Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)

Redundant and unnecessary.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Boring

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The movie opens in Gatlin. Hello Gatlin! It's nice to see you again. Oh, hi corn! Glad you're here too.A man comes out of a trailer, drunk and holding a scythe and starts chasing his son through the corn – for what I can only assume is to chop him up into little pieces and then eat them, or maybe sell them for money. I don't know. Son runs to his little brother who's half his size and gets him to deal with it.This is how we are introduced to the hammy acting skills of Eli and his brother Joshua. Two brothers, who like all kids of Gatlin – kill their father. Thus sending Eli and Joshua to Da Hood.They move in with their foster parents, Eli bringing corn with him – and it's all magic corn that kills people.Eli and Joshua attend school and find themselves starting to grow apart, they're still sharing a bed mind you, and as Joshua proves himself on the Basketball court (where EVERYTHING counts) and makes new friends. Eli gets angry at his brother asking why he's not with him anymore and that he loves him so much and needs to be with him all the time and to never ever leave him. Well he doesn't exactly say that – but his eyes told me that's what he was feeling.So apparently Eli is all evil and I think the movie was trying to push across that he was the devil? They really need to stop coming up with convoluted and over-reaching explanations when crazy religious kids who worship some corn demon works just fine.My favourite death was of the foster mother, who tripped over a pole and impaled her skull with a piece of pipe. Awesome. The ick factor goes up slightly when you think that one of her last memories on earth were of her super young foster son tonguing her ear. Nice.As Eli starts to convert the city kids to his cracked way of thinking and to start killing off their parents – Joshua heads back to Gatlin (Yay! Gatlin) which must be just around the corner from Chicago, to save the freaking day.While no where near as crappy as Children of the Corn 2: Final Sacrifice, this only rates slightly above in terms of inventive deaths and gore. And really, set in the city? It's about CORN movie people; a 3 row corn 'field' at the back of an abandoned warehouse is not creepy at all. It's weird.Charlize Theron is an extra in this movie. She must be so proud.Next up, Children of the Corn 4: Space Corn.

"Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest" is a somewhat tacky and unnecessary sequel to the moderately successful Stephen King adaptation and its slightly under-rated sequel.In the film, two youths from Gatlin (the setting of the first two films) are taken in by a yuppie couple in Chicago. The older of the two fits in relatively well, but the younger has plans of his own. Planting a corn field in the abandoned property next door, he creeps out his adoptive parents and eventually converts the entire teenage population to his maze worshipping cult.Despite a predictable plot that seems to be missing chunks (at what point did Eli win over his peers?), dodgy special effects and wooden performances by its relatively unknown cast, the film is moderately enjoyable for what it is. If you want to see some brutal and over-the-top death scenes committed by vegetation, then "Children of the Corn III" hardly disappoints. Elsewhere, however, the film comes up short, and that's all there really is to it.The film was dumped in theaters briefly in 1994 before being thrust into complete oblivion, making room for four direct-to-video sequels and a made-for-TV remake. Look closely, and you'll spot Charlize Theron in her very first role as an extra.

I didn't really have a beef with this one. We have two brothers.Eli and Joshua.After their father disappears,they move to the city to meet their new guardians.They get sent to a religious school,ran by Father Nolan.Over time,we find out that Eli isn't sane in the head.He starts growing a corn field in an abandoned warehouse to summon He Who Walks Behind The Rows,and controls the other students in the school by bugs in the food.Josh joins forces with his friends Maria,Malcom and Father Nolan to stop Eli and destroy H.W.W.B.T.R.The plot itself is okay.And it later explains how the corn spread.We also learn a bit more about how and why they killed the adults.The death scenes weren't too bad.The one con I did see is how cheesy and bad the effects were.The corn demon looked like a wax figure and when it lifted people up,they looked like dolls.The other effects looked like some Adobe accident on crack.Other than that,it wasn't that bad.

Apart from the Texas-sized loopholes in the script, this film is one of the corniest horror films I have ever watched. Stephen King is credited as one of the writers, and this is surprising to see as it is unclear if he has actually contributed to the script or this film was inspired from King's initial novel. The acting is quite mediocre, but the special effects are of record tackiness, with human puppets of the amazing quality of voodoo dolls. The gore factor is satisfying, even unexpectedly high. The reference to environmental issues as a contemporary premise to any evil we see on screen is flimsy and ephemeral. Overall, spare a few bucks to rent this on a Saturday night in with your friends and pizza.