Children of the Corn

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"Children of the Corn"
Short story by Stephen King
Children of the Corn - 1977.jpg
Illustration by Don Punchatz from the Penthouse magazine.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s) Horror, short story
Publication
Published in Penthouse , Night Shift , Stephen King Goes to the Movies
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Publication date 1977 (magazine)
1978 (collection)

"Children of the Corn" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the March 1977 issue of Penthouse , and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift . [1] [2] The story has been adapted into several films, spawning a horror feature film franchise of the same name beginning in 1984. In 2009, the story was included in the book Stephen King Goes to the Movies .

Contents

Plot

Burt and Vicky, a dysfunctional married couple, are driving through rural Nebraska when they accidentally run over a boy with a slit throat and a suitcase containing a crucifix made of corn husks. Burt and Vicky agree to report the incident to the police in Gatlin, the nearest town over, and place the body in their car's trunk.

When they arrive, Burt wants to visit a church vaguely familiar to him while Vicky becomes unnerved by the town. After arguing, Burt locks Vicky in the car and proceeds inside the church. Inside, he finds the keys and tops of the pipe organ ripped out and its pipes stuffed with corn husks. He also finds a King James Bible with several pages from the New Testament cut out as well as a record book listing the births and deaths of various people. Burt realizes that 12 years ago, the children of Gatlin killed the town's adults and that no one in the town can live past their 19th birthday.

After hearing the car's horn, Burt runs out to find the car surrounded by children and teenagers dressed in Amish-style clothing and armed with farm tools. They destroy the car and drag Vicky out. Burt tries to intervene, but he is distracted defending himself before realizing that Vicky is gone. The children then chase Burt until he loses them by hiding in an empty cornfield. As the sun sets, Burt wanders around until he discovers Vicky's body tied to a cross with barbed wire, her eyes ripped out and replaced with corn silk and her mouth stuffed with corn husks. He also sees the crucified skeletons of Gatlin's minister and police chief. After this discovery, Burt finds himself trapped by cornfield rows closing up on him and is soon killed by "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", an entity that inhabits the cornfields surrounding the town. Soon after, a harvest moon appears in the sky.

The next day, the children of Gatlin convene. As "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" is displeased by their failure to kill Burt, he punishes them by lowering the "age of favor" to 18 and commands them to "be fruitful and multiply". That night all of the 18-year-olds walk into the corn and disappear. The story ends by saying that the corn surrounding Gatlin is pleased. [3]

Connections to other books

Gatlin was mentioned in It . [4] Hemingford Home, a neighboring town to Gatlin, was also the town where Mother Abagail lived and rounded up the good survivors of the super flu in The Stand [5] , and was also the location in 1922 . [6] It has also been theorized that Randall Flagg, the main antagonist of The Stand, could be the evil entity called "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" lurking in the background of the short story. [7]

Adaptations

The story was first time adapted into a 1983 short film under the name Disciples of the Crow . [8] One year later, the story was adapted into the first feature film, Children of the Corn , starring Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton. Several sequels and two adaptations followed. [9]

Original film series

Other adaptations

Nu metal band Korn used themes of childhood cruelty on their 1994 debut album, Korn . Their song "Children of the Korn" with Ice Cube [10] from their third album, Follow the Leader , was released in 1998. [11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Beahm, George (September 1998). Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 40. ISBN   978-0-8362-6914-7 . Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  2. ↑ King, S. (2008). Night Shift. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN   9780385528849 . Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  3. ↑ Wood, Rocky (February 10, 2017). Stephen King: A Literary Companion. McFarland. p. 47. ISBN   978-0-7864-8546-8 . Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  4. ↑ Spignesi, Stephen (September 15, 2021). Stephen King, American Master: A Creepy Corpus of Facts About Stephen King & His Work. Permuted Press+ORM. p. 1956. ISBN   978-1-68261-607-9 . Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  5. ↑ Wiater, Stanley; Golden, Christopher; Wagner, Hank (July 2, 2024). The Complete Stephen King Universe: A Guide to the Worlds of Stephen King. Macmillan + ORM. p. 107. ISBN   978-1-4299-3145-8 . Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  6. ↑ Rausch, Andrew J. (February 5, 2019). Perspectives on Stephen King: Conversations with Authors, Experts and Collaborators. McFarland. p. 78. ISBN   978-1-4766-3446-3 . Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  7. ↑ Kennedy, Michael (January 20, 2021). "The Stand Theory: Randall Flagg Is He Who Walks Behind The Rows". Screen Rant . Retrieved August 27, 2025.
  8. ↑ Wurtz, Gina (September 9, 2023). "Stephen King: 1 Forgotten Children Of The Corn Short Film Is Better Than Any Of The Sequels". Screen Rant . Retrieved August 16, 2025.
  9. ↑ Bradley, Laura (March 3, 2023). "The Ridiculous 'Children of the Corn' Remake Is a Mostly Rotten Mess". The Daily Beast. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  10. ↑ Verna, Paul (September 12, 1998). "Reviews & Previews". Billboard . Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 31. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  11. ↑ "Children Of The KoRn by Korn - Songfacts". songfacts.com. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
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