A Walk Behind The Rows: 10 Terrifying Cornfields In Horror History
It is finally the hallowed and long-awaited month of October. The hot scorch of summer has waned, the air is gratefully cooling, the crops are bountiful and ready for harvesting, and pumpkin spice has seemingly invaded every food and coffee outlet overnight, as if by some dark corporeal/corporate magic.
And nothing helps usher in the season like a carefully curated October watchlist. When planning one’s October viewing, several perennial favorites are almost a yearly given, with the original Halloween (1978) (though Halloween 4 (1988) arguably conveys the Fall feeling just as well, if not better) and Trick R’ Treat (2008) being two of the most common. And while the predominant signifier of the season is the flickering orange glow of a Jack O’ Lantern, what about the other ‘sister,’ the humble corn cob, or more specifically, the great green and yellow cornfields that are in full bloom in October?
These immense rows are stunning to look at and, just as important, more than a little sinister. What secrets are hidden within the rows? Do they house gangs of murderous children worshiping an ancient deity? Perhaps a supernatural scarecrow hell-bent on revenge? Or malevolent aliens using the cornfields for their pretty but eerie crop circles?
So if you’re looking for some cornfield-based horror, these ten films should satisfy that urge and have you looking over your shoulder when you amble through the corn mazes this spooky season.
Children of the Corn (1984)
This one did come from the pen of Stephen King, with the film adapting the short story from King’s 1978 Night Shift collection. King had apparently written a draft of the script at one point, but it wasn’t used. The film was rushed into production to capitalize on its main feature: the Iowa cornfields. They were ready to go and wouldn’t wait around for pesky things like script revisions or pre-production.
The ending of the film differs from the bleak one in the story, but the basic plot remains with a religious cult of adult-murdering children whose dark biddings are carried out in service of He Who Walks Among the Rows, aka an ancient cornfield dwelling demon. King would revisit this idea in the novella, In the Tall Grass, which he co-wrote with his son Joe Hill and was also adapted into a film by Vicenzo Natali in 2019.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
If you think of cornfields, then your mind invariably goes to scarecrows, those rustic, practical measures against scavenging birds that also happen to look absolutely terrifying in their vague approximations of the human form, with their burlap sack-clad facial features and sagging straw-filled torsos. Dark Night of the Scarecrow is an excellent made-for-TV rural horror film with strong shades of Stephen King, particularly with the gang of bullies led by a nasty Charles Durning. Said bullies murder an intellectually disabled man called Bubba (Larry Drake, who would go on to famously portray a similar role in LA Law), who returns from the grave to enact supernatural revenge on his bumbling yokel tormentors.
Even though Bubba is disguised as a scarecrow when he is murdered, and well, the title of the film, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, is fairly scant on the scarecrow action, remaining a mostly unseen creeping presence until the cornfield set finale, which is also littered with pumpkins for some extra Halloween cred.
Scarecrows (1988)
If you were a little disappointed by the lack of visible scarecrow action in Dark Night of the Scarecrow, then this action-horror hybrid from 1988 has you covered. The film starts in media res with a troop of military thieves making off with their pilfered loot in a hijacked plane before ending up in a rural locale populated with some of the freakiest-looking scarecrows ever put to film. These things look terrifying even before they start moving. Scarecrows also reuses the same vaguely cornfield-ish setting repeatedly, so much so that it starts to resemble a Hanna Barbera cartoon with the characters running around in circles trying to pick up money while trying to avoid being picked off by the gang of pissed-off scarecrows that don’t take kindly to intruders.
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
When Tim Burton decided to scratch his long-brewing Hammer horror itch with his 1999 update of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, he went all in on the trappings of the British horror films of yesteryear, even though the story and setting are distinctly American. Even his leading actor, Johnny Depp, affects a British accent as the bumbling but brave detective Ichabod Crane. Burton cuts right to the chase in the opening scene, which features the pursuit and decapitation of one Peter Van Garrett (an uncredited Martin Landau) and takes place alongside and within a typically Burtonesque cornfield. It even features a malevolent Jack O’ Lantern scarecrow who oversees the bloody proceedings as the Horseman claims his first victim and kicks off the story.
