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He Who Walks Behind the Rows is the name of a demonic fertility spirit that lives among the corn stalks that grow around Gatlin, Nebraska. The god/demon gained influence over the children of Gatlin, who formed a cult worshiping him and massacred the town's adults in 1964. The children...
12 de out. de 2023 · Learn about the demonic idol that manipulates children into killing adults in the horror franchise based on Stephen King's short story. Discover its different forms, its connection to cornfields, and a fan theory linking it to Randall Flagg from The Stand.
- Mike Bedard
- Overview
- Characteristics
- Biography
"He Who Walks Behind the Rows" is the main antagonist of Stephen King's Children of the Corn franchise.
He is a demonic spirit posing as a twisted fertility deity, who corrupted the children of the remote town of Gatlin into a murderous cult bent of sacrificing every adult around. In the movies, after the original cult's disbanding, He Who Walks Behinds the Rows would continuously try to revive his influence over Gatlin.
"He Who Walks Behind the Rows" is never seen in the story, but his influence is felt throughout. No one really knows where he comes from or when he appeared, and he can be defined as an evil force rather than a corporeal entity, whose true nature, name and aspect remains unknown throughout the series (although other stories hint that he is yet another incarnation of Randall Flagg, the main antagonist of author Stephen King's works). He influences the world through the corn-fields surrounding the towns, in which the ones sacrificed to him must venture and never to return. It is stated that night time is when he is most active, though he can act at any other time.
"He Who Walks Behind the Rows" is a shapeless evil spirit who controls the corn-fields and every crop in it as a sort of extension of himself. In the short story, he appears as a red-eyed monster that comes out of the field, though whether it is the real demon or a manifestation remains unclear. In the first movie, he manifests himself both as a menacing presence tunneling his way underground and ominous reddish clouds that fill the sky, and in other Children of the Corn films, he appears as a giant, tentacled demon, or manifests himself through a silo filled with supernatural fire.
In every movie, he is seemingly destroyed (or at least severely weakened) when the corn-fields or his other vessels are destroyed, but returns when his followers establish his cult somewhere else. The end of the short story implies that burning the corn-fields to the ground might destroy him, but whether it is or not remains open to interpretation.
He influences the place where his cult is set, being seemingly able to see and hear everywhere around them, even in people's minds. He can also corrupt children: turning normal, innocent youths into hateful and murderous fanatics who slaughter anyone with an almost feral glee, in a twisted form of religious faith. However, the story and movies show that his influence can wane and that some of the children's personality remains, or can return upon dying.
In the movies, he can possess his disciples and act through them, and is able to grant them demonic powers, such as agelessness and invulnerability, telekinesis, mind-control, superhuman strength, the ability to hurl fireballs, and more. He has many other powers, being able to command over wind, lightning and insects, to raise sentient undead beings, to animate things, and to cause dreams and visions to people around him.
"He Who Walks Behind the Rows" seeks to create a community of worshipers who would follow his will. While in the short story, he seems content in controlling Gatlin, Nebraska, likely due to the abundance of corns in which he thrives, the movie series show him trying to extend his cult over the entire United States of America, if not the world. To that end, he took control of several gangs of children over the years, through a child-preacher under his complete control serving as his "high priest", who commands his followers and enforces his rules, the first and foremost being Isaac from the original short story. He has them slaughter every adult in their towns to take it over, and has all passers-by and cultists reaching the age of twenty sacrificed to him. Whenever his followers fail him or displease him, the maximum age is lowered. When the story takes place, it has already been lowered to nineteen.
Children of the Corn
In the original short story and the 2009 remake, set in 1975, Burt and his wife Vicky travel by car through the American country-field, hoping to save their crumbling marriage with a second honeymoon. They run over a boy who was carrying a case and an ugly crop-crucifix, and discover that the boy was already dying of a sliced throat. (It later turns out that the boy was wounded when trying to escape the cult.) They resolve to bring the boy's corpse to the nearest police station and venture in the seemingly abandoned town of Gatlin, arguing all along the way. Frightened, Vicky insists to leave at once, but Burt rudely ignores her. While Vicky returns to the car (but cannot leave since Burt kept the keys), Burt starts investigating, not knowing that Isaac and his followers are watching his every move, and eventually discovers that twelve years ago, the children relinquished their former names and killed anyone over twenty years old. Alerted by the car horn, he rushes to Vicky, but the children take her away and sabotage the car. Burt fights off the children and flees through the corn-fields, witnessing Vicky's dead body, crucified to a crop-cross with barbed wire with her eyes gouged out and her mouth stuffed with corn husks, as were the local priest and policemen (survivors of the massacre killed by "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" himself). He discovers that all exits of the corn-fields were closed-up, and feels a presence looming closer. He is then attacked by crops and haunted by the boys he killed, before being murdered by a monster just as the harvest moon rises in the night sky. At the end, Isaac announces to his cult that "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", furious at having to kill Burt himself, lowered the maximum age to eighteen. All his eighteen-year-old followers, including Isaac's top enforcer Malachai Boardman, are lead to their death into the corn-fields, where Burt in turn was turned into a "scarecrow". Malachai's pregnant girlfriend Ruth, who secretly hates the cult, ponders on burning the corn-fields to the ground, but is too afraid to do so. (However, the remake implies that she eventually will.)
