Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return (1999)

I see what this movie was trying to do with “666” instead of “Part VI,” but… why? 666 is traditionally regarded as the number of The Beast, but that’s from the Book of Revelation (remember, it’s singular, not plural). So it’s very Christian… and while the child cult of He Who Walks Behind the Rows has performative Christian aspects, it’s definitely not the same religion. So having “666” in the title makes no sense!

Oh, right. Welcome back to October of the Corn. Today we’re going to see what happens when the unstoppable force of He Who Walks Behind the Rows encounters the immovable object of the disaffected nature of Gen Xers.

Our story follows Hannah as she returns to Gatlin to find out about her real family. Along the way she runs into the comatose form of Isaac, once again played by Mr. John Franklin. Remember how in the original Children of the Corn he exploded, came back possessed, and then presumably died in a fire? Well forget all that, he was in a coma for the last 20 years. He wakes up and still somehow possesses power and the favor of He Who Walks Behind the Rows despite being a full on adult by now. He also believes that Hannah’s return is destined to usher in a… “superior race?” That’s gonna be a yikes from me. Meanwhile, Hannah finds out that her mom is Nancy Allen, AKA Lewis from the original RoboCop. I mean, Hannah’s mom is Rachel and her father was Amos. Those names also tie back to the first film: Amos was the shirtless guy who was now too old for the cult, and Rachel was his pregnant child bride who tried to kill Burt and Vicky at the end. Hannah manages to avoid the prophecy by having sex with bad boy Gabriel, but oh no! Turns out he claims to actually be He Who Walks Behind the Rows, which… I don’t know, I didn’t expect the demon god whatever to quip so much. Anyway, Isaac is killed and Gabriel blows up, but Hannah is now pregnant with evil.

So… what’s the problem? Girl, you had sex 8 hours ago! They call it “the morning after pill” for a reason! The ending implies that there is no birth control or alternative options to pregnancy, which is a weird oversight. At least in movies like Rosemary’s Baby (which I will not review until that pedophile director is dead) the threat is that the pregnant woman doesn’t know she carries evil inside of her. We don’t even get any indication that Hannah’s baby could grow at an accelerated rate and she won’t be able to get an abortion in time, making this cliffhanger easily dealt with. And like all the movies before it, this plot thread is never picked up again.

There’s more I want to say, but I’m just going to hit those points rapid fire style. Everyone in town is crazy while the film has a surreal and dreamlike aspect which reminded me of the absolutely awful Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. Stacy Keach is in this (last seen here in Prey of the Jaguar) showing that the 90’s were a dark time for his career. And the director of this was Kari Skogland, who is supposed to direct all 6 episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. There, done.