FRITZ KIERSCH TALKS ABOUT DIRECTING THE ORIGINAL 1984 ADAPTATION OF STEPHEN KING’S HORROR TALE CHILDREN OF THE CORN

WORDS: OLIVER PFEIFFER

IT LEANS TOWARD HOW WE, AS children, deal with our parents and the idea of wanting to be our own identity; our own person. At a certain age we strike out against our parents, we become rebellious and we turn on them. So this was the amplification and exploitation of some of those things,” director Fritz Kiersch tells SFX about his chilling 1984 film of Stephen King’s “Children Of The Corn”.

An adaptation of a 1977 story first published in Playboy, it concerns a holidaying couple travelling through the back roads of Nebraska, who happen upon the eerily adult-free town of Gatlin. The pair ultimately come into contact with the predominantly adolescent population, who, under the influence of a demonic entity known as “He Who Walks Behind The Rows”, ritualistically murder adults to ensure a prosperous corn harvest. For Kiersch, who was making a living producing TV commercials, it was an opportunity to explore new ground with his creative crew.

“One of the guys that worked for us as a freelance accountant/production manager was Don Borchers,” Kiersch says. “When he moved into a full-time studio position in feature films, he called and said, ‘Here are a couple of films you guys should do, because you know how to make films very inexpensively’. After a couple of, ‘No, that’s not the right story’, ‘That’s too big’s, or whatever, he threw the Corn film in my lap and said, ‘Come on, do this!’”

Stephen King had adapted the story as a screenplay, which focused more on the quarrelling adult couple than the final shooting script does, as well as probing into the history behind the religious cult that sacrifices teenagers upon their 18th birthday. Interestingly, this version was being promoted by Hal Roach, the producer behind Laurel and Hardy and The Little Rascals, a vintage comedy series about the adventures of a group of kids.