MovieChat Forums > Children of the Corn (1984) Discussion > One Improvement the Movie Makes Over the...

One Improvement the Movie Makes Over the Short Story


While this is only a mediocre thriller at best, it visits one of Stephen King's favorite plot points (religious fanatics, in this case all children) and gives it a good, scary treatment.

In point of fact, there is one aspect in which this film is much superior to King's short story. Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) are a young couple in love; in King's version, they were a married couple attempting to stop their marriage from falling apart, and failing dismally. In fact, as King first envisioned them, Burt and Vicky were so unbearably irritating that by the time they encountered the fanatical children I was all for the kids burning them both alive at the stake.

There's a rule in these things that is almost unbreakable: if you are going to have protagonists that will be victimized, and you want the audience to feel for them, you'd better make them likable. Make them annoying and no one will give a damn what happens to them.





Oh God. There's nothing more inconvenient than an old queen with a head cold!

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I LITERALLY had the thought "they really knew how to make the leads likeable back in the day" while watching this after spending *enough time* with Burt and Vicky (something that movies these days miss the memo on so often) and feeling they were really good people.

I totally agree and it in fact did make me care what happens to them all that much more.

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Spoilers

Which makes their suvival all the more sweet.

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Yeah, King has a knack for writing completely unlikeable characters, not exactly a bad thing but it becomes a bit redundant after a while.

All I remember about the short story is Burt hiding from the kids and saying "thank god I quit smoking" over and over.

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Typical King. Every other sentence is...

‘Burt poked another Chesterfield into the corner of his mouth’

‘Isaac poked another Chesterfield into the corner of his mouth’

etc

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