Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992)

Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice is the sequel to the 1984 movie Children of the Corn. This sequel, directed by David F. Price, stars Terence Knox, Ryan Bollman, Ned Romero, and Paul Scherrer. The film was released in theatres by Dimension Films in January 1993, with the video release handled by Paramount Pictures. Several sequels followed this film, all but one of which were released directly to video. The series is based on the short story Children of the Corn by Stephen King.

A journalist and his son travel to Nebraska to investigate the mysterious town of Gatlin where, unbeknownst to them, a murderous cult of children are still waiting in the corn fields.

Plot
The plot concerns Hemingford, Nebraska, a town near Gatlin (the original film's setting) days after the events in Gaitlin.

The massacre of adults in Gaitlin and everything around it has been exposed and the people of Hemingford decide to adopt the surviving children in Gatlin, intending to help the children start new lives. John Garrett, a reporter goes there with his son Danny to investigate the massacre and the reasons behind it. Unfortunately for the corrupt locals, who secretly adopt them out of fear that Gatlin´s corrupt activities regarding poisoned corn, which are also theirs, will come out, which contributed to the disaster, the children go again out to the cornfield and Hemingford children go with them, too. There one of the corn cult members, Micah, has been possessed by a demon sent by He Who Walks Behind The Rows, the demonic entity the cult worships. The children begin to become susceptible to the satanic cult again, because the townspeople haven't given up their corrupt activities despite of everything regarding poisoned corn from last year's harvest being maintained to be mixed with the next year´s harvest to minimise losses, which causes Afrotoxin to spread everywhere, a toxin that affects especially the children and which causes hallucinations and agression among children. It is also something the children know about and which lead them to become attracted to the death cult.

In time they begin the rampage again and over the course of one weekend, the children kill most of the people in the town. John and an Indian called Frank must find a way to stop them, while Danny begins to become influenced by the cult and must decide to follow it or not.

Cast

 * Ryan Bollman as Micah: The leader of the new corn group, successor of Isaac from the first film, who is possessed by a demonic spirit.
 * Paul Scherrer as Danny Garret: The main character.
 * Terence Knox as John Garret: Danny's father, reporter for the Worldly Inquirer.
 * Christie Clark as Lacey Hellerstat: A local orphaned girl, whom Danny has a crush on.
 * Ned Romero as Frank Redbear
 * Rosalind Allen as Angela Casual

Production
Film production began at the end of spring 1992, and shooting began in summer 1992 in Liberty, North Carolina. Most of the cast were locals, including the children. The scene involving an elderly woman flying through a store window after her wheelchair becomes controlled by Micah was filmed in downtown Ramseur, North Carolina. The scene where Micah and the children of the corn burn the town elders was filmed in a home at the corner of Asheboro St. and Luther Ave. in Liberty. The home was burned for the film and a vacant lot remains where the house once stood. The production crew used a local parsonage at the corner of Fayetteville and Raleigh Sts. in Liberty as its headquarters during shooting. Brian Yuzna's son Xeno appears as one of the children of the corn.

In the DVD commentary, director David F. Price said during the shoot there was a local Christian group who held a few (low-key) protests during filming, and he received a dead rodent on his door step as a warning. As a result, the production constructed their own church for a few scenes in the film. Despite this, no actual incidents occurred.

Also in the DVD commentary, Price said the ending involving Red Bear painting a stone was added at the last minute. Originally, it involved John Garrett making a phone call to his tabloid at a phone booth by the side of the road near the cornfield, only to have it swallowed into the earth by He Who Walks Behind The Rows, killing him. This was scrapped due to budget constraints.

Trivia

 * According to the original draft of the script, the film was going to be called "Children of the Corn 2: Deadly Harvest".