Forbidden Chicken of DOOM!

A review of movies. Particularly horror. Particularly again serial. I am fascinated by the many facets of horror movies, whether they be slashers, creepy, psychological, or just plain campy. With this blog, I aim to review and dissect the many films out there, and see what makes them tick.

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Children of the Corn - Part I (1984)

Movie: 4/5 Scare: 3/5 Gore: 1/5 Creature Effects: 2/5 Genre: Religious, Creepy Children, Book Adaptation, Stephen King Available: Amazon.com, Netflix 

I posted about this series once before, but I don't feel I gave it the justice it deserves. So here goes. This is the first post in the Children of the Corn series, where I will be reviewing the movie as a stand alone film, but also in the context of the series as a whole, and finally in the context of a serial horror.

As I wrote this post, I realized there is so much more to say about the movie then simply, it's good, or it's bad. So I had to split it up into a few posts. Hopefully the each one will maintain interest. This first post will be my review of the movie, followed by a look at some of the symbolism, and it's greater place in society.

Review:

Children of the Corn starts with a great premise: After Sunday Mass, the children of a small farm town rise up and slaughter every adult. The first 15 minutes of the movie is about as bloody as it gets, which isn't all that much. The rest of the movie abstains from blood, but keeps the creep factor alive and well. All of the children remaining in town worship a god called "He Who Walks Behind the Rows," with the exception of two kids, one of whom has prophetic visions, and draws them out on paper with crayon.

Kids killing mommy and daddy. Not the happiest of thoughts

The movie has deep religious overtones. The leader of the children, Isaac is the son of the town preacher, and he preaches like a southern baptist holy roller. Throughout the series, the children are named after Biblical characters such as Malachi, and Job.

Very early in the movie it's made clear that their god is more than just some strange interpretation of The Bible or a local myth. Whatever he is, is capable of prophesy and vengeance. By putting aside the agnosticism of He Who Walks Behind the Rows, the movie is able to focus more on the spine tingling story, which really begins when two adults (including Linda Hamilton from The Terminator series) mistakenly wander (or possibly guided) into town.

More twisted Christianity. The corn cross pops up a few times.

One of the things I really liked about this movie was it didn't submit to cheap thrills such as over-the-top gore (not that that's bad), or cats jumping out at you. Instead the movie relied on a creepy subtext to send a chill down your spine. It's not the scariest movie I've seen by far, but it does a good job, and maintains its place as one of the best Stephen King adaptations to date

Children of the Corn did a great job at fueling my imagination. When I watched the movie, as well as the rest in the series, I couldn't help but to think about the amazing mythology behind the series. It made me want to write fan fiction, and run a role playing campaign. I would even love to write a video game based on this world. Hmm... Maybe I will. Ideas? There is so much rich potential behind this world. It's just a pity that over the course of 7 movies, and one remake, the series just didn't deliver.

We're given a deity with actual power over the environment, and a goal. Children enacting Biblical prophesy in a possibly (though possibly not) warped sense. The children are even on occasion granted supernatural powers, including resurrection and telekinesis.

He wants you too, Malachi!

If you're looking for good Serial Horror, then just move on. The series does a poor job of creating a memorable villain, or maintaining any form of continuity from one movie to the next. The main villains are killed off by the end, and with the exception of Isaac, don't make a return in any future films.  The only exception being Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return, which featured John Franklin's return as Isaac. Unfortunately this was more of a self serving movie as it was written in part by Franklin who never saw much in his Hollywood career after the first movie. It did nothing to revitalize the villain that was Isaac, and did it further injustice by removing the "children" aspect of "Children" of the Corn.

I recommend horror fans watch this first entry in the Children of the Corn series, and stop there.

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Anatomy of a Serial Horror: Part VI

Part 6: The Comedy

When it comes to most movies, camp is a four letter word. Think Batman & Robin or Showgirls. With the serial horror, camp can be a good thing. To be honest, the fan of a serial horror is not looking for a summer blockbuster nor an Oscar winning drama. They are looking for a fun movie where they can root for the bad guy as he hacks and slashes his way through a bunch of (typically) stupid kids.

