Linda Hamilton has been in some great movies over her career, but she has one film she specifically calls the worst she has appeared in. Hamilton enjoyed her breakout thanks to the Terminator franchise, where she played Sarah Connor, but that was only one film in a long, successful career.
Early in her career, she also took on a role in a Stephen King adaptation, but she doesn’t have very positive memories of that film. In fact, Linda Hamilton called it the worst movie of her career. That said, the movie Hamilton hates has become a cult classic, and its success proves Hamilton is wrong in her assessment.
Linda Hamilton Calls Children Of The Corn Her Worst Movie
In 1984, Linda Hamilton starred in the Stephen King adaptation of Children of the Corn. Directed by Fritz Kiersch, the movie is based on a short story from the Night Shift collection. It follows a young couple (Hamilton and Peter Horton) whose car breaks down in a small Nebraska town, where the adults are gone, and the kids are killers.
Hamilton spoke about her career in 1992 and said that she had a few disappointments in the past. While she loved working in the Terminator franchise, she had only bad memories of Children of the Corn.
“Nothing has beaten ‘Stephen King’s Children of the Corn’ yet which still haunts my past as the worst film I’ve made. Can you believe they’re making a sequel? They didn’t dare ask me to reprise that role!”.
It was a harsh critique of the movie, and while Hamilton has every right to regret the film. She said in a later interview that the film kept running out of money and that key scenes were not filmed due to a lack of funds. However, despite the problems, Children of the Corn is much better than she might remember.
It is also important to note that Linda Hamilton was early in her career when she made these comments. Children of the Corn might have been her worst movie, but it was only her second role. She also called King Kong Lives ridiculous, and she was clearly comparing her films to the Terminator franchise at the time.
Children Of The Corn Remains A Cult Favorite
Children of the Corn is not the best Stephen King adaptation, but it has many positives that have helped its reputation over the years. Honestly, the worst parts of the movie might be the main protagonists, with Hamilton and Horton’s characters mostly forgettable. The true stars here were the villains.
Both John Franklin and Courtney Gains have become iconic horror figures in the decades since the release of Children of the Corn. Both actors are in high demand when retrospectives are released or horror festivals bring in classic horror villains. Franklin played the cult leader, Isaac, and Gaines played his second-in-command, Malachai.
While the movie was mostly dismissed by critics when it was released, it remains a mainstay for horror fans thanks to its eerie atmosphere, and especially the creepy performances by Franklin and Gains. The original movie is also seen in a much brighter light thanks to the films that followed it, proving Kiersch had the best grasp of the story.
The basis of the original story is the monster hidden in the cornfields, but that is never what is important, which is why Keirsch focused more on the kids. This movie is best when focusing on the kids building an organized society around Isaac’s rules, and then following it to create a system that brings death and violence.
In that aspect, the original Children of the Corn movie worked best as a horror tale. Later sequels wanted to focus on He Who Walks Behind the Rows, which is the least interesting part. The best part is Isaac and Malachai, and their determination to follow their beliefs, the scariest theme in the entire franchise.
Children Of The Corn Still Spawned A Very Long Franchise
While a long-running horror franchise does not necessarily mean a film was great, the original Children of the Corn was popular enough to warrant 11 movies and counting, a franchise that has had more lows than highs. Linda Hamilton seemed shocked about the sequel, which arrived in 1993, but that was just the start of this story.
By the time the ’90s ended, there were six movies, with Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return bringing the decade to a close. There were then three more sequels to the original franchise in 2001, 2011, and 2018. On top of that, there was a 2009 remake made for television and a 2020 reboot by director Kurt Wimmer.
Of all these films, the first Children of the Corn remains the best of the bunch. As the Hellraiser franchise has shown, movies that continue long after their heyday drop drastically in quality, and that happened here. The original was a low-budget affair, so that speaks volumes about Fritz Kiersch getting what he did out of his film.
That is especially true when looking at the 2020 reboot, which was supposed to “fix” the problems of the original franchise. Kurt Wimmer, who has seen success with movies like The Beekeeper, couldn’t get it right and watched critics shred his film, which has an 11% Rotten Tomatoes score. If anything, the original movie wasn’t “mediocre.”
The legacy of Children of the Corn is notable, as it continues to be shown during the Halloween season and has enjoyed some legacy screenings since its release four decades ago. The main story remains popular, a testament to Stephen King’s original story, and the original movie is better than Linda Hamilton might have believed.
- Release Date
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March 9, 1984
- Runtime
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92 minutes
- Director
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Fritz Kiersch
