“Children of the Corn” began as a pretty good short story written by horror titan Stephen King early in his career. Initially published in 1977, it was collected in the 1978 book “Night Shift,” which is where most horror fans probably read it first. Seven years later, in 1984, a film adaptation hit theaters. It’s probably the best of the series. Heck, it even stars Linda Hamilton and was released the same year “The Terminator” transformed her into a genre movie icon. That said, it’s a very bad movie and there are far superior ’80s slashers and ’80s Stephen King adaptations to scratch whatever itch you may have.
But if you’re going to watch all of these movies as a challenge, as some kind of horror movie Mount Everest (You watch them because you must!), the best thing to do is watch them in order of release. Because yes, there is a continuity here and yes, by the late ’90s, the sequels assumed you at least knew a little about what happened before as it tried to deepen a paper-thin premise. For handy reference:
Children of the Corn (1984)
Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1993)
Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996)
Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998)
Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return (199)
Children of the Corn: Revelation (2001)
Children of the Corn: Genesis: (2011)
Children of the Corn: Runaway (2018)
That’s the core franchise, the one that was loosely designed to be watched in order. For additional homework, completionists will want to seek out “Children of the Corn” from 2009 and “Children of the Corn” from 2020. Both of them are remakes of the first movie, or new adaptations of the original Stephen King story, depending on which poison you’re picking. Both films, like everything else in that list above, are terrible. You can sprinkle them into the rotation as needed.