Children of the Corn 40th Anniversary Q&A Panel - Monster Mania 58, March 2024 (Cherry Hill, NJ)

the stars of Children of the Corn please welcome to the stage John [Music] filin John filin and the stars of children next up we have Courtney Gains [Applause] Malachi yeah you too all right and please welcome to the stage John Franklin ISAC and a child fell so 40 years ago it's today what was Premier night like for you guys the premiere yeah there was no Premiere we I went to see it on Sunset Boulevard Hollywood to see the movie it was there was no Premiere right yeah no it just happened that it was I think it was Hollywood Boulevard a rundown theater and I was there with some friends and we bumped into Courtney and his friends so we're like cool there's no red carpet no that's how low budget it was I to make that mie there's no Prem right I didn't see it Prem here I wasn't invited to the show you guys went too I just got on the tour just like last year on the that's true true there was no invite great leading question good J I had just done I just moved from Chicago like 6 weeks earlier before I got the park and I had just been doing a play where I played a possessed kid and um and then I just when I got the park which was given right away cuz they wanted somebody over 18 but looking younger um I just started watching like late night preaches there were no boy preaches at that time you I was just watching them and kind of soaking up and added a little bit of I just I've always wanted them to be Charming too especially with the kids like they brushing her face I just thought that's so creepy what was your favorite um behind the scenes thing that happened to you guys on set I'll take that one it's an easy one so my first day um was the first thing you see when I come out of thefield you know when they when they hit the kid and then he when she has the dream sequence he pops up and uh and scares her well they really did that to her they snuck him under and it scared she jumped back like 10 ft it was awesome it was the best prank I've still seen on film of this day so it was my first scene my first day it's a pretty special moment there you go thank you what you guys got memorable back seat most vulnerable back SE most vulnerable I it was my first movie and all I remember was my first scene was carving pentagram into my chest and it was taking a while and it was the guy came in and showed me the night and it was a tube of blood guy had the bucket and he pumping it you know and I was going to go like this the blood was going about Tu and they're like okay John you got like you know an hour and a half forward in SHO and I was like I just went in the other room and started doing sit-ups push-ups that's you know the director came and he goes I've never seen an actor do so many situps and push-ups in my life go D my shirts off in 10 minutes you're welcome I guess what did the cult the scenes was when they had be tied on the cross and this sort of pivots so goes down and they everyone was gone it was like you know midnight 3:00 a.m. and it was like bare minimum crew and it was like 20° you breathe and you see your breath and they kept lowering me between every take you either to load the film in the camera or to [Music] cover covered me up and I finally I'm just say you know stop it just stop covering me up just leave me up there shoot shoot let's get out here and the crew just went yay I know John's been part six right I was so lucky to be able to you know co-write children of corn number six and it was really neat writing Isaac's dialog for my favorite line is I don't have a soul um I would definitely come back I don't know how you I don't want to spoil or learn how number six ends but it's was like so but anything's possible it's magic movie I was in the coma in the from after the first movie for 17 years so know um yeah I was maybe supposed to do something in 666 that didn't happen I was supposed to do a cameo and the II one I had a convention to do and then there was weather problems and they didn't make it so it hasn't happened yet but um like they want to bring Malachi back you know you pay me enough money scale Stephen King is my take on that for all these years something about that guy's writing and Children Killing adults is's never going to go out of style and hit the casting we saw our first our first movies something about that was really cast well yeah no I agree it's the rock and roll right the teenage rebellion right it's that's never as long as there's teenagers there's always going to be teenagers who hate their parents Authority I think that's the I think that's the key you know to short and also what I think is really cool is when it first came out 40 years ago all the kids that were teenagers are going yeah kill parents kill parents are now parents or grandparents don't kill me don't kill me a generational thing keep flipping over I think the you couldn't have predicted is that horror would go completely mainstream when we did that movie it was considered a b movie you know and now it's horror is completely mainstream on television and all that so we just we just grow in popularity because the genres grow in popularity yeah for me it's the scene when she ask what do you want and I say we want to give you peace that was my favorite moment that's when I learned as an actor less is more you know lot of SC I screaming and being crazy but that scene to me was the most chilling so my favorite scene was at night it freezing cold the lights are blue stuff fogs coming out of our thing I went when I going to the cornfield and I just felt like so special like you know I was the sacrifice and and I just I really you know I