Children of the Corn (1984 film)
The movie begins with Isaac preaching to the children of Gatlin while the population is praying to God after a bad harvest. The children later murder every adult in Gatlin, while Isaac witnesses with a smug grin. Three years later, Burt and Vicky, who in this movie travel through the countryside towards the city where Burt is to start his new job. Like in the story, their troubles begin when they run over a mortally wounded boy who was fleeing the cult, and start searching for a police station. They end up in Gatlin after the old gas-station attendant refuses to help them (the children keep him alive in exchange for gasoline and new victims). While Malachai punishes two children who were playing, Burt and Vicky explore the dilapidated town, whose buildings are smeared with Isaac’s sermons painted in blood. They are eventually attacked by the children, who capture Vicky and prepare to sacrifice her. Burt discovers the cult and its gloomy rituals, but manages to fight away the murderous children and meets Job and Sara, two children who are not under the influence of "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", with Sara seemingly possessing powers of her own. Later, a jealous Malachai kills the gas-station attendant and usurps Isaac, preparing to sacrifice him and take command, despite Isaac yelling at him for disobeying their foul deity. That night a tempest rises, seemingly caused by "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", and becomes increasingly violent. Before Isaac is sacrificed, a young man named Amos is first, where after walking into the cornfield, his screams are heard by everyone. The demon then goes for Isaac is in the form of a fiery liquid. The liquid envelopes a begging Isaac, and causes the corn cross he's on to explode and fly away. While everyone is distracted, Burt sneaks into the corn-fields and defeats Malachai in a fistfight. He saves Vicky and tells the children to stop following the cult and shakes the demon's control over them, with only Malachi and the widow of Amos, Rachel, still remaining faithful. Before they can leave, the demon appears to all of them as a possessed Isaac and proceeds to kill a petrified Malachi's neck, while everyone runs to the nearby barn. "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" then rises under the shape of red clouds and attacks the barn with gusts of wind. Burt and the redeemed children manage to douse the entire corn-fields with the town's supplies of gasoline, and Burt throws a Molotov Cocktail in it, blasting the entire corn-field into oblivion and seemingly destroying the evil spirit, whose screaming face appears in the explosion. Later, Burt and Vicky attempt to get their car going, but are attacked by Rachel, who despite the demon proving that the children were mere pawns to it, is still fanatical. Burt manages to knock her out before he and Vicky depart towards the nearest town with Job and Sarah, whom they plan to adopt.
The Final Sacrifice
This sequel to the 1984 adaptation features John, a reporter investigating on the Gatlin events, and his son Danny, who take residence in an inn of Hemingford, as the citizen are giving shelter to the surviving children of the cult. As John is getting romantically involved with Angela the innkeeper, Micah, one of the children, is possessed by "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" and corrupts the children again, restarting the cult. As the children start a new killing spree in Hemingford, John and a college professor named Frank theorize that something in the corn harvest of Gatlin is turning the children insane. Micah brings Danny into the cult, but he cannot bring himself to sacrifice his newfound friend Lacey, and John and Frank intervene. They flee to the haunted corn-fields, that prevents them from escaping, and "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" possesses Micah, turning him into a monster. Frank gets mortally wounded, but manages to activate the Harvester and set it ablaze, killing Micah (who reverts to normal before horribly dying) and destroying the corn crops from Gatlin, freeing the children for good.
At first the town appears to be abandoned, but they soon discover that it is inhabited by a cult of murderous children who worship “He Who Walks Behind The Rows", a demon that lives in the local cornfields. The children abduct Vicky and stab Burt, who escapes into the corn.
- Stephen King
- 1977
26 de fev. de 2020 · Learn about the origin, powers and forms of He Who Walks Behind the Rows, the evil deity worshiped by a cult of murderous corn kids in Stephen King's story and its movie adaptations. Find out how this dark god influences the corn fields and his followers, and why he can't be killed.
30 de jan. de 2022 · Learn how the demonic \"He Who Walks Behind the Rows\" looks like in the third movie of the horror franchise based on Stephen King's short story. The entity reveals itself as a tentacle monster in a cornfield and kills the cult members in gory ways.
23 de jun. de 2021 · Adapting Stephen King's Children Of The Corn: Reflecting On He Who Walks Behind The Rows In The 1984 Movie. News. By Eric Eisenberg. published 23 June 2021. (Image credit: New...
