Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return

Entering this sixth entry to the long drawn out COTC series, I was intrigued at the thought of Isaac's return. The original film is one that I enjoyed a lot, so there were hopes that this could bring the series back to it's successful roots. Unfortunately for me, this ended being a major flop.

We meet Hannah who is traveling to Gatlin, the infamous town from the original Children of the Corn. She lets viewers know that she was born there 19 years prior and has visions of some kind from that horrible place even though she was just a baby. Hannah is also planning to search for her mother, who she was told had died. When she gets into a mini car accident, the town sheriff pulls her over and has a reaction when she sees Hannah's name. After being taken to the Gatlin hospital, she finds Isaac in a coma like state. As soon as she touches him, he opens his eyes awaking him from an almost 20 year sleep.

Hannah soon meets a young man named Gabriel that she takes a liking too. Unfortunately for her, he seems to be working with the sheriff and local doctor against her. It is mentioned by them that the prophecy states Hannah must find out the truth of her birth. While she explores Gatlin, we discover that Isaac has a son. The prophecy that Isaac speaks of states that Hannah must sleep with his teenage son and create the new generation of child cultists to carry out the wishes of He Who Walks Behind The Rows. With no one in Gatlin that she can trust, will Hannah escape the horrific prophecy? Or will Isaac succeed in carrying out what he calls the wishes of "He Who Walks Behind The Rows".

The idea of bringing the series back to the original and making a direct sequel to that one was a great idea on paper, but there were significant flaws in the making of the overall movie. Firstly, the acting might be the worst of all sequels to this point. John Franklin was still as good as ever, playing Isaac one last time. He was made for this evil role. Everyone else struggled. Even Nancy Allen and Stacy Keach, who have always delivered in horror, seemed so out of place in a sixth Children of the Corn film. A lot of the younger cast weren't all that good either, with Natalie Ramsey (Hannah) being the exception. The quality of the film was also tough to look at, there was a constant beige/tan filter over the entire movie throughout. It looked really low budget after some stronger sequels.

There were some real positives in this as well. I loved the idea to bring Isaac back and bring us back to what happened after Linda Hamilton and Peter Horton walked away from their broken down car in Gatlin. Using the teenage Rachel and Amos characters that we saw in the original was extremely clever and tied a lot of things together in an interesting way.

Unfortunately, the flaws of COTC 666: Isaac's Return outweigh the positives. This was my least favourite of the series to this point.

4/10