Signs (2002)
Back in 2002, M. Night Shyamalan took audiences to the cornfields of Pennsylvania to explore ideas of family, faith, and grief through the lens of an alien invasion of Earth. Acting as an antithesis to Independence Day and War of the Worlds, Shyamalan dials the scale right down, focusing on the farm of Mel Gibson’s ex-pastor, who is grieving the recent loss of his wife. Within a few minutes of the film opening, Shyamalan drags Gibson (and the audience) into the cornfields to discover the crop circles that have appeared overnight.
Though the latter half of the film is mostly contained to the farmhouse, there is another pulse-tingling scene in the cornfields when Gibson is confronted by an alien in the rows. Shyamalan mined similar territory in last year’s Knock At The Cabin, which also looked at a global event from a confined location.
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
2003’s long-gestating battle royale between Freddy and Jason hasn’t aged particularly well, what with its Nu Metal soundtrack (which no doubt has its fans) and Kelly Rowland’s unforgivable slur. But it does have its high points, not least a burning Jason hacking up stoned fratboys and ravers with his flaming machete. The entire sequence lasts less than three minutes, but Jason manages to off eight teens in that time. The big fella must have thought all his Christmases had come at once! The overhead shot of Jason cutting a burning swathe through the rows alone is enough to make you think twice about attending a rave in a cornfield.
1922 (2017)
The cornfields in 1922 (yet another Stephen King adaptation featuring corn) are more of a background setting in the film, acting as an isolatory wall that cuts off the characters from the rest of the world. Thomas Jane’s Nebraskan farmer, Wilf, murders his wife, Arlette, with the help of his son Henry, and dumps her body in the farm well. Haunted by Arlette’s accusatory spirit and an ensuing swarm of rats, Wilf’s luck (and that of Henry, who absconds with his pregnant girlfriend Shannon) runs down until his whole world literally crumbles around him, and he is forced to sell the farm for a low price and try and outrun his demons.
Unlike the Children of the Corn production, which rushed to utilize the in-season cornfields, 1922’s filmmakers missed out on using real locations, so they had to rely on props, CGI, and landscape plates.
Scary Stories To Tell in The Dark (2019)
Harold the Scarecrow has been terrifying kids of all ages since his first appearance in the third volume of Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark in 1991. Influenced by various folktales, Schwartz details the plight of Harold, a much-abused scarecrow who comes to life and skins one of the farmers who made him.
In André Øvredal’s film (produced by Guillermo Del Toro), Harold takes his revenge on Tommy (Austin Abrams), the film’s nominal bully (who is seen beating Harold with a baseball bat earlier in the film), as he staggers drunkenly through the cornfield to deliver eggs. Tommy gets a pitchfork through the stomach for his troubles and is then violently transformed into a scarecrow himself. Harold also takes a fancy to Tommy’s duds, replacing his shabby crow-pecked flannel shirt with Tommy’s much more stylish letter sweater.
There’s Someone Inside Your House (2021)
This Netflix slasher from a few years back plays as a modern update on ‘90s teen horror and details a killer picking off the young residents of a small town by virtue of their shameful secrets. The killer also wears 3D printed masks of their intended victim, just to add to their terror, and because every good killer needs a mask. The film builds to a finale set in a corn maze that is set ablaze by the killer once it’s packed with the town’s youngsters. What could have been a chilling and thrilling set piece, though, is instead rushed through to get to the final confrontation with the killer.
Dark Harvest (2023)
A small rural town is in sway to the entity known as Sawtooth Jack, who rises from the cornfields every Halloween. The young men of the town are tasked with hunting and killing Jack before he reaches the church at midnight. The winner is lavished with a car, money, and a new home for his family. Of course, things aren’t as simple as all that, with the town harboring some dark secrets behind the contest.
David Slade’s adaptation of Norman Partridge’s much-loved novella does not skimp on the cornfield or scarecrow action (Sawtooth Jack isn’t technically a scarecrow, but given his place of residence and position on a cross, it’ll do). If you’ve seen any of David Slade’s previous work in film and TV (30 Days of Night and Hannibal), then you know he is a visual stylist of the highest order, and he doesn’t disappoint here, bathing his beautiful cornfield vistas in moonlight. The narrative, however, feels a little short-changed (or perhaps edited down to 90 minutes), leaving a few questions and leaps in logic on the table. But those pretty cornfields, though…
Categorized: Editorials
