Children of the Corn (Divimax Edition)
Picture: B
Sound: B Extras: B Film: C+
If there is anything special to be said about the DVD
format it should be said that it is refreshing going back and watching certain
titles that were never made available in a ‘respectable’ way and now seeing it
in true glory. This was my immediate
response upon revisiting Children of the
Corn, released through Anchor Bay as part of their Divimax Edition. Divimax DVD’s take advantage of processing
the film in a High Definition transfer.
Even a low grade, low budget horror film can look spectacular when done
right, but hardly is that the case and VHS never allowed films to benefit for
home viewing.
This seems like an opportune time in general to reflect on
the horror genre and certainly the changes that have come since this films
initial release back in 1984. Let’s
keep in mind that very few horror films at this point had spawned ridiculous
numbers of sequels, which this series would go on to make many follow-up’s,
which have plummeted with each installment.
This particular films resembles more of the ‘religious’ oriented horror
filmmaking that became particularly popular post Rosemary’s Baby and Omen,
but seldom had the positive results, but a film like Children of the Corn
is daring at moments, even when its at its fullest pretentiousness.
It is almost impossible to take films like this serious on
one hand, but on the other if they are done correctly the results can be
staggering. For the most part the film
has more going for it than against. It
builds rather well, becomes tedious during the middle, and then becomes rather
bizarre during the latter portions. The
best moments are when we know less about these possessed children than once we
find out more.
I remember seeing this film in chopped versions, most of
which had washed out colors making the film look really shoddy to say the
least. If you didn’t know better you
would say that the film even had low production value, but my mind was boggled
seeing this film again and the picture quality was stunning. This is not to say that there aren’t a few
problems with the picture, but it is leaps and bounds above anything I’d seen
before and certainly gave the film life.
Divimax DVD’s offer a clean picture as the disc is designed to give
better picture and sound information, similar to a Superbit DVD from Columbia
TriStar, however with the Superbit discs all the information is used for
picture and sound, which excludes any extras.
Divimax titles are treated somewhat different as some are
given the real supped up deal with pumped up audio (DTS 5.1 or DTS-ES discrete)
in some cases. It would be more ideal
for Anchor Bay to stick with going all the way with the sound and keeping DTS
and offering a Dolby Digital 5.1 as a second option. Thus far they released Halloween
in Dolby 5.1 and Time Bandits in Dolby 5.1, but they cannot compete to their
issue of The Osterman Weekend, which
took full advantage with Dolby and DTS for its audio options. Rumor has it that a UK version of Children of the Corn was released
through Anchor Bay and that version DOES have DTS as well, but the American
release only has Dolby 5.1 and Dolby Surround.
The back of the packaging makes it seem like there are two separate
commentary tracks, but note that there is ONLY one commentary track provided by
certain cast members as well as the director and producer.
For being a lower budget horror film Children of the Corn was shot quite well, with interesting
camerawork for the most part. In fact
the use of silhouetted knives and sickles shows off the good lighting and
technique employed. Here the film looks
pretty sharp with some grainy texture to still give it a film-like quality, but
at the same time keeping a nice solid image.
There are certain scenes where the black looks a bit too light and some
contrast boosting may have been done to increase detail in the shadows. Colors look much better than I have seen
before with video red finally looking good and the blood actually has a realistic
look.
The overall audio presentation is decent with the option
of either stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1, both are a tad compressed for my taste
and DTS would have been a nice inclusion.
Aside from the commentary track and a new documentary with interviews
there are just a few minor extras including artwork for the film, DVD-ROM of
the original screenplay, and the theatrical trailer. This is certainly a nice 20th anniversary edition that
highlights the impact of the film and is more retrospective with its extras and
certainly geared towards the true die-hard fans. Without a doubt it will please the majority even with some of its
drawbacks.
- Nate Goss
