Children of the Corn: Runaway (2018)

And here we are at last: October of the Corn has reached the final movie of the Children of the Corn franchise. I mean, at least for now as even coronavirus apparently can’t stop the upcoming reboot. But Children of the Corn: Runaway is an interesting one as it’s a sequel to 2009’s Children of the Corn made-for-TV reboot, but made after Children of the Corn: Genesis, which by all accounts appears to be in the original continuity. Then again, if Scorpion King: Book of Souls can come out after Tom Cruise rebooted The Mummy, the sky’s the limit! Enough faffing about, let’s finish this franchise.

Following the post-credits scene of the reboot, a pregnant Ruth sets fire to the cornfield and runs for it. 13 years later (and apparently ignoring that the preceding movie took place in the 70’s), she and her son Aaron are living on the road. Ruth has her truck confiscated by the police for… reasons, so now they’re stuck in a small town. Aaron befriends Sarah the waitress while Ruth gets a job as a mechanic. But a mysterious Girl in Yellow shows up and starts killing people! Huh, actually, she only kills people that Ruth is mad at… and Ruth has dissociative episodes… and in those states she’s often violent… Okay, they’re not even trying to hide that she’s actually the killer and doesn’t know it. Anyway, Ruth asks Sarah to take Aaron somewhere safe, but she doesn’t because Sarah is actually… well, I think she’s supposed to be He Who Walks Behind the Rows, but it’s hard to tell since this is the only movie in the franchise without a separate Wikipedia page. Aaron kills his mother and becomes a reverend to a new generation of children, all under the gaze of Sarah.

I’d only ever seen this movie once before and barely remembered it, so it was quite a pleasant surprise that this final installment was okay. A solid 2.5 or 3 out of 5. But for this franchise, that’s great! If I had to end on something like CotC: Genesis I’d question if there was an actual loving god who would allow things like this to happen! Granted, it’s not one of the best films that director Mr. John Gulager has made, but that’s because he’s responsible for Feast, Feast II: Sloppy Seconds, and Feast III: The Happy Finish. Those movies are… certainly something, but none of their humor was present here. I guess that would be the fault of the writer, Joel Soisson. Wait a fucking minute… That’s the same guy who wrote CotC: Genesis! Who let that hack back at this franchise?!

But this movie is still a bit of a lackluster ending to October, the spookiest and best month. Halloween is tomorrow and this is where we’re ending? If only I would sometimes update on a Saturday, right? Oh well…