One deviant down, three hundred to go.

In many ways, The Comedy is the second metamorphosis, and ultimate culmination of a serial horror franchise. The first phase being a great movie such as Friday the 13th or Child's Play. The second phase is your run-of-the-mill continuation of the story, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street Part IV: The Dream Warrior or Phantasm II. The third and final phase is when the producers know what they have, and cater to their audience.

Yeah, alright you primitive screwheads, listen up. See this? This.. is my BOOMstick! It's a twelve gauge, double barreled Remington, S-Mart's top-of-the-line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about $109.95. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel and hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop... S-Mart. Ya got that?! Now I swear, the next one of you primitives even touches me...

In the third phase, the movie truly begins to focus on the villain, and lets them loose. Freddy Krueger, who until the recent remake was always played by Robert Englund, who gave the character a bit more of a sense of humor then the typical villain, but he really broke free of his shell by A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors.

Welcome to prime time, bitch!

Chucky started as simply a murderous doll, but when he began to date again in Bride of Chucky, or worse yet father a child in Seed of Chucky, he achieved new heights, developing a following that could never have been envisioned by the end of Child's Play Part III.

A family that kills together...

Of course, one can not talk about the fun of camp in a serial horror with out a nod to one of my all time favorites Freddy vs Jason, the ultimate in catering to the audience. The internet is filled with ultimate fights. Who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman? Kirk vs Picard? Darth Vader vs Q? Newline Cinema actually answered the question of who would win in a fight, Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees (mostly) by pitting these two epic villains against each other.

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Anatomy of a Serial Horror: Part V

Part 5: The Heroic Villain

It almost goes with out saying. The real draw of a serial horror franchise is the villain. Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Chucky, Jigsaw. The audiences love these guys! They are the backbone of any good serial horror.

One of the important elements of a serial horror villain is their look. Pamela Voorhees would have never made it as a continuing villain. While Betsy Palmer did a wonderful job, she does not have a truly memorable face. At least not in the horror sense. Her disfigured child, like the Toxic Avenger, however is much easier to remember. When Jason ultimately dawned the hockey mask, he set himself apart from the run-of-the-mill villains and monsters, and became the iconic super-villain we love.

The more iconic elements a villain has to his wardrobe, the more memorable they are, but those elements need to be unique -- something that sets them apart from normal society. Jason had his hockey mask and machete. Freddy had his glove, red and green striped sweater, and wide brimmed hat. Chucky, quite simply was well conceived doll.

Contrast those elements with other less memorable villains. Candyman, for example, has a hook for a hand.

So does this guy.

Issac from Children of the Corn has a black outfit and black wide-brimmed hat.

Little known fact: He orders the slaughter of all the adults in the town because one of his teachers accused him of bad fashion sense.

Sometimes, a villain is nothing more than an idea or concept. While great horror films can be made with these premises, the movie rarely crosses the gap to become a serial horror.

One notable example would be the Cube series. A brilliant trilogy, but the stories are largely a group of people against some unseen force that has imprisoned them in a maze of cubic rooms. In one scene, the characters even go so far as to discuss who may behind their imprisonment, and ultimately agree that they have no idea, and will likely never know.

Another example would be The Exorcist. While, the first movie is a legend in its own right, the villain is an unseen demon only witnessed by its effects on a young girl.

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We all love our mother's. Some of us a little too much

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Anatomy of a Serial Horror: Part IV

Part 4: The Mis-step

Which was your favorite Nightmare on Elm Street? If I took a simple poll, it would be little surprise that A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge wouldn't rate too high. By the same token, neither would Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning, or Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

These three movies are examples of a common, but not crucial element in a serial horror, the mis-step. The mis-step occurs as a result of the producers not understanding the type of series they have on their hands, or when they underestimate their audience.

This part of a serial horror franchise is when the story deviates from what the audience loves, and in most cases happens after the villain has been vanquished in the mind of the writers. 

