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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Dimension
Salesrank: 50489
Released: October 9, 2001 |
| Our Price: $6.45 |
| Used Price: $30.43 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Nothing can prepare you for the onslaught of spine-tingling thrills unleashed in CHILDREN OF THE CORN IV: THE GATHERING -- the latest and most chilling chapter in the wildly popular CHILDREN OF THE CORN series! The horror returns when the children of a small midwestern town are haunted by an unspeakable evil that lurks somewhere out behind the corn fields. A bright young medical student must solve the frightening mystery that plagues the children ... before a sinister stranger can claim their souls for his own! It's a pulse-pounding race against time and terror that will leave even the most die-hard suspense fans on the edge of their seats!
Children of the Corn 4 - The Gathering Reviews:
The most shocking part of this Horror movie? It's not that bad! 
2009-11-24 - I grew up during a time period when FANGORIA magazine was popular, liquid latex was the choice medium for all special effect needs, and Horror films in general were at the height of their popularity. Those were the days of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Leatherface. It was a simple time period full of killer dolls, rabid dogs, deadly Summer Camps, wise cracking demons and evil houses. It was also a time where Horror movies seemed to be escalating in audience demand and eventually, a whole new wave of the Horror scene hit the home video market. Horror directors were finding it easier to put out Horror movies with the latest trend called "direct to video" releases, which didn't require a big budget release. The method was easy. Just make the movie, slap it on to a VHS and get it out into the stores.
Now, at the time I didn't enjoy a lot of these type of movies, mainly because I just didn't give them much of a chance. Like a lot of things that most people typically dislike from their current generation, it just wasn't very easy to get into the latest "direct to video" Horror movies that filled the local rental stores. At the time, they seemed cheap and stupid. For the most part, some of them were. The biggest culprit in this problem was the endless sequels to certain Horror film franchises. HELLRAISER and CHILDREN OF THE CORN seemed to be the main ones to blame. After all, some of those HELLRAISER sequels are just awful! The "masters" of 1980's Horror (FRIDAY THE 13th and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) never seemed to fall victim to the "direct to video" curse.
With that being said, now that it's been about ten years since the rise and fall of "old school" Horror, I find it easier to look back on some of these "direct to video" Horror movies and enjoy them. That is before Wes Craven ruined Slasher movies with his all too egotistical SCREAM series, yet the cheaper "direct to video" Horror films actually had some pretty good releases. They weren't classics by any stretch of the word, but at least some of them retained what made Horror movies so much fun in the 1980's. Interesting special effects, horrifying gore and (most importantly of all) a sense of fun and enjoyment. If you ask my opinion, the SCREAM series and all of it's clones (URBAN LEGEND and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) turned the Horror scene into a ridged and "serious" exercise of the art form. Those movies were okay, they just got old after a while because it seemed like all Horror films were following in those foot steps. Thank goodness that time period is over!
Which brings us to the movie at hand here, CHILDREN OF THE CORN IV : THE GATHERING. Hey! Did you know this? Naomi Watts was in this film!?! I had no clue for many years, until recently when I decided to give one of the random CHILDREN OF THE CORN sequels another chance. Turns out I picked right because this movie isn't anywhere near as bad as I would have thought it was. If you've already seen the movie and still think it's bad, move along. I'm sure nothing I say here will change your mind. Outside of the bad cover art (can we say "cheap photoshop" anyone?) and the rather small and short production, this movie is actually kinda' fun!
Naomi Watt's plays a young woman who goes back home to her Mother (played by the always enjoyable Karen Black), who happens to live in a small town very similar to the one in the first CHILDREN OF THE CORN story. The plot to this fourth movie is rather contrived but that shouldn't hold anyone back. This movie is basically just a vehicle to get the killer children going again. The story concerns a child preacher becoming resurrected from the dead, and possessing all the kids in the entire small town. Faster than you can say "pass the corn", the kids are chanting evil phrases and chopping up the people with huge sickles!
What makes this movie work (in terms of just enjoyment) is that a good amount of the death scenes are left untouched and unedited. People get sliced to pieces, bodies get stabbed, blood gets splashed around and general weirdness ensues through the whole movie. It's nothing on the level of the original film (or the Stephen King story for that matter) but then again, it's doesn't need to be. This is just some random sequel, pumped out by the film studio and the director had fun with what they were left to work with. THE EXORCIST this is not.
The biggest problem with this movie (and I know nit picking a "direct to video" release is like beating a dead horse) is the over all pacing of the film. The entire movie builds up some rather cheap tension and then dashes it all with a quick, anti climatic ending that doesn't wrap things up for the viewer. It's a shame really because some parts of this fourth movie are actually pretty creepy!
Gore Hounds, check it out for some neat death scenes! People get lacerated cuts, fingers chopped off and stabbed brutally with corn sickles! Naomi Watt's fans, check it out to see what she was doing before THE RING (remake), KING KONG and EASTERN PROMISES. Everybody else, just rent or buy the first movie in the series. Unless you came from the same Horror back ground and scene that I did, this movie won't please many people. For "hardcore" Horror fans and collectors of CHILDREN OF THE CORN stuff only!
Over and out!
Knock off movie horrific fun!
2009-11-08 - Cool movie, Cool plot. The only things that bother me about this film is that it has nothing to do with the others. but a decent and scary horror film either way. The end.
Good Stephen King movies 
2008-06-19 - I Love Stephen King Movies And This is one I had to Have,To go with my collection.
"I've Come For The Children"
2008-05-18 - I have seen and own all of The Children Of The Corn Series. I can say in general that it went really down hill. The first one was decent, but of course not too much horror. The 2nd and 3rd were completly ridiculous, and made no sense what so ever. Just a big waste.
Children Of The Corn 4 The Gathering, I can say was a little bit of a comback compared to the last 2. I think it was worth watching and gave me a little faith again that the series might improve. only problem with this movie was it strayed completly from the power of the corn and "he who walks behind the rows". It went into the power of a boy names Josiah. A boy who was abandoned by his mother, and took in by traveling preachers. he later became "The Amazing Boy Preacher", that everyone would come and listen to. The preachers became rich because of him, and never wanted it to end. to do that they had to keep him small. So they poisened him with mercury to try to stunt his growth. Unfortunaly their plan didn't work and he grew up anway. Slowly the money ran out, and he again he was abandoned. Later on his soul is unleashed from a well by a drunk. Then he starts his plan to start controling all the children by a fever. He chooses another who was abandoned just like he was to lead the children into their rampage of killing all the adults.
I can't say this is the best from The Children of the corn but it was the first descent one after the 1st Children Of The Corn. So if you want a little faith again in this series, I recommend you at least see it once.
Guess Whos Back in the Cornfields? 
2007-12-05 - ''Children of the Corn 3 - Urban Harvest'' I thought was okay.
''Children of the Corn 4 - The Gathering'' was kind of a little better than number three.
I have heard rumors that people hate it that there isn't a 'He Who Walks Behind Thr Rows'' in this one. But a deleted scene actually reveals that Jane and Rosa tell Grace that Josiah is He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
Not really like the first three, CotC 4 actually really jumps into the horror stage. This is your brutal, bloody, explicit, action horror movie.
It has all the elements of a perfect horror movie.
But the plot is VERY different than the other CotCs. It hased to do with a bunch of kids getting fevers and becoming possesed because of that and when they kill the preacher Josiah ( Brandon Kleyla ) all the kids turn normal again.
This IS the most goriest movie in the Children of the Corn series. Its funny how Naomi Watts ( Grace ) didn't have a British accent in this movie like in real life.
This is the first in the CotC series to get killed with a giant scythe.
