10 Horror Movies Where The Villain Is Never Seen

4. Children Of The Corn

Birdbox 2018
Hal Roach Studios

While his sheer prolificness means Stephen King’s stories aren’t always top tier, he can consistently be counted on for a more interesting than average horror monster, and the enjoyable Children of The Corn is no exception.

The 1984 adaptation of King’s short story takes place in rural Nebraska. The town of Gatlin is highly reliant on the corn crop for its security, and so when one year the harvest fails, things get a bit weird. 11-year-old Isaac devises a quasi-religion based around the figure of He Who Walks Behind the Rows, an agricultural boogeyman, and soon leads a pre-adolescent uprising, murdering all the adults in the town.

We never catch sight of the creature, but its malevolent influence steers the children into rituals of sacrifice, blood letting, and murder. The 1984 original spawned a surprising number of spin offs, in which the mythology of He Who Walks Behind the Rows was expanded and deepened; some King fans have speculated that the creature is the Devil, or the true form of It’s Pennywise.

Contributor
Contributor

Yorkshire-based writer of screenplays, essays, and fiction. Big fan of having a laugh. Read more of my stuff @ www.twotownsover.com (if you want!)