Of course, you shouldn’t live in Nebraska either. There be the kids who believe in He who walks behind the rows.
Joshua and Eli are adopted and move to the city, where Joshua thrives while Eli looks bitterly at everything. Eli turns to farming corn in an abandoned lot and his corn is magical. Not just because it grows fast in bad soil, it’s magic corn. He who walks behind the rows has upgraded his power from being a mere evil presence from afar to spontaneous corn growth.
Also, eating the corn makes children into cult members… I think?
The third Children of the Corn flick has more flair than the previous entries. The direction, camerawork and editing actually have a personality, with some extreme closeups, split focus shots and quick cuts, which is refreshing after the banality of the first two. It’s much more over the top and absurd, both in story and inventive death scenes.
There is actual gore here, and at one point, it reaches John Carpenter levels as the corn mimics the alien being from The Thing (1982). This is due to the special effects being done by Screaming Mad George, the man behind the creature effects in films like Society (1989) and Freaked (1993).
Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest is not a great film, but its serious tone, with is The Omen (1976) type operatic choir-of-the-devil soundtrack, combined with lackluster acting from everybody and its ludicrous plot points (a statue of Virgin Mary kills a priest) make it an entertaining straight-to-video horror.
