1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,464 Not blaspheme, Malachi. You know not the laws. He speaks them only to me. I think not, Isaac. You are the one who's lost favor with him. He's the god of blood and sacrifice, not ceremony. 2 00:00:12,464 --> 00:00:27,216 Zachary, down on your knees, heretic. Shut your mouth, Isaac, so you've grown prideful apart from us. He who walks behind the rose will decide your fate. Don't just sit there. Seize him. 3 00:00:27,216 --> 00:00:40,287 Punish him, cut him down, I command you. I am the word and the giver of his laws. Disobedience to me is disobedience to him. Do it now or your punishment shall be a thousand times, a thousand deaths, each more horrible than the last. 4 00:00:40,287 --> 00:00:52,752 they are tired of your talk isaac i've shown them what i can do cut the woman down put isaac in her place praise the lord for bringing us this generous penalty 5 00:00:53,551 --> 00:01:08,432 Just give me all the bacon and eggs you have. Wait, wait. I worry what you just heard was, give me a lot of bacon and eggs. What I said was, give me all the bacon and eggs you have. 6 00:02:02,319 --> 00:02:15,599 Hello folks, welcome back to the CB Podcast. It's been a long time since I did one of these personal problems, health problems, computer taking a shit problems, these things all... 7 00:02:15,632 --> 00:02:28,096 all contribute to the minutia of podcasting. You know, all these things. Eat your head right, your body right, and your computer right to say, hey, I'm going to do a show. But hey... 8 00:02:28,096 --> 00:02:40,288 Mostly fixed now. My head is here. It's here with you guys. And I'm ready to have fun again watching films. And I'll start with this series right here. 9 00:02:40,288 --> 00:02:52,448 which I may have guessed for. I don't know. Co-host may be here for a couple of these. I don't know. We'll see. Because the last time I tried to do this, I made them watch the Hellraiser series. Suzanne and Cort in... 10 00:02:52,448 --> 00:03:04,256 Some were successful. The later ones, not so much. If you guys don't know the problems, Dimension tried to keep hold of that license, and they said, hey, we got all these scripts. 11 00:03:04,256 --> 00:03:18,527 They've got nothing to do with Hellraiser. Let's just throw Pinhead in them so we can keep the license going. But the series in question on this, and I'm going to discuss them all, because why the fuck not? This is the kind of series that I love. 12 00:03:18,527 --> 00:03:32,800 I love sequels that jump the shark with every entry. And the Children of the Corn franchise is no exception to all of those rules, breaking rules. 13 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:46,687 Right from the start, it says, hey, we take this story that's 10 pages long inside a nice shift and we'll make a full movie about it. But, you know, really successful. 14 00:03:46,687 --> 00:04:00,719 I think they were pretty well. First Children of Corn came out in 1984. Yeah, this is directed by Franz Kirsch. Do you guys think he pronounced his last name? 15 00:04:00,719 --> 00:04:15,328 This guy had a pretty interesting career, directing-wise. It's kind of like Bob Clark in a sense that he directed many different kinds of films, not just horror. We'll go into it right now, and I'll tell you what those films are. 16 00:04:15,328 --> 00:04:27,983 One we discussed in the Prairie way, which is Into the Sun with Anthony Michael Hall and Michael Prairie. Tough turf with the great James Spader and Robert Downey Jr. That's kind of like a... 17 00:04:27,983 --> 00:04:40,208 White Kid Gang musical or something. It's been a while since I watched it, but it's really fucking crazy. Under the Boardwalk, which is like a sex comedy. Gore, which is a sword and sandal movie. 18 00:04:40,208 --> 00:04:54,576 Winner Take All is a motocross movie. He erected two episodes of the Swamp Thing TV series. So it's all over the spectrum with this guy. I had the opportunity to meet him one time. I didn't do it. I regret it ever since. 19 00:04:54,576 --> 00:05:05,903 Just to discuss, just to get inside their brain a little bit, I would love to do that. This comes, of course, from the short, short story out of Stephen King's Night Shift, which contained lots of... 20 00:05:05,903 --> 00:05:16,800 Lots of fodder for Stephen King's Hollywood oeuvre. I know my friend Dan Bone's doing the podcast on Haunted Hill. Check it out, guys. 21 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:27,504 doing 31 Days of Stephen King, and he hasn't mentioned this one yet, but he's mentioned lots of other ones to say, yeah, I checked it out and, you know. 22 00:05:27,504 --> 00:05:40,911 Yeah, lots of different ones. And, yeah, sorry for talking in the background, trying to get this over with. Not to try to do that, but, you know, this one. Again, 1984. Great trailer, great poster. 