Children of the Corn: Genesis

Tim and Allie's car breaks down while on a "scenic route" (they never learn, do they?), with the young couple (Allie's with child) later finding the California desert farm of a laconic "preacher" and his Ukrainian "bought wife". What these two don't realize is what lives on the farm, something so evil their very lives could be in jeopardy.
*½

Visiting relatives was the reason for the trip, the detour, obviously a bad idea, carries them right into terror. Not being able to get their car fixed until morn, the preacher reluctantly lets them spend the night in a guest room only demanding that they don't go roaming around his place, just using the outhouse. What does Allie do after taking a piss? You betcha. Curiosity gets the best of her, and her wandering around certainly doesn't benefit her or Tim. He Who Walks Behind the Rows now lives within the son of the preacher...will anyone who finds themselves in this godforsaken place make it out alive?

No doubt, no one can play weird so comfortably/easily like Billy.

To say I wasn't "feeling it" would be an understatement. I was dying for something meaningful or the least bit interesting to happen. Treading water is this film when even going 75 minutes. I would throw the word forgettable at it. The old formula had made the rounds through every film in the Children of the Corn series where children--possessed by an ancient evil--would follow "its" orders by killing adults. In this film, Drago's preacher helps He Who Walks Behind the Rows by supplying "seed" so that plenty of children continue to carry its evil. There was one exhilarating moment in the film where it looks as if the couple are on their way home, but unfortunate for them, the kid held captive in the barn (the son of Drago containing the evil) uses his vehicle hauler toy (with toy cars) to stage an actual vehicular carnage, sending cars off a real hauler on the highway right at them, resulting in tragedy. One bizarre scene has a cop passing by to check out the property in response to Tim's calling them, "lifting off" into the sky, his flashlight falling to the ground (he eventually does during the credits). Several of the films have a recognizable face turning up--from David Carradine and Karen Black to Linda Hamilton and Naomi Watts--and this one, Billy Drago, will be one of the only reasons to even bother with Genesis. It just doesn't really have a lot to offer the horror fan wanting some monster lurking in the cornfield. This film barely features children. Even syfy's Children of the Corn gave us a lot of killer children coming at adults as if a wave of descending doom towards the unlucky ones passing through their  neck of the farm. Drago has always had that ability to make your skin crawl immediately as he shows up on screen. In Genesis, his kind of actor is perfect. You can totally accept him in the role of a faux preacher delivering pregnant girls to He Who Walks Behind the Rows, all with a sleazy guiltless/conscienceless ease. Even as our couple seem to have escaped from the area, there's never a doubt that they will be able to free themselves from the clutches of the evil that lives on Drago's farm.

Allie cares about the boy kept in the barn, threatening Drago and his wife, but ultimately her protective/heroic feelings are for a child harboring an evil she shouldn't release on anyone unsuspecting He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Drago seems fully in control at all times, and their attempts to get away/help fail each and every time. The Children of the Corn series is known to allow the evil to remain alive and well. Drago and his ilk often help in its efforts. Where this film goes wrong (beating a dead horse) is the lack of evil children. The opening promises what is never quite delivered. Perhaps it was the lack of budget. The film does stay in one location for almost the running time's entirety.

I base my review on the expectations of the audience that will watch (or bother with) a Children of the Corn film and, based on the opening which seems to imply a totally different film altogether, Genesis just doesn't cut the mustard. Drago might be enough for some to say it wasn't a total waste because he's such an effective creep, but not even a hardly a sighting of the corn demon or the ever-present danger of monstrous children will leave, I can only imagine, many viewers dissatisfied.