It's hard to believe that one little Stephen King story has inspired seven movies. A lot of people seem to have positive memories of 1984's Children of the Corn, though it's been too long since I've seen it. The sequels, however, seem to be degrading as the years go by, and I don't see how this most recent sequel is related to the original concept.

Jamie Lowell (Claudette Mink) arrives in Gatlin, Nebraska looking for her grandmother, who was living in a condemned building with a mysterious cornfield next door when she disappeared. The building only has four residents left, each who can be easily described in four words or less. Let's try, shall we? There's the gun nut, the druggie office manager, the foul-mouthed old man, and, of course, the perky stripper. There are also two pale Amish kids who hang around and look generally menacing.

If your main problem with The Sixth Sense was that it didn't have enough corn, this is the movie for you. The very earthy (ha!) Children of the Corn series isn't an easy mesh with a ghost story, but the makers of Children of the Corn: Revelation decided to give it a go. But apparently lacking to budget for lots of extras to die or many special effects, there are only a handful of murders, and they're all extremely boring. Okay, the perky stripper is killed in the bathtub by some super-fast-growing corn, but all the rest of the murders are along the lines of falling off the roof of the building and such. And don't be fooled by the title, there are no particular revelations here, least of all about the mysterious "He Who Walks Behind the Rows," the deity who figures in all the previous films. He's only mentioned once.

Incidentally, some online retailers describe the movie's plot as follows:

"The children of a small Nebraska town who worship 'He Who Walks Behind the Rows' return in this seventh installment of the series. This time, the FBI have tracked a serial killer to Gatlin, Nebraska where discover not only startling revelations about their killer, but uncover the deeply disturbing history of the town as well."

I'm not sure where they got this synopsis, but it sounds a hell of a lot more interesting than the film I watched.

Don't worry, the corn looks fine. As with any big studio transfer of a current film, this one looks and sounds great.

The only extra included is a gallery of trailers, though one for the feature film is not included. You do get previews for Children of the Corn 3: Urban Harvest, Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering, Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror, Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return, Dracula 2000, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween: H20, and Mimic 2. It's like a crash course in unnecessary horror film sequels.