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Children of the Corn

So I know that I finished Night Shift, but I realized that there's still one more thing I'd like to talk about that I never did in a previous post, and that thing is the short story, "Children of the Corn". "Children of the Corn" was the cover story of Night Shift (at least on my copy it was) and because of this is like to give it some recognition.

After doing a little bit of research before I read the story I learned that the story has been turned into a movie. I also learned that this must've been a pretty popular movie when everyone was like, "Hey 'Children of the Corn'? I'VE SEEN THAT MOVIE'", every time they see the cover.  Anyways, let's get to the story.

One of the main villains, Malachai with a crucified skeleton of a police officer in the background
(as depicted from the movie)
"Children of the Corn" is about a married couple, Burt and Vicky, who are constantly bickering about something. One day while they were out bickering over something on their road trip from Boston to the East Coast, they were passing by rows upon rows of corn fields. Vicky even complains about the corn, saying, "This is why we got off the turnpike. So we could look at 300 hundred miles of corn." Their argument was cut short, however, when a lone boy suddenly is popped right out of the corn field and into the front of the van. Now Burt and Vicky are forced to take the boy's body to the nearest town for burial. This wouldn't be such a problem if the closest town was run by psycho children who murder adults as their religion. Of  course, neither Burt or Vicky didn't knew this. You can probably guess what's going to happen next, I mean this is a horror novel.

"Children of the Corn" was a good story but it wasn't my favorite. The story was creepy but it had a really generic plot: psycho killers on the loose and helpless main characters are on the run. The plot wasn't as interesting as the other ones found in the book. But I still liked it. Stephen King again demonstrates his writing especially in the characterization. Burt is a very stubborn man as a result of his and Vicky's dysfunctional relationship, and  Vicky is even more headstrong making her not likable at all. (The only thing she had going for her was common sense to leave the town.). Both of their attitudes are the sole reason why they were thrown into this unfortunate situation, and because of this, the reader automatically dislikes one the two.

Overall, I would rate this story a 7/10.

The movie surprisingly had a sequel called "The Last Sacrifice". Want more information? Here's a link
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106557/

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 14, 2014 at 8:11 AM

    I have heard many interesting things about this book and all the short stories. After reading your posts, I am convinced this would be a good book to read.

    ReplyDelete

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