Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return
Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return is a 1999 American supernatural horror slasher direct-to-video film directed by Kari Skogland and starring Nancy Allen, Natalie Ramsey, John Franklin, and Stacy Keach. It is the sixth film in the Children of the Corn series.[1]
| Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return | |
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DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Kari Skogland |
| Written by |
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| Based on | Children of the Corn by Stephen King |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Richard Clabaugh |
| Edited by | Troy T. Takaki |
| Music by | Terry Michael Huud |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Buena Vista Home Video |
Release date |
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Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The film is notable for being the first film in the series to feature John Franklin reprising his role as Isaac, who hadn't been seen since the first film, and for being the first of the straight-to-video sequels to actually have some narrative connection to the original film.
Plot
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (May 2010) |
Hannah, born of the original Gatlin corn cult, visits the town of Gatlin to find her birth mother. She picks up a street preacher named Zachariah, whose car broke down. He tells her about her name and then vanishes. After Hannah crashes into a cornfield, the sheriff suddenly appears and takes Hannah to a hospital in town. Once there, she finds out Isaac was not killed by "He Who Walks Behind The Rows" after the death god took control of his body in the first film, but instead went into a coma. The hospital appears filled with strange patients who speak of a prophecy involving Hannah and Isaac before the scene changes.
After she leaves the hospital and resumes her journey, she is nearly driven off the road by a mysterious truck. After pulling into a strange motel, she almost steps on a dead crow and is startled by a smiling young boy who suddenly appears in a chair next to her car. She meets a pair of romantically-involved teenagers in the motel office, a girl and her boyfriend, Matt. She then checks into the motel. The following day, as Hannah leaves the motel, a small crowd gathers around her car, fascinated by her.
Meanwhile, the scene changes. Isaac has awakened from his long nineteen-year sleep (in which He Who Walks Behind the Rows left him at the end of the first film) and finds out that he has a son. Hannah returns to the hospital, where she begins having visions in the empty hallway before Gabriel appears behind her. He shows her to the record room so she can look for her birth certificate. While they are in the dark, Jake tries to split her head open with an axe. Gabriel leaves Hannah alone to take Jake back to his room. While alone, Hannah finds a scythe pinning what she thinks is her birth certificate into the wall.
A strange woman tries to touch Hannah while lying in bed in the middle of the night but leaves once she realizes Hannah is awake. Hannah recognizes her truck as the one that drove her off the road. She follows the truck until dawn into the middle of the cornfield, but before she can follow the person, she runs into Jesse: another strange teenager carrying a machete. He tells her the truck owner is Rachel Colby, the same name on the birth certificate. In her motel room, Hannah discovers the words "GET OUT OR DIE!" written in what appears to be blood in the shower. Back at the church, Rachel confronts Isaac. Rachel is the widow of Amos (both Rachel and Amos appeared as teenagers in Children of the Corn), and she believes her daughter to be dead. When she leaves after arguing with the prophet, Isaac tells her how he will punish her for her betrayal. Rachel later talks with Dr. Michaels, who wants to move on beyond the ideas of cults and sacrifices. He tells Rachel to do whatever she needs to do to try to stop Isaac.
Dr. Michaels comes back to the hospital. He finds Jake has clogged the sink and caused water to go all over the floor and is now muttering mindlessly on his knees. Isaac steps out of the shadows, displaying supernatural power. Michaels stands, unafraid of him, warning him to leave Hannah alone, exposing himself as the one who took Hannah away from the town. Isaac pulls a sparking electric cord from the wall and drops it on the wet floor, electrocuting Michaels. Later, Isaac approaches the son, revealed to be Matt. He is proud of the belief that his son will carry on his legacy.
Matt, though, seems less than enthusiastic. While Gabriel talks with Isaac in the cornfield, they both discuss the events that transpired and the prophecy, but Gabriel mocks Isaac for letting his disciples hang him on a cross (which happened in the first film) and is forced to leave. Hannah is meanwhile driven off the road again, this time by a drunken Matt. After she yells at him, he hands her a shovel and tells her he is a descendant of Isaac and for her to trace her lineage. Hannah begins digging up the grave of Baby Colby, Rachel's apparently dead child. As she digs, the bloody dead body falls right above her head, hanging from a tree; however, this turns out to be only an illusion. Rachel is in the graveyard with her and warns her that there's no going back if she continues. Hannah then says she'll only leave if Rachel tells her the truth. Rachel denies her this, calling it "repulsive". As Hannah prepares to open the casket, a desperate Rachel tells her the prophecy: "The firstborn daughter of the children will return on the eve of her nineteenth-birthday to find out who she is and He-Who-Walks-Behind-The-Rows will awaken".