The best example of the mis-step would be Halloween III: Season of the Witch. After the first two movies in the series (which were written to be one movie), Michael Meyers is dead, so the third movie mistakenly assumes that the thrill of the Halloween series is a scary story that takes place on October 31st. As a result the audience gets some movie that has nothing to do with Michael Meyers or Haddonfield.

Another example is Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning. The producers had the brilliant (insert sarcasm) idea to name Friday the 13th Part IV, The Final Chapter. To continue the series, instead of making Jason Voorhees supernatural, the writers just created a copy-cat killer instead.

Luckily the mis-step does not always happen, such as in Child's Play, and typically lasts only one movie.

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Anatomy of a Serial Horror: Part III

Part 3: The Hand-Off

Kristy Cotton, Nancy Thompson, and Laurie Strode have something in common. Each were the leading heroine in the first movie of a Serial Horror. Unfortunately despite their heroic efforts to vanquish a never-dying villain, they don't seem to last through very many movies.

Because a serial horror franchise develops mostly as a fluke, some of the thinking behind a typical series still influences the creation of a serial horror, especially in the first few movies. One such element is continuity. Because the hero survived the first movie, more often than not they wind up in the sequel as well, and some times as far as the 3rd movie in the series. Two notable exceptions are Laurie Strode and Sidney Prescott who each lasted long enough to see an amazing four movies.

One problem with the hero surviving too long is they tend too accumulate too much knowledge and experience to make the villain much of a threat. This is a problem that the Scream franchise is encountering, but is uniquely positioned to tackle considering it's genre-reflecting theme.

Example:

In A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Nancy (the survivor from the first movie) assembles a group of teens, and teaches them each to use their special dream powers to defeat Freddy Krueger. She was able to leverage her experience and knowledge from her previous encounter with Freddy to help a new cast defeat him once again.

Imagine now, if she survived the third movie. She would have amassed enough knowledge and experience to Freddy seem trivial. Either that, or Freddy would have had to dramatically change to be able to stand his ground against such a powerful hero, leading to the question of "If Freddy could do this now, why didn't he do it before?"

Another reason for the hand-off is the focus of a horror franchise. In an action flick, the focus is the action hero, such as Rocky, or Jason Bourne. In a romance, the focus is the couple (or arguable the actors playing the couple) such as Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle. In a horror series, the focus is the villain. The hero is ultimately forgettable. Killing off the hero is in many ways a rite-of-passage for a real villain.

The Hand-Off is when the reigns are passed from the initial hero to someone else, so the story can continue without them. Below are a few examples of the hand-off.

Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth: A video interview with Kristy Cotton makes a connection between Hellraiser 1 and 2 with the third installment

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors: Nancy returns to teach a new generation how to fend off Freddy.

Children of the Corn 2: The Final Sacrifice: Kids are shipped from Gatlin (the location of the first movie) to a neighboring town.

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Anatomy of a Serial Horror: Part II

Cover via Amazon

Part 2: The Sequel

After a horror movie has achieved hit movie status, the next crucial part of making a Serial Horror is an appropriate sequel. Contrary to a standard movie, in order to launch a Serial Horror campaign, the sequel tends to be relatively bad compared to the original.

The Serial Horror sequel is typically made for the purposes of profit, rather than continuing a good story. Regardless of the quality of a sequel a calculable percentage of people will watch it, simply because they liked the first movie. Producers use this percentage to determine the minimum amount of money that will be made, and thus what the budget of the sequel will be. This results in a low budget, and low quality movie, simply made for profit.

With most movie franchises, this type of thinking results in the failure of a series, but with horror movies, this can be the launching board for a Serial Horror. In the sequel, the writers and producers loose sight of what made the first movie a hit. The subsequent movies tend to be more hack 'n' Slash than the original. The hack 'n' slash is easier to write, allowing less expensive writers, and faster turn around. It also attracts a more generic and predictable audience.

Example:

Friday the 13th started as a creepy whodunit slasher, centered around a camp fire ghost story of sorts. Friday the 13th - Part II changes the landscape, and becomes simply a slasher featuring a new villain, Jason Voorhees, the dead(?) son of the killer from the first movie.

