I have no faith in Children of the Corn: Runaway but I need to complete my Children of the Corn franchise. The positives are small, but they are there. This was filmed at the same time Hellraiser: Judgment was, and I liked that one. John Gulager is the director and he did all 3 Feast films, Zombie Night, and Piranha 3DD. I am oddly enough familiar with all of them, I think, not sure about Piranha. Clu Gulager is also in this film and he’s done plenty of horror movies. None of this means it will be great because they have been part of good things and bad things. It’s 82 minutes, so not much time wasted.
Wikipedia doesn’t even have a page for this film. It redirects to the CotC franchise page. That is a little concerning. The producers are also questionable. I must go dive into this and hope for the best. Let’s watch, Children of the Corn: Runaway.
Start Film
Ruth got pregnant. Her boyfriend already got got by He Who Walks Behind the Rows. So she burned the corn and runaway. Yes, that’s the name of the film! Her water breaks while she is driving and she has to pull off on the side of the road. Why is this being narrated?
13 years later
Ruth is with her son, Aaron, and he calls him mom by her real name. Aaron is the one narrating. They mostly lived in their truck. They sell scrap metal, apparently. They get a hotel room and we get to see her peeing. Thanks for that. In the night, Aaron hears a couple arguing in the next room. Then he sees this fucked up hooker who flashes her tits, then falls face-first into the window and is pissed. Aaron wants to go to a real school. The radio is creepily talking to Ruth and then she gets pulled over by an officer. Well, they lost their truck and are hauling all of their belongings. She wants to apply to be a mechanic. The owner, Carl, is not impressed and says he isn’t running a charity. Well it is night and they are out in the rain and the owner comes and takes them in. His wife and daughter got run down by a drunk. He tells Ruth that she’s out of here at sunrise. He seems like a nice enough dude. Ruth is talking in her sleep and chanting some of the old shit about cutting them down, spread the blood, and plant the seeds. We see a quick execution flashback. Neither can sleep on the cots, so they sleep on a truck that is on a lift.
In the morning, Carl comes into the garage and Ruth is fixing a truck. And now the truck starts. He gives her the job and gives her some coveralls. Then a little girl in a yellow dress visits. It’s lunchtime and Josephine’s across the street. There are kids outside looking creepy. The girl in the yellow dress is looking in through the window. More creepy kids enter. The yellow dress girl better not be her as a kid. Ruth is imagining the kids performing a massacre, like in the original film. Ruth grabs a kid when she is freaking out and causes a panic in the diner. There was a locust during the freakout and apparently that is her sign that she is imagining shit.
There was an angry fat dude at the diner. He heads back to his trailer and he hears a kid in his barn. It’s the girl in the yellow dress. She hits him with a croquet mallet and bloodies him up good, but he’s alive. he sees her and runs toward her, but there is wire around his throat and he just killed himself. Carl lets Ruth and Aaron stay in an empty home for now. The town they are in is called Luther. I assume it’s supposed to be Oklahoma. There’s a locust and Ruth is having flashbacks about some attack of a middle-aged lady. She also sees a man get bludgeoned with a big wrench. Ruth is apologizing to all of these victims.
Ruth wants to get Aaron into school, but they won’t accept him without proof of residence. She will also need proof of parental status. This principal already knows that she is working with Carl and suggests that maybe she should just leave Luther. Also, that principal may be a closet racist. How would you get a job like that in this day and age and be racist? Like, what would be the point.
Sarah the waitress likes Ruth. The locals don’t like Ruth much. The old man at the counter, Crusty, played by Clu, calls Sarah and Ruth lesbians. He’s also a pervert and Sarah has a nice rack. It happens. Ruth makes a big deal about picking up Aaron in an hour, but she works right across the road so why was this remotely necessary? These flashbacks are doing nothing for me. Sarah tries to have a conversation with Aaron, getting him to talk. Ruth wants to talk to Carl but fears that she smells. So she takes a quick sink bath and he notices that she smells like oil soap.
At night, Carl and Ruth chat. She’s from Nebraska. Carl is about to make the move. They kiss. Where’s Aaron to see this? She is hesitant. He tells her that they don’t have to. Now she is working on getting his pants off. Carl has a bad leg, so that makes for a good time. There’s Aaron, and Ruth kicks Carl out. Carl is not happy with her reaction. He says that he has been nothing but decent to both of them. He’s right. They both knew better. Aaron ran upstairs and then out of his window. She naturally finds him in the truck. Does she really need to explain herself to him? He is 13. He asks her if she loved his father, and she thinks so.
The next day, at the garage, Carl wants to talk. She is kinda being a bitch to Carl, in my opinion. Locusts keep coming into the diner. Now Ruth is bitchy with Sarah for actually talking to Aaron. Sarah was being nice too. Ruth is now angry at work. Carl just walks away. Not worth it, sir. Hahaha, Aaron made some doll and Ruth asked if the girl taught him that and he tells her that Ruth taught him. Well played.
At night, Ruth is trying to read and sees Aaron outside with a girl. Ohhhh. But was it really Aaron. She badgers him in his room and closes his window. How rude! It looks to be hot as hell up in there.
Uh oh, Ruth is now fucking up at work. He has to fire her and she blames it on not screwing Carl. He tells her to get out. Hahaha, good for you Carl. As Ruth is stomping away outside, there’s the girl in the yellow dress. I know that we are supposed to empathize with Ruth, at the very least, but she makes mistakes, which helps humanize her. Sarah fucks with another patron at the diner. That was funny. The guy complained about the soup being too cold. So she brought it back and heated the spoon instead. Then gave it back to him.
