The "Children of the Corn" franchise has been very successful in the task of proliferating horror films of dubious quality. This film, made and released directly to video, resurrects the "tradition" of this franchise: films that have no connection with each other and that look very bad and of really low quality. Taking advantage of almost the fame and name of the franchise, this film has little for a more demanding audience.
The plot is fragile and full of clichés: a couple who suffers a car breakdown in the middle of the Californian desert seeks help in a decaying hut in the middle of nowhere. Coincidentally, there lives an elderly man who married a Russian hot babe, old enough to be his granddaughter. Of course, everything in that place is strange and suspicious, and alarms start ringing in the couple's head, but they still stay around, decide to stick their noses in the lives of their hosts until they know everything about them... and discover more than they wanted to discover.
Honestly, if we want to make a comparison with other films in the franchise, I am sure that this film is not one of the worst. The film manages to build some suspense and the plot, despite their holes (for example, how could that old man, who hardly uses a phone, manage to "import" a Russian girl to be with him?) and their serious problems of logic and credibility, it's entertaining enough that we don't curse all the time spent watching it. It is not a long film, and the fact that everything takes place in a restricted space even paid off in favor of better dramatic construction and more developed characters, in a short time. Still, there is much to be improved, and the dialogues between husband and wife are an example of this, with a lot of forced drama and little content. Also don't expect to see children, corn, heinous deaths or anything like that...
The cast is very good, compared to what we have seen in other films in the franchise. As I said, I think that the development of the characters was very happy, and that was truly the great positive point of the film. The actors were able to deal with the characters. I particularly liked Billy Drago, effective and convincing in his character, and Kelen Coleman.
Technically, the film is competent enough. Cinematography and effects are nothing surprising, but effects do their job well and the sets and costumes are good, and really help to create the right environment for the story.