thrilled that was a great choice no seriously that was a great choice to be to be the man the guy it was so fun there's two scenes that I love um the first is just I have no lines but I just look at the cafe window at him and say you know kind of let the massacre begin and that's pictures on my table of this that first time I saw it like whoa was that creepy kid and then the other scene is I I had just landed in Su Iowa can't remember we shot it nebras Iowa but I did the huge preaching scene in The Corner Room and that was my first scene up and I like so proud of myself because I was it was my our first film I was nervous you know you got sa lines and and you whenever you finish a certain line you have to be they call them marks so for the camera and I was just like take after take I just did it nailed it never were calling me one take Franklin and like Yay a little bit of the pressure was off how long did it take to film I think it was like 6 weeks 6 weeks six seven that's wow I know this fast low budget that's amazing I mean to to do that in six weeks and and with it being the first film for so many of you you know you would think that would just you know the states and first time things would just create a longer film time period you know frit K the director you I don't really ever remember him making it feel like we had to rush or you know and that that was great cuz a lot of times on sets they do that and it just puts all this undo pressure on you you know um I always felt like you just like we're going to get this you know yeah and that's a good feel great did it feel like extra special to see yourself on the big screen for the first time it was surreal since because it was the first time I had seen myself whatever and so like looking at my brother or something my brother's the of different I was terrified I mean I remember my parents were there my friends were there I still find premieres absolutely terrifying you just have no idea what you're going to see and uh yeah it's really strange and uncomfortable for me yeah the first one I thought was you know Roger Eber they critiqued it uh on TV and I was like so nervous someone coming out like I'm in it and they showed a scene that I was in in the TV thing before Roger even went well you know not the best actors in the world kiding me go but you know he goes but they've got something you know they got something I mean we're still talking about it that hardly ever happens but I was horrified and you know at first yeah it got pretty bad for was that was the one with with Martin Sheen about the president I like dead zone I really like yeah de that's a good one that one I like I'll go with that that's good really yeah I remember seeing that in the movie theater yeah good I we'll be in dead zone Park two coming soon not The Shining not The Shining for anyone forever yeah play check like but this hotel when I checked in like Thursday it was actually Friday morning at like 12:30 a.m. 1 1:00 a.m. and I going down the long long long long hor Corridor and there's like one light kind of flickering and it's still flickering and nobody around Into The Shining we we've had The Shining twins here and and and a girl came out of her room one day when the two twins had just come out of their room and she looked down the hall and saw the two twins and she freaked out um and this might be a little off topic but do you have any fun Return of the Living Dead stories oh God fun fun returnal living dead stories well the I mean Tarman coming out of the back room and and you know that guy brilliant actor but was lying a guitar suit in his own sweat for 6 hours before they were ready to you know shoot him again and I just felt s we we'd walk by we'd be shooting all these scenes you know eating launch we come back there's this guy in this rubber suit you know and in this you know in a suit of sweat his rubber you know we just that was insane and then when he got up to to move and come out of that thing when he came out of that door and he walked weird you know it was freaky actually scary freaky weird so the first time I saw Tarman move from behind that door it was awesome but I I mean the best part for me about that movie was the PA you ever get a chance to be a p on on a film you want to be on a film where it's raining and where the actors get caught in the rain early and it's at night so your job will be to take a hose to the actors before every scene for like four weeks not heat just a hose at night like stand stand still bro hose you off that was pretty I was like I'm an actor in the movie awesome I was so it was it was really a crazy shoe so yeah I found children after children cor it was really a shocking experience for me um it's just weird you know every people were recognizing wherever you go it never happened before and then on top of it it's this dust then like you got like kids crying to their parents and things and it was just like whoa I did not expect this you know and um what I learned from that was the power of Cinema and that how Cinema does affect us and then I I started trying to pick I know some jobs that that uh that made a difference even I can't find me love you know people come up to me I go like I was a senior football guy in high school and I was looking forward to hazing the Juniors and then I saw that movie and I couldn't do it you're like whoa lightweight romantic comedy but like it actually made a difference right that's the kind of stuff I think it's really cool about making movies go ahead I that's a crazy story recognize well at the beginning right after the movie opened um I was at a restaurant called Barney's Beanery and West Hollywood with friends and we're eating