Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror. Dimension. 1998. Reviewed by Brian Kirst.

Genre films of the mid to late 1990’s have an undeniable ascetic of their very own. Like certain periods of art, they can be often be categorized by the knowledgeable viewer without detailed information of the product at hand. Defined by decent (though low-end) budgets, these films are often filled with casts of faded superstars, solid working class actors and major up and comers. Their horror, often supervised by committee and/or concerned executives, is middle of the road (not too mild or too extreme) and often contains nonsensical (or far too simplistic) resolutions to the situations at hand. They are never grand art (or even particularly good films for that matter), but their charms are multiple for the nondiscriminatory or for those simply waxing nostalgic.

1998’s Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror is a perfect example of this 90’s phenomenon. A group of acquaintances on their way to dispose of the ashes of a recently deceased friend, find themselves in Stephen King influenced small town America. Yep, the young followers of "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" are at it again and before they are through, death and destruction will reign once more!

The fact that this "Redenbacher opus" is written and directed by the established Ethan Wiley (creator of the recent Brutal and many other slap-dash, entertaining horror epics) probably helps with its enjoyability. There are some nicely done slicing and dicings along with an appropriately sick confrontation between one of leads and two of the bloodthirsty children that culminates in a gigantic car explosion. The heroine’s ultimate escape is head scratching, but her young antagonist (a forceful Adam Wylie) is deservingly creepy and obnoxious. Most importantly there is a gut spewing confrontation between genre stalwarts Fred Williamson and David Carradine that is worth the rental price alone.

Future star watchers will be pleased to discover Eva Mendes as the bizarrely named Kir. Her performance is fairly effective, but top acting honors go to Alexis Arquette (Bride of Chucky) playing against type as a thwarted (albeit sarcastic) romantic loser and future soap stud Greg Vaughn as another hopelessly heartsick refuge with the name of Tyrus. (The bizarre names of the leads actually outweigh the antiquated handles of the kids in this one.) Frank Zappa fans will delight in son Ahmet Zappa’s rambunctious performance as Lazlo and in daughter Diva Zappa’s ferocious take on the maniacal ‘drill girl’. Ahmet also gets the Janet Leigh prize for being one of the first characters to go! Even Kane Hodder shows up in a fairly lengthy cameo as the local bartender.

Of course a Children of the Corn movie isn’t complete without the rumblings of a sequel (and at least two more followed this one). Wiley provides the sequel ending that all are eagerly anticipating and he even scores the services of veteran actress Season Hubley (Vice Squad, Escape from New York, Stepfather 3) to help deliver this one home with a punch.