Under The Dome

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The Sometimes They Come Back series of made-for-cable-TV movies proceed from a common idea, lifted from a short story of the same name by Stephen King. Something happened in our protagonist’s past, a challenge or crucial test of courage or resolve that he couldn’t meet, maybe because of immaturity or some inner defect. Now, usually through a supernatural agency, preferably of satanic origin, that threat from the past that’s been haunting our hero all these years has returned to give him another shot at it. Or to force him to deal with it directly. That’s pretty much how it plays out in the first film and the second, Sometimes They Come Back… Again. Now comes the third variation, More. But it’s really Less. The setting is Antarctica, Ice Station Erebus, where a CIA outpost is experiencing high casualties from an unknown source. In drop a couple of soldiers, one of whom, our hero Captain Sam Cage, turns out to be the target of the piece, whose past is at the center of the present deaths. Nothing really makes much sense here, including the action-packed ending that will have you saying things like, “Why did that work?” and “The babe who’s bathed in white light is named Mary, I get it! But why is she dressed for a feminine hygiene commercial?” –Jim Gay

Description
Nothing can prepare you for the onslaught of spine-tingling thrills unleashed in CHILDREN OF THE CORN IV: THE GATHERING — the latest and most chilling chapter in the wildly popular CHILDREN OF THE CORN series! The horror returns when the children of a small midwestern town are haunted by an unspeakable evil that lurks somewhere out behind the corn fields. A bright young medical student must solve the frightening mystery that plagues the children … before a sinister stranger can claim their souls for his own! It’s a pulse-pounding race against time and terror that will leave even the most die-hard suspense fans on the edge of their seats!

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The best stuff in this ridiculously conceived sequel to Brian De Palma’s groundbreaking ’70s classic are the occasional, too-brief flashbacks to De Palma’s groundbreaking ’70s classic. They occur in the mind of Sue Snell (Amy Irving, shamelessly reprising her role), the only main character left alive during Carrie’s prom revenge freakout. After a brief stint in an insane asylum, Snell is now a therapist at a suburban high school and is currently counseling Rachel Lang (Emily Bergl). Rachel isn’t like other girls. When Rachel gets really mad, she moves things with her mind. Rachel’s been really mad lately, because her best friend jumped from a rooftop in the first 10 minutes of this movie. Even though there’s absolutely no development of this relationship, don’t doubt it: we know they’re best friends because they have matching tattoos. Rachel’s friend lost it because she was the latest victim in a fun game that members of the football team play off the field in which they keep a running count of how many girls they can seduce, using a rating scale based on appearance. Of course, there’s a nice one, Jesse (Jason London), who feels guilty about playing the game and falls for Carrie, er, Rachel. Everything appears to be changing for Rachel, but Jesse’s friends have other plans. Snell knows what’s up, however, and it’s pretty funny watching her explain it to Rachel: “I’ve been through this movie before” is essentially what she says, but Rachel doesn’t want to hear that she’s not an original character, that she’s a cheap, slightly hardened and revised ’90s rip-off with no autonomy. It makes Rachel want to move things with her mind. –Dave McCoy

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The murder rate is as high as an elephant’s eye in this flaccid adaptation of Stephen King’s short story. While driving through Nebraska en route to a new job, medico Burt (Peter Horton) and his wife Vicky (a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton) nearly run over a mutilated boy who staggers from the cornfields. Seeking help, they enter the town of Gatlin, whose under-20 residents have butchered their parents per the decree of junior-grade holy roller Isaac (John Franklin), who preaches the word of a being called “He Who Walks Behind the Rows.” King’s original story (from his 1978 collection Night Shift) was a lean and brutal mélange of Southern-gothic atmosphere and E.C. Comics-style gore, which scripter Greg Goldsmith effectively neutralizes by adding a youthful narrator (a grating Robbie Kiger) and putting an upbeat spin on the story’s morbid conclusion. Fritz Kiersch’s direction is TV-movie flat, with the sole inspired moment (hideous religious iconography glimpsed during a bloody “service”) delivered as a throwaway. Aside from Horton and Courtney Gains (as Isaac’s hatchet man Malachai), the performances are dreadful, and the depiction of the Lovecraftian monster-god as a sort of giant gopher inspires more laughter than terror. Amazingly, the film spawned six sequels; Franklin (Cousin Itt in the Addams Family films) later appeared in and wrote 1999’s Children of the Corn 666. –Paul Gaita

Product Description
Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 08/05/2003 Run time: 90 minutes

Product Description
Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 08/05/2003

Amazon.com
The best stuff in this ridiculously conceived sequel to Brian De Palma’s groundbreaking ’70s classic are the occasional, too-brief flashbacks to De Palma’s groundbreaking ’70s classic. They occur in the mind of Sue Snell (Amy Irving, shamelessly reprising her role), the only main character left alive during Carrie’s prom revenge freakout. After a brief stint in an insane asylum, Snell is now a therapist at a suburban high school and is currently counseling Rachel Lang (Emily Bergl). Rachel isn’t like other girls. When Rachel gets really mad, she moves things with her mind. Rachel’s been really mad lately, because her best friend jumped from a rooftop in the first 10 minutes of this movie. Even though there’s absolutely no development of this relationship, don’t doubt it: we know they’re best friends because they have matching tattoos. Rachel’s friend lost it because she was the latest victim in a fun game that members of the football team play off the field in which they keep a running count of how many girls they can seduce, using a rating scale based on appearance. Of course, there’s a nice one, Jesse (Jason London), who feels guilty about playing the game and falls for Carrie, er, Rachel. Everything appears to be changing for Rachel, but Jesse’s friends have other plans. Snell knows what’s up, however, and it’s pretty funny watching her explain it to Rachel: “I’ve been through this movie before” is essentially what she says, but Rachel doesn’t want to hear that she’s not an original character, that she’s a cheap, slightly hardened and revised ’90s rip-off with no autonomy. It makes Rachel want to move things with her mind. –Dave McCoy

Amazon.com
And sometimes they come back… for the franchise! Aaaaaaaaargh! Though a TV movie franchise is a somewhat subliminal thing. This double-feature DVD contains one movie based on a story by Stephen King, and another movie based loosely on the first movie. More of a variations on a theme than a continuance. In Sometimes They Come Back, Tim Matheson is made to relive a boyhood tragedy that claimed the life of his brother when the group of bullies who waylaid him in a train tunnel way back when come back from the dead to settle an old score. Convincingly scary as this is, side B is even better, having upped the ante from the demonic bullies of the first movie to the satanic worshippers of the second. This time it’s Michael Gross who needs to learn that you can’t escape your past, having as a kid thwarted the satanists who claimed the life of his sister, and who lately have returned to kill his mother and are now after his daughter. The effects are great here, with a standout being the formation of a demon from a pool of blood. One of the Arquette clan, Alexis Arquette, as head of the satanic ritualists (Vinnie Barbarino meets Marilyn Manson), is a kind of special effect all by himself, grinning and mugging with uncontained glee at the most splatter-heavy moments. Followed by a sequel, Sometimes They Come Back… for More. –Jim Gay