From the director of Ultraviolet and Equilibrium comes a new vision of the classic short story by the legendary Stephen King.

In the small town of Rylestone, Nebraska, a teenager went berserk and killed all of the adults in the Children’s Home, where the precocious Eden Edwards lived. Upon witnessing and surviving the massacre, she looks at the cornfields and soon finds herself enchanted. As she will be leaving town soon to go to college, teenager Boleyn Williams begins to feel something isn’t right and lo and behold, her suspicions prove to be correct.

When the town decides to have a corporation take over their natural crops, especially the corn, Eden decides it will not happen. As if possessed, Eden leads the kids into a revolt against the adults. Boleyn soon learns Eden is possessed by a creature in the cornfields known as He Who Walks. With the help of a few other teens who have not fallen under Eden’s spell, Boleyn must find a way to stop Eden and the other kids, including her own brother, from taking over the town and stop the appeasement of He Who Knows.

Kurt Wimmer takes us on a new journey to experience Stephen King’s 1977 short story. While nothing can compare to the 1984 original film, this “reboot” brings something a little fresh to the franchise. While it still has the kids vs. adults riff, it does add a bit of freshness with the addition of the middle ground, a group of young adults who must feel the double entendre of having to grow up and yet still have the heart of their childhood.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2’s Elena Kampouris is excellent in the lead role of Boleyn, the young woman who must overcome the evil that has arrived to her town, just as she is looking for an escape to go off into college. She finds herself becoming the adult that must face the deadly force of the titular “children of the corn”. And instead of Issac and Malachi, there is Eden as the leader of the children. She is amazingly played by Kate Moyer, who is the definition of “charmingly evil” with her role. The second half of the film where we see Moyer at her best in terms of deadly.

The adults seem to be the typical redneck types who only tend to look out for themselves with the exception of two. Actor and stuntman Callan Mulvey pulls off an impressive performance as Boleyn’s father, who tries his best to do the right thing for the town, even if it means that he has to go against his own morals. The other standout is legendary Australian actor Bruce Spence in the role of Pastor Penny, who adopts Eden and takes her in, not realizing until it’s too late her intentions.

The new Children of the Corn definitely will not live up to the original, but as a standalone reboot, it holds its own thanks to the charmingly evil performance of Kate Moyer and Elena Kampouris’ transition into adulthood as she must face the children.

WFG RATING: B-

RLJE Films and Shudder presents an ANVL production in association with Angel Oak Films. Director: Kurt Wimmer. Producers: Lucas Foster, John Baldecchi, and Doug Barry. Writer: Kurt Wimmer; based on the short story by Stephen King. Cinematography: Andrew Rowlands. Editing: Merlin Eden, Banner Gwin, and Tom Harrison-Read.

Cast: Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey, Bruce Spence, Erika Heynatz, Jayden McGinlay, Orlando Schwerdt, Luke Dean, Alyla Browne.

Now in select theaters, On Demand, and Digital.