"Children of the Corn" is a short story written by Stephen King. The story was originally published in the March 1977 issue of Penthouse, and was later included in King's own 1978 collection Night Shift and in the collection Stephen King Goes to the Movies.
Plot[]
A married couple come across the body of a murdered boy while driving through the corn fields of Nebraska. They go to the nearest town for help and find its only inhabitants are a cult of murderous children.
Burt and Vicki are a married couple traveling through rural Nebraska, purposefully avoiding any major highways to see the local landscape, which consists of miles of cornfields. Their marriage seems troubled and they bicker quite frequently. When Burt takes his eyes off the road to counter a point made by Vicki, he fails to see a teenaged boy who seemingly runs out in front of their car. Burt stops immediately and inspects the body, finding the boy didn't die under the car's tires but of a slashed throat. Venturing a short distance into the corn, Burt finds splashes of blood and a small suitcase. He wraps up the body and places it in the trunk, intending to drive to the next town and alert the local police about what he believes was a murder.
Vicki rifles through the contents of the suitcase, finding a small corncob sculpture of a crucifix. She's repulsed by it. When they turn on the radio to see if there are any reports of missing persons, the radio only seems to broadcast Pentecostal preaching, which further disgusts Vicki, who'd grown up in a strictly religious family. When the two arrive a few minutes later in the small village of Gatlin, it is curiously empty—there's no sign of any residents, even on the main drag.
Burt spots the local constable's station but finds no one is on duty. He tells Vicki he'll check out the church, at which point Vicki becomes nearly hysterical, not wanting to be left alone. In the church, Burt finds the letters of the church's name have been thrown carelessly in a corner. He determines they spelled "Grace Baptist Church". The keys on the organ have all been smashed and replaced with a sign declaring that only human voices will produce any music for the congregation. He also finds the church's Bible with most of the New Testament destroyed but the Old Testament untouched. He finds ledger with a long list of names. Most puzzling about this tome is that the people listed in it haven't lived past their nineteenth birthdays. He also surmises that the kids may have murdered all the adults in the village, including their parents.
A sudden and prolonged blast from his car's horn drags him back out to the street. He sees a group made up of children and teenagers dressed in 19th century garb, attacking his car with farm tools, bricks and rocks. When they are able to open the car to grab Vicki, Burt rushes to them. He is immediately attacked by a red-haired teenaged boy who wields a pocket knife, stabbing Burn in the upper arm. Threatening to claw Burt's eyes out, Burt seizes the knife from his arm and stabs the boy in the throat. The boy dies in the street while his friends watch in shock. Burt demands to know where they've taken Vick: the only answer is from one of the kids, who makes a slashing gesture across his throat. The voice of another of the children yells at the group to chase and kill him. Burt runs and is able to hide for short time before he continues into the cornfields.
Burt is able to lose the mob and walks for hours through the fields, realizing he's become lost. He also notices that the soil around the corn has no weeds. He comes to a large clearing where he finds, to his absolute terror, that Vicki is dead, crucified and her eyes torn out and replaced with corn silk and her mouth stuffed with corn husks. Also in the clearing are the decaying corpses of a priest and a police officer, presumably the local sheriff or constable. As he stares at all three, he notices that the row openings have all closed, preventing him from leaving. A large and green, bulky shape appears with huge red glowing eyes, prompting Burt to scream as he dies.
Some time later, the children from the town have gathered in the clearing. Burt is now crucified like Vicki and the others. One of the kids, a nine-year-old named Isaac, whom the children fear, leads them in a prayer service. Members of some powerful and fanatical religious sect, they are the descendants of the oldest children in the ledger that Burt found in the church. Isaac then tells the oldest among them, the 19-yr-old Malachi, that he must appease He Who Walks Behind the Rows by sacrificing himself, along with any others who have come of age. It was Malachi who tracked down Japeth, another teen who tried to escape the village. When Malachi had found him, he slashed his throat and threw him out of the field onto the road where Burt ran over the body. One of the teenaged girls, Ruth, is pregnant with Malachi's child and weeps for him. She harbors a strong desire to escape, setting the corn on fire late in Fall when the stalks are dead and highly combustible. She is very careful to hide her feelings about Isaac and He Who Walks Behind the Rows, knowing the latter can read what's in their hearts and minds. Malachi walks into the corn and disappears.
Adaptations[]
The story was adapted into a film in 1984, leading to a film series and was later remade in 2009. Another remake was released in 2020.