I am – Hercules!!




Zeus knows how. Somehow I don’t recall ever sitting through the 1984 Linda Hamilton-Peter Horton big-screen version of “Stephen King’s Children of the Corn.”

I have to say I was surprised how much I enjoyed the Syfy remake airing Saturday night.

King apparently had a hand in scripting tonight’s new TV-movie version though I’m not sure how big a hand; the horror master shares teleplay credit – in the second position – with director Donald P. Borchers.

The first half of the movie has an agreeably talky, old-school “Twilight Zone” feel as it explores the troubled marriage of the motoring couple and the motoring couple explore the bizarre patch of Midwest madness they’ve stumbled onto.

David Anders (Sark on “Alias”) and Kandyse McClure (Dualla on “Battlestar Galactica”) this time play the marrieds who encounter bloodthirsty underage religious fanatics in rural 1975 Nebraska.

Both leads are terrific. If their characters seem shrill and unpleasant as the story begins, viewers are likely to relate to them better as their backstory unfolds and the stakes grow. The fabulous McClure, especially, nails her last bit of dialogue in the final act.

The action kicks in nicely for the second half. Anders’ character is a former U.S. Marine who saw action in Vietnam, so there’s a nice supernatural “Die Hard” meets “Deliverance” vibe.

It’s amusing how the movie goads the viewer into hoping the manly jarhead brings grisly deaths to the bible-thumping tykes (played by a bunch of really cute kid actors).

“Corn” does over-stretch a slight story, and it is not anywhere near as good as something like Frank Darabont’s excellent adaptation of King’s “The Mist” (which also features evil violent religious nutjobs), but I thought it held together better than a lot of King adaptations. And, to damn it a bit with faint praise, it’s certainly more compelling than any other Syfy (or SciFi Channel) original movie I can recall.

9 p.m. Saturday. Syfy.

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