23 00:05:40,911 --> 00:05:49,728 And a child shall lead them. Just a Reaper in the background with a child's hand out, you know. Stars. 24 00:05:49,728 --> 00:06:04,000 Peter Horton as Bert. You may know Peter Horton from the TV show 30-something, if you're as old as I am. That came out when I was younger. And this is about five years previous to that, I think, right around there. Most famous for that, really. 25 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:12,367 And the film Side Out, which if you watch HBO in the 90s, this film stars him and C. Thomas Howell, and they are volleyball players. 26 00:06:12,367 --> 00:06:25,103 So dig that, if you will, male bonding and volleyball. Kind of like Top Gun, just without the planes, you know. Linda Hamilton is Vicky. Know her, of course, Sarah Connor from the Terminator series. 27 00:06:25,103 --> 00:06:38,415 Beauty and the Beast TV show. Other stuff, too. Resident Alien recently, which is great. She had a great turn on that show, Resident Alien. Check that show out. Shame that shit got canceled. That upsets me. 28 00:06:38,415 --> 00:06:52,512 that Alan Tudyk had a very, um, successful TV series that got canceled. Bullshit. Uh, consummate genre actor R.G. Armstrong as Deal, the gas man. Um... 29 00:06:52,512 --> 00:07:16,704 Been in everything. So many things. I don't even want to mention many, many things he's been in, but R.J. Armstrong is all over the place. John Franklin as Isaac. This... known as the guy who's in the Cousin It costume in the Addams Family movies, the Raul Julie, Angelica Houston ones. 30 00:07:16,704 --> 00:07:24,992 I know him as a fellow South Suburb guy because he's from Blue Island, Illinois, which is from a couple towns away from where I'm from. 31 00:07:24,992 --> 00:07:38,399 So every time I see him, I say, hey, Southside. And he gets really excited because he gets to come home when he comes to Chicago. He needs to go visit people he doesn't get to go visit so much. Courtney Gaines, another one. Consummate, John Racker. 32 00:07:38,399 --> 00:07:51,007 Discounting movies, teen movies, Can't Buy Me Love. Of course, The Burbs. Everybody loves The Burbs. He's in that movie. Tons of other stuff. Robbie Kiger, who... 33 00:07:51,007 --> 00:07:58,576 Didn't do a whole lot. He plays Job, but he is like the number two kid in the Monster Squad. 34 00:07:58,831 --> 00:08:10,927 And it's so odd. I mentioned to my sister today that he doesn't do a whole lot of conventions because they have big monster squad conventions and he doesn't really show up to them. So maybe it's a personal thing or like a privacy thing. 35 00:08:10,927 --> 00:08:14,752 I don't know. He plays Job, the little sparky little kid that helps them. 36 00:08:14,752 --> 00:08:27,375 Anne-Marie McAvoy as Sarah, Job's sister, the mute psychic girl in this movie, his sister. 37 00:08:27,375 --> 00:08:37,360 I wonder what I'm going to mention. Well, the guy that's going to sacrifice himself because this is his 19th year, John Philbin, Amos, who has been in... 38 00:08:38,255 --> 00:08:51,296 Has been in many, many things over the years. Point Break, Return of the Living Dead. You know John Philbin's face. He's been in many, many things in John return. 39 00:08:51,296 --> 00:09:01,775 Good stuff. I love John Phil, but I met him a convention a couple times over the years. Just a fun guy to talk to. Just a real nice guy, too. 40 00:09:01,936 --> 00:09:14,799 What else we got here? Yeah, writer Stephen King, short story, script by George Goldsmith, which is supposed to be a whole lot bigger, apparently, because they have budget problems, which is very, very low. 41 00:09:14,799 --> 00:09:26,864 And part of that budget was Stephen King's money because they, I guess he had a drug problem back in these days and he wanted more money for drugs, possibly. Unconfirmed. 