April 27, 2009 It's a bit strange that with a "Children of the Corn" remake appearing on TV and the original "Children of the Corn" being remastered and released on Blu-Ray, no one has talked about releasing the greatest "Children of the Corn" movie of them all -- Part II, released in 1992.

It's probably because a lot of people don't know about this movie. You simply haven't been able to see it legally since its VHS release back in the 1990s. Granted, a lot of the horror produced during the Clinton years was pretty uselesss. But this title was an exception.

Sure, a lot of people say it sucks -- and by today's standards maybe it does. But it isn't useless. And it's better than "Children of the Corn," which isn't saying a ton. It came out in a year when being a Stephen King movie was a bad thing: "Pet Semetary Two," "Sleepwalkers" and "The Lawnmower Man" also came out around the same time.

Terrence Knox plays a reporter who travels to the rural area from teh first film, with his young son (Paul Scherrer) looking to investigate the mysterious death of parents that happened there.

Of course, the boy gets wrapped up in the cult of youngsters who worship the being known only as "He Who Walks Behind The Rows." Now living in foster homes (they killed all their parents) the children gear up for another round of killings for their corn god. They murder one old woman by crushing her under her own house, in homage to "The Wizard of Oz".



In this film, the lead child preacher isn't Isaac (portrayed by John Franklin in the first film) but a new boy character Micah (played by Ryan Bollman) who is actually possessed by the spirit of 'He Who Walks Behind the Rows' -- the super evil supernatural being that exists in the cornfields of

Produced a long eight years after the first film, "Children of the Corn II" apparently picks up after the events of that film, although it does not hold up well as a direct sequel. But it's arguably the best of the entire, flawed franchise, and set the stage for all the direct-to-video films that followed. This movie was produced by Dimension and Paramount. Perhaps its rights are tied up and as a result it has drifted out of print. It's only available now as a bootleg.



Director David Price didn't go on to direct much else in terms of horror, although he did helm the ill received horror comedy "Dr. Jeckyll and Ms. Hyde." In 2009, he did helm a thriller called "Laredo."

Not a great movie by any means, but unjustly forgotten as the best entry of one of the longest running horror franchises. Don't look for it in a video store any time soon as it's out of print and likely to stay that way.



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