Children of the Corn: Genesis (2011)

I'm not that familiar with the whole sequel-prequel-franchise of Children of the Corn, I only saw the first one, it must have been like 30 years ago, and I remember that one as pretty creepy. But I gather that with so many rip-offs the whole premise should have become pretty worn-out. Then I found this dvd "Children of the Corn: Genesis" in a garage sale and thought that, who knows, a more or less recent version dating from 2011 might have added something new and could be even scarier than the first, considering the nowaday standards for horror movies.Well, I was wrong. The most scary of this movie was the cover of the dvd-box, an image that in the movie didn't even pop up. The movie itself was tedious and had a snails pace, with endless conversations, no scares, and strangely enough no corn and no children whatsoever.A young and loving couple is stranded with their car in the desert and asks for help at a forlorn dilapidated farm. The unfriendly owner doesn't want to help, but when he hears that the girl is pregnant he reluctantly lets them in. Of course - as the conventions of the genre demand - actual help is only available the next morning, so they have to stay the night. Although this is a premise that we've seen for like a zillion times, it can usually vouch for a nice tension-filled rest of the movie. Not so here. The couple tries to befriend the strange owner and his Ukranian wife (why on earth Ukranian??) during an awkward dinner, evidently to no avail, and in the night the girl discovers in a barn outside that a young child is locked up. She constructs her own ideas of what is going on (child-abuse!!) and demands from her boyfriend that they call the police and expose the farmer. But this scheme falls flat when the owner finds out, behaves even more strange and hints that the child is locked-up for protection of themselves. Of course the couple doesn't believe him and after an endless night of talking and bickering they escape in a car the next morning. Really, this is actually all that happens. No scares, no flocking children with frozen gazes, armed with scythes, not even the usual (and for a Children of the Corn-version seemingly unavoidable) creepy cornfield, nothing like that at all. Only in a few dream-fragments of the girl we see hints of a few brutal children but in the rest of the movie we have to settle for just some people talking endlessly.I won't give the end away, but what happens during their escape in the car stands for the only real action and excitement of the whole movie (and by the way with very good special effects, and/or - I'm no professional - old fashioned stuntmens craftsmanship!).So I guess my old assumption was right: the theme of Children of the Corn is probably really too worn out for a decent sequel. At least this one is totally superfluous.

Genises was a poor attempt to explain the cause behind the cause of what made the kids go mad yet I thought the first two films handled it fine.A man returns from war to find all the adults killed and really was the best part of the feature. The rest became ridiculous when a couple end up in town at the man's house to find he has become a disciple of the corn. How or why is never explained since its usually only children.The entity now lives inside a child who's kept outside in a shed and wants to grow a super army of children to do his bidding.The idea isn't bad, but the conception was horrendous and didn't make any sense. It lacked suspense or penance with a bland caste.There were so many plot holes that it seemed the writers taped together different scripts and branded it a corn film.The movie lacked a fresh film and ended the legacy for the children of the corn series instead of breathing air into a series on life support.

Genesis difference very much from the standard CotC movies, you will not find much corn and even less of children, almost no existent, and no Gatlin town, actually they are pretty much in the same cabin the whole movie, so it's different, doesn't have the CotC feel either, more like a possessed themed movie. But all that being said, the tension has probably never been better within the series, good acting (Billy Drago steels the show, possible the best performance of within all CotC movies), good camera-work and good effects, so it's a good crafted movie but, it's probably not what I wanted from a CotC movie. About the title Genesis, I didn't get much about that, it doesn't tell anything about the creation or beginning of anything, and towards the end I felt the plot was going nowhere, and when talking about the end, I didn't liked the ending at all. Overall, Children of the Corn: Genesis was better than expected, but confusing and different.

Yep, I think it's time to officially retire this franchise.The "Children of the Corn" franchise has never been known as one with a rich mythology to dive into but rather a series of films with a whole bunch of unnecessary phoned-in sequels and "Genesis" somehow outdoes the combined might of all the other films and makes something that is even more lazy and lethargic than the others.Nothing happens that is really noteworthy in this film as the story just feels like it is slowing stepping its way to its incredibly underwhelming and anticlimactic finish. The actors seem to mirror this as most of them look like they are doing everything they can to not give it their all because, I guess, the checks didn't clear. Even Billy Drago, whose creepy looks already make him a force for thrillers and horrors, looks like he just doesn't care or is too depressed to work because his dog just died.To call "Genesis" lackluster is an understatement and words fail me to completely capture just how boring and unimaginative this latest Direct-to-DVD sequel in this lifeless franchise is. I can't imagine why it was made and I really can't imagine this one inspiring someone to make another...unless they are trying to redeem the franchise and apologize for the lack of trying in this one.Hi! My name is Rev. Ron and I love movies! So much so that I write a blog where I review whatever film I am currently watching. You can read a more in-depth review of this film (and others) at revronmovies.blogspot.com.