If it weren't for this traditionally ill-conceived transition from Pamela Voorhees to her son, the series would likely not have had the success it did, spawning ten sequels.

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Anatomy of a Serial Horror: Part I

The following is the first part in a series titled Anatomy of a Serial Horror. In this series I aim to dissect the various parts of serial horror movies. What makes them what they are, what sets them apart from standard affair horror, and why they are so loved. 

Definition

A Serial Horror is a series of movies with at least three sequels. Unlike the majority of horror movies, in a Serial Horror the focal character is the villain as opposed to the hero. While the movie may end with the defeat(?) of the villain, the creative forces behind the movie spend their time devising new and unique ways of killing off the heroes.

Some of the most popular Serial Horrors include:

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Friday the 13th

Halloween

Child's Play

Over the course of my series, I will be going into detail into those movies, as well as other less popular series. 

Now, with out further ado...

Part 1: The Hit Horror Flick

In most cases, the Serial Horror begins with a single hit movie that spawns a myriad of sequels. The first movie is a great story that preys on the fears of the audience. If done right, people go home and sleep under the covers.

I remember one time when I was eleven. A group of my friends and I decided to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street on TV. We turned out all of the lights, and tried to make the atmosphere as creepy as possible.

Two hours later we were all sufficiently creeped out. In particular one of our friends, James, wasn't going to sleep well that night. He was pretty rattled by the movie.

Well, being the PITA pre-teens we were, it wasn't enough that James wasn't going to get a good night sleep that night, we had to really rub it in. We all went to "bed." About thirty minutes later, to be sure that the house had settled down, myself and three others snuck out of our windows and went to James' window. He had a room to himself. I don't recall what we used, but we slowly scraped down his window pane, making that eerie squeak Freddy Krueger would use when taunting his victims.

Poor kid didn't sleep for a week. I'm pretty sure we all got in a lot of trouble, but it was so worth it!

In this example, the hit movie was A Nightmare on Elm Street, which preyed on the fears of the night, dreams, and nightmares. In addition, the movie preys on the myth that if you die in your sleep, you die in real life. It is common for a horror movie to take place at night. There are a few such as The Ring which take place during the daylight hours, but night is much easier when trying to deliver a lasting haunt to the audience

In an interview, Wes Craven, the creator behind A Nightmare on Elm Street, stated that the inspiration behind Freddy Krueger came from, among other influences, his own childhood fear of a homeless man in a brown hat.

Child's Play preyed on people's fear of dolls, or facsimiles of life, as did Dolls, Puppet Master, and Poltergeist, while Friday the 13th preyed on the common camp ghost story.

I've had a long standing theory behind the fear of dolls and clowns. Both are very common fears. And of course the clown doll is one of the worst, a la Poltergeist.

Both fears are really a fear of facsimiles of life. A doll is a non-living creature that tries to mimic real life, while a clown is a living creature trying to mimic the lack of life.

The first movie is a Serial Horror does not need to be a cinematographic masterpiece, so long as it sends a memorable chill down the spines of the audience, and brings something new to the table. This is why some movies, such as The Relic, or dare I mention movies such as Sharktopus, never made it to Serial Horror status. While The Relic was a good movie in its own right, it was just another creature feature. It did not bring anything new to the medium, nor did it prey on a fear of the audience. By 1997, audiences were not too afraid of monsters from outer-space, the jungle or anywhere else for that matter. 

Unlike summer block-busters, a hit horror movie is only really realized once every few years. Once the hit is achieved, the next step to creating a Serial Horror is the sequel, which I will cover in my next article.

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WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?

Samoa! Sa = Sacred/Forbidden. Moa = Chicken

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First!

Haha! I got the first post! Well, I suppose that's not entirely fair, but I can cheat. It is after all, my blog. I guess it's time to see why tumblr is all the rage. What does tumblr mean anyway?

If things go as planned, I'll be porting my movie / horror / serial review and analysis hear.