In a remote ghost town, children kill any adult who enters the village; their motive, false religion. One day a couple drive into the town, soon learning something is wrong, and it is up to them to stop the senseless sacrifices before they are slaughtered. Aided by two innocent children, they are up against the manic Malachai and some unseen horror known only as He Who Walks Behind The Rows...
My expectations were low for this film after seeing so many other distinctly average offerings from the "based on" Stephen King catalogue of cinema. However I was pleasantly surprised by the film, it's not often that I find myself laughing out loud at a movie, but I just couldn't help myself in this case. It starts off well enough, as a spooky little atmospheric film, the most effective scenes where the helpless couple are driving around seemingly endless dirt tracks in the corn.
However, as soon as the main male lead, played by Peter Norton, is stabbed in the chest (with seemingly no effect) things just go a little over-the-top and start to get funny. They then build up to the climax where I was pleased to see bad '80s animated special effects come into play. Well, some of them weren't that bad, but they weren't exactly VOLCANO-style computer generations. Maybe I am spoilt by SFX these days, but back projection is getting a little dated.
The monster really remains unseen during the film, appearing underground in a TREMORS-style way, it tears up the ground as it speeds along. The acting was also good for a change. The children weren't too annoying, and I actually found myself liking the unaffected kid in the film. Malachai I recognised from somewhere, and the IMDb soon revealed to me that I also saw him in THE 'BURBS a while back. Isaac wasn't exactly what I'd call scary though.
Peter Norton was quite good as the lead, he redeemed his nondescript acting at the start of the film by a speech where he shouted that "religion not based on love is false!" Linda Hamilton, in the same year she made THE TERMINATOR, sadly has little to do but run around and scream as the heroine. Come to think of it that's about all she did in THE TERMINATOR as well. At least her character was fleshed out a little there. The film remains unsettling at times, and is enhanced by the director's decision not to show some of the deaths, instead only hint at them (saying that, there is a meaty scene where an old guy gets his hand pushed into some sort of grinder). It wasn't overly gory but this added to it for me. The climax was fairly entertaining, but really a case of "big explosions don't compensate for tying-up plot threads" again. It's not a good film by any means, and it remains clichéd, but I enjoyed it and that's what counts.
My expectations were low for this film after seeing so many other distinctly average offerings from the "based on" Stephen King catalogue of cinema. However I was pleasantly surprised by the film, it's not often that I find myself laughing out loud at a movie, but I just couldn't help myself in this case. It starts off well enough, as a spooky little atmospheric film, the most effective scenes where the helpless couple are driving around seemingly endless dirt tracks in the corn.
However, as soon as the main male lead, played by Peter Norton, is stabbed in the chest (with seemingly no effect) things just go a little over-the-top and start to get funny. They then build up to the climax where I was pleased to see bad '80s animated special effects come into play. Well, some of them weren't that bad, but they weren't exactly VOLCANO-style computer generations. Maybe I am spoilt by SFX these days, but back projection is getting a little dated.
The monster really remains unseen during the film, appearing underground in a TREMORS-style way, it tears up the ground as it speeds along. The acting was also good for a change. The children weren't too annoying, and I actually found myself liking the unaffected kid in the film. Malachai I recognised from somewhere, and the IMDb soon revealed to me that I also saw him in THE 'BURBS a while back. Isaac wasn't exactly what I'd call scary though.
Peter Norton was quite good as the lead, he redeemed his nondescript acting at the start of the film by a speech where he shouted that "religion not based on love is false!" Linda Hamilton, in the same year she made THE TERMINATOR, sadly has little to do but run around and scream as the heroine. Come to think of it that's about all she did in THE TERMINATOR as well. At least her character was fleshed out a little there. The film remains unsettling at times, and is enhanced by the director's decision not to show some of the deaths, instead only hint at them (saying that, there is a meaty scene where an old guy gets his hand pushed into some sort of grinder). It wasn't overly gory but this added to it for me. The climax was fairly entertaining, but really a case of "big explosions don't compensate for tying-up plot threads" again. It's not a good film by any means, and it remains clichéd, but I enjoyed it and that's what counts.