42 00:09:26,864 --> 00:09:39,871 But, yeah, he loved the nose candy, man. Not filming in Nebraska at all. Sioux City, Iowa, USA. There you go. 43 00:09:39,871 --> 00:09:53,663 This is a new world picture, which at the beginning, you get right away that awesome new world logo. So, you know, it was a low budget, but I'm just going to meet potatoes. This film couple comes to town. 44 00:09:53,663 --> 00:10:08,159 Guy's just going to become a doctor, get an internship, and they stop in this Nebraska town to where there's nobody around. They get lost, kind of, and shit happens with these kids who happen... 45 00:10:08,159 --> 00:10:21,008 Four years ago, it's ten years ago in the story, short story, killed all the parents in town. So it's just these kids and their cult leader, Isaac, who is a... 46 00:10:21,008 --> 00:10:33,296 prays to a monster that lives in the corn, apparently. And, um, yeah, that's about the size of it. His number two Malachi is as, uh, as psycho as ever in this movie. 47 00:10:33,519 --> 00:10:43,231 So we follow this couple. They meet random people. They meet Job, who's this precocious little punk that helps them out. 48 00:10:43,231 --> 00:10:56,272 And it leads to Bert's woman, Vicky, Bert's lady, Vicky, getting kidnapped and almost sacrificed by these people. And there's power control here. 49 00:10:56,272 --> 00:11:10,272 It ends with a really crazy conclusion because you see he who walks around the road and it's really bad looking. But, yeah, it's pretty simple stuff. Kids going crazy in town. 50 00:11:10,272 --> 00:11:21,840 You get to hear all about the crazy religion. It sounds like I'm really underselling this. And I probably am. But this is... 51 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:36,080 the least bonkers of all these movies so it's kind of hard for me to say hey you know part two and three are kind of better because um we'll get into that later but um interesting stuff i found um 52 00:11:36,399 --> 00:11:49,360 The thing looks like it's got a tremor in the cornfield. The effect of he walks behind the rows was done very simple. It was done with a trench and a wheelbarrow to push that dirt up. 53 00:11:49,360 --> 00:12:03,792 It looks pretty goddamn convincing. Performances in this movie, I will say I got to give it to Peter Horton, who's probably the most learned actor besides R.G. Armstrong in this movie. 54 00:12:04,048 --> 00:12:18,495 Who churns in like a three-minute performance, but it was supposed to be longer, like I said, involved in decapitation and everything else, but budgetary reasons. Your two leads, your strong suit of this movie, John Franklin as Isaac. 55 00:12:18,495 --> 00:12:31,216 And Courtney Gaines is Malachi because John Franklin lights up the screen as this boy preacher doing his shtick about he who walks behind the rose. 56 00:12:31,216 --> 00:12:44,336 why you should obey him and, like, why you should obey his laws and how Malachi's mind has been warped, all the stuff. And, of course, Malachi, Courtney Gaines, this is a... 57 00:12:44,336 --> 00:12:58,096 Banner performance for him, apparently how he got the role, was during the audition. He wasn't going to hurt anybody, but he brandished a fake bladed weapon on some person he was auditioning for. 58 00:12:58,096 --> 00:13:12,032 And they bought that he was going to play this psycho kid oh so well. And he plays it oh so well. There's a highlight in this movie. Say, hey, you know what? You want to watch Malachi do his thing? I'll say... 59 00:13:12,032 --> 00:13:24,096 Check out Malachi do his thing because Outlander, we have your woman, man. It's so good, that town square scene where he brings Vicky out there and just... 60 00:13:24,096 --> 00:13:38,368 cutting her and shit getting Bert to come out come get your woman man and um cause I guess he's a desperate dude at that point which is yeah tied up Isaac and then all of a sudden he's just like this desperate dude 61 00:13:38,368 --> 00:13:52,879 So he kind of looks like a bitch at that point. But beyond that, if you've seen it, you've seen it. If not, it came out in 84. It's almost as old as I am. So I'm not spoiling too much here as far as the movie goes. 62 00:13:52,879 --> 00:14:00,559 I will say it is the start of something crazy. Go check it out. 63 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:13,264 One of the greatest opening scenes, I would give that to Franz Kershaw all day long. One of my favorite opening scenes in any 80s horror film belongs this film because it's the diner scene. 