Ruth is sitting at the playground when the principal lady, comes walking out with 2 other women. The lady tells Ruth that she can’t be there. Yeah, no shit. Either that lady has huge boobs or her top is fitting strangely.
Carl is closing up shop when the girl in the yellow dress shows up. Poor Carl. She grabs a wrench and takes out his leg and then hits him once and then swings him and he goes flying backward in such a ridiculous manner. He hides in a vehicle for safety, but the little girl isn’t finished with him yet. She busts all the windows and does a cartwheel. She’s a delight. Now Carl is crawling on the ground, gets to his office. He gets to the drawer with his gun. She spears him from behind with a huge pipe. He asks her why, and then she finished him off with the wrench. I like her. She gets shit done.
The next day, Ruth is outside and hears the same chant about blood and seeds. These kids have butchered some animal. She interrupts and even the girl in the yellow dress is there. Ruth runs into a scarecrow. The kids all run and disperse. Ruth thinks that Aaron was part of the group, but he denies it. Oh, the principal lady lives in the house that Yellow Dress always goes to. And yes, she has very large boobs, it appears. They kinda stand out a bit.
Flashback to Aaron being sick as a smaller kid and Ruth broke into a pharmacy for medicine for him. Ruth comes to the diner and asks Sarah for help. Ruth asks Sarah if she’s ever heard of Gatlin Nebraska. She has and knows about the mass killing a decade or so ago. Hold up. That happened in the ’80s. Is this supposed to be the 90’s? Ruth admits to being one of the kids. Ruth says that the kids wanted Aaron. Ruth asks Sarah to take Aaron away from there as far as possible. Sarah says that she can take him to her ex-boyfriend.
Ruth checks at the garage and this annoying lady named Candy is in a rush. They find Carl and Candy take off running after setting off her car alarm. Thanks for that, you miscreant. Ruth hears something and then realizes that the cops will think that she did this. Just call the cops. Nope, she drives the lady’s car out of there. She then gives Sarah the keys to the lady’s car and they leave. Like, is Ruth not concerned about the fact that she just stole a car and found a dead body.? Ruth is walking the road and sees a cop car approaching with its sirens on so she goes off the side of the road and hides. But there’s the Yellow Dress girl. Christ, have I seen too many Hellraisers? The girl just keeps on skipping through a field and goes back to the one house.
So in the end, are we going to see that Ruth committed all of the murders? Does Yellow Dress live in the house or does she help guide Ruth to the next kill? Does Ruth have to kill 5 people and then her ex-boyfriend gets his skin back? That is a Hellraiser reference. My laptop has crashed 3 times in a row as I have tried finishing this paragraph. Good times!
Sarah takes Aaron to a water tower. Aaron knows that they aren’t going to Tulsa. Ruth finds the principal lady all bloody, but then time reverses. This is all from previous flashbacks. Do I want soup, mac n’ cheese, or Chef Boyardee after this? Ruth is finding all the bodies from her flashbacks. Then a girl says her name. You will be completely shocked and awed that it is the Yellow Dress girl. She had the wrench but now Ruth picks up the wrench and now Yellow Dress isn’t there. Sarah is there and tells her that she is still a part of them and they’re still a part of her. Mmmhmm. Haha, Ruth’s real name is Sandra, but Ruth is the biblical name. She asks Sarah where Aaron is and Sarah suggests that they are becoming soulmates.
Ruth wants her son and Sarah assures her that he is downstairs. Is Aaron going to kill his mother? When did Ruth actually kill these people? Ruth is trying to talk to Aaron but he is covered in blood and looks all crazy. She tells him that Sarah is the one that they have been running from all of this time. Then how did Ruth recognize her? She tells Aaron that he needs to just run. And they say their “I love you” and then Aaron stabs Ruth twice. Ruth is walking pretty well considering her wounds. Like really well. Ruth finally dies.
“In the end, Ruth wasn’t running away from her destiny. She was running toward it.” That is Aaron’s brilliant words. Aaron is now at the Children church and giving a sermon while the kids and Sarah watch on. Why was Sarah allowed to live?
End Film
Oh, I am so happy that is over with. These films either need to die or be given a better budget. This story wasn’t bad, it really wasn’t. Unfortunately, it was such an obviously low budget film. Oh, I just found out that this was a sequel to the dreadful 2009 Children of the Corn remake where they made Vicky into a black lady that couldn’t act to save her life. That explains so much. There was a Ruth in that film. I knew that there was at least one film with a character named Ruth.
Honestly, double or triple the budget, get a couple of known actors for some roles, and I think this story could have shined in a theatrical release. Alas, they did what they could with this. but the flashbacks gave too much away for the “twist”. And that is the problem. This film is predicated on one twist. Once you know the twist, which you could gather fairly early on, this just becomes a film where you wait to see how they do the reveal. Oh well. I thought that Marci Miller (Ruth) and Mary Kathryn Bryant (Sarah) stood out nicely. I didn’t like Ruth’s actions, but I thought they were acted well.
Rating: 4.4 – This was watchable but I can’t imagine watching this again. This is why one-trick pony films aren’t very high on my rating lists. Something like The Usual Suspect will still be great in 50 years because of the great acting, the story, everything is a really good film, before you get to the reveal. Or you have garbage like the Sixth Sense and you’d never want to watch it again.
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