Hannah opens the casket to see it is empty, and Rachel knew Hannah was her child and wasn't dead. She tells a distraught Hannah that Isaac wants Hannah to make a new, "pure" race. Hannah accuses her of insanity and runs away. The cult gathers to celebrate in the cornfields as Matt is branded as the first of the chosen. While Hannah is walking through the cornfields that night, she is surrounded by children, one of whom injects her with a sedative. Hannah wakes up surrounded by the cult members and a blazing bonfire. They place a crown of corn husks on her head and brand her hand like they did Matt. They begin to perform a union-ceremony between her and Matt, but Hannah escapes. They try to catch her, activating the irrigation system and driving motorcycles through the fields. Rachel appears before the cult members, claiming Isaac is a fraud. Matt's girlfriend attempts to help Hannah escape because she wants to be with Matt. They are soon cornered by the cult members who capture them. It turns out that Gabriel was on the bike Hannah was put on and takes her out of the cornfields. Matt's girlfriend, though, isn't so lucky, and Isaac orders Matt to kill her. Matt refuses and Isaac, cursing his son, splits her in half with Jesse's blade. With that, Matt runs into the cornfield.
Gabriel tends to Hannah's wounds in a barn, helps her bathe, and kisses her. They begin to have intercourse at the exact moment the clock strikes twelve. Matt then soon appears in the barn. Hannah asks about her mother and leaves to look for her after not receiving any answer. While in the barn, Gabriel shows Matt his collection of all of the farming tools of the original children and promises that Matt will be with his girlfriend. He leaves the barn with Hannah, and Matt impales himself on a scythe. Rachel is held in the hospital's basement. Hannah is being led to her by visions of Cora beating her. In the hallway, she meets Jake, who warns her of "a false-prophet, sheep's-clothing, raving-wolves!" while Gabriel kills Jesse with his supernatural power. Hannah confronts Isaac, who now believes himself to be 'He-Who-Walks-Behind-The-Rows' and has gone mad with power. Gabriel storms down the hospital halls and, when Cora tries to shoot him, with a flick of his wrist and the word 'bang', has her kill herself. He then confronts Isaac and exposes that he was the firstborn child of the children and that Isaac denied him his birthright in favor of his own son.
Gabriel tells Hannah to kill Isaac, but listening to her mother, Hannah does not. Gabriel, however, goes on to explain how everything that has happened has gone according to his plan. He then levitates Isaac with his power and reveals himself to be "He-Who-Walks-Behind-The-Rows", having stolen the firstborn child's body and manipulating everything from the start. Gabriel restrains Isaac to the ground and stabs him with the broken end of a lead pipe, ending the mad prophet. Rachel stabs Gabriel when he tries to convince Hannah to stay, then she and Hannah flee from the hospital but not before Gabriel tells Hannah, "The seeds have already been sown" before dying. Gabriel, though, is healed almost instantly and, after commenting on his 'good performance', begins to set off explosions, killing Jake. Rachel and Hannah then walk down the road, with Hannah now knowing what Gabriel's words meant. She is currently pregnant with the child of 'He-Who-Walks-Behind-The-Rows'.
Cast
- Natalie Ramsey as Hannah Martin
- Nancy Allen as Rachel Colby
- Paul Popowich as Gabriel
- John Franklin as Isaac Chroner
- Alix Koromzay as Cora
- John Patrick White as Matt Chroner
- Nathan Bexton as Jessie
- William Prael as Jake
- Sydney Bennett as Morgan
- Stacy Keach as Dr. Micheals
Release
The film, just like the last three installments before it, was not theatrically released but went direct-to-video on October 19, 1999 on VHS and DVD formats.
The film debuted on the Blu-ray format for the first time via Echo Bridge Entertainment on May 15, 2011. It was included in a double feature with its predecessor that was also making its Blu-ray debut, Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998).[2]
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return holds an approval rating of 0% based on five reviews.[3]
See also
References
- ^ Browning, Mark (2011). Stephen King on the Small Screen. Intellect Books. pp. 73–5. ISBN 978-1-841-50412-4.
- ^ "Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror / Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return Blu-ray (Miramax Double Feature)".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return (1999)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
External links
- Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return at IMDb