64 00:14:13,264 --> 00:14:23,072 Job and his daddy are going to the diner. The sister's very sick, so dad's going to go make the call. You see kids come in. They lock the door, and then... 65 00:14:23,072 --> 00:14:34,768 Isaac shows up and simply nods his head wearing that fucking hat and we give him that look. John Fulham is more acting with his face than most... 66 00:14:34,927 --> 00:14:47,504 actors would do in an 80s horror film I think without saying anything in that scene it's silent except for the music mostly I mean just cutting people up and 67 00:14:47,504 --> 00:15:01,248 And it's kind of like Texas Chainsaw. It's about what you don't see. Like when you see the slicer and they stick him on the slicer, you see the blood splatter, it lands magically in Job's milkshake. 68 00:15:01,248 --> 00:15:11,903 I wonder if he took a sip after that. I don't even know. But, yeah, it's just filmed in a way to where you know the devastation was happening. 69 00:15:11,903 --> 00:15:22,655 but they don't show it. But at the same time, you don't care because it was filmed so brilliantly. So there's a strong point of this film to say, hey, how do we start big? 70 00:15:22,655 --> 00:15:37,488 This is that diner scene, and I admire him for the way he filmed this, and the actors, you know, doing so much fucking face acting, these young actors, although John Franklin, who has a... 71 00:15:37,488 --> 00:15:51,504 Some guy disease to make him short was 24 at the time and it's being filmed. Just owning it though, man. Again, highlights this film. Those two guys right there, John Franklin and Courtney Gaines. 72 00:15:51,631 --> 00:16:02,111 the use of their surroundings. More RG Armstrong would have been nice, but, you know, again, budgetary stuff. 73 00:16:02,111 --> 00:16:17,087 I'm going to leave this at that and get really excited for Children of the Court in Part 2, The Final Sacrifice, because that's the next thing we're going to discuss on this year's program. This quick little bit here, this quick 15-minute bit. 74 00:16:17,087 --> 00:16:29,488 about a series that kicked off with a whimper, in a way. But again, you can't blame this film all the way. Because, you know... 75 00:16:29,488 --> 00:16:42,751 You're working with a budget. You have a script. You have infinite storyboards, I'm sure. You learned that from Tom Savini who wanted to make that Night of the Living Dead movie the way he wanted to make it. Again, stuff got cut. 76 00:16:42,751 --> 00:16:54,864 This got cut a lot, apparently. So I'd imagine to get an R rating as well. Repeat, what is this rated even? Let's look at that real fast. This was rated R. So... 77 00:16:54,864 --> 00:17:08,655 To do the stuff they were discussing, like the Capitan, the gas man and stuff, I think it might have had an X-Ring in 1984, and they don't like to release non-rated movies in movie theaters, so... 78 00:17:08,688 --> 00:17:16,174 to think, you know, what this could have done with an unrated cut. That's a today thing. 79 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:30,847 They might exist on a Blu-ray somewhere, but not here, because those films were never... I mean, those scenes were never filmed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Budget $800,000 estimated. 80 00:17:30,847 --> 00:17:43,983 Opening weekend, $2,042,821. Made $15 million altogether. So for less than a million dollar movie, you made $15 million. 81 00:17:43,983 --> 00:17:56,271 Not bad for 1984. Again, you got sequels, but much later, probably like not many years later, but I love to say Strike When the Iron's Hot. 82 00:17:56,271 --> 00:18:09,279 But the next one gets pretty fucking bonkers. So next show, either meet with myself or meet with people. Chills of the Corn to the final sacrifice will be in your ears. 83 00:18:09,279 --> 00:18:21,824 I'm trying to get these out in succession of the days here. Maybe more than one thing, depending how inspired I am. But, yeah, that's coming out right now, brothers. Children of Corn. 84 00:18:21,824 --> 00:18:35,728 Available in many, many formats. Digital, Blu-ray, 4K probably somewhere. All the things. It's classic. It's classic 80s VHS schlock. 85 00:18:35,855 --> 00:18:43,488 With a dynamite opening scene. And yeah, I just dig it, man. 86 00:18:43,488 --> 00:18:58,480 I think most of this series, I say, I dig this whole series. That'd be a fucking lie, because some of it gets pretty fucking hokey, but in the dumb way. But, yeah, I'll leave it at that. 87 00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:05,359 This has been a Sinema Beef Podcast, where if you've got beef, we've got the grinder. See you next time.