Children of the Corn

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to graphic violence, death, horror themes, and domestic violence.

A contentious marriage, an ill-fated road trip, and a cult of killer children are conventional ingredients for a horror story. But, beneath its nod to Gothic horror conventions, “Children of the Corn” reflects the anxieties and uncertainties of its time, focusing primarily on a societal unease with Religious Fanaticism and a Fear of the Unknown.

The fear of the unknown is reflected in Burt and Vicky’s road trip and in their uncertainty about their marriage. As they drive the long, weary miles from Boston to California, they are each struggling to find the right path, both on the road and in their relationship, although they are both processing these concerns in incompatible ways. Burt turns the radio up, hoping that the sheer volume will prevent the onslaught of another argument. Vicky suggests stopping for lunch to give Burt a break from driving and offer both an opportunity to connect and unwind over a meal, although she hides her desire for connection behind a sarcastic comment about how long he made them drive the day before.

The tension in their dialogue, along with Burt satirically comparing their destructive behavior to America’s attrition in the Vietnam War, illustrates the pervasive fear in the 1970s that the American family—and marriage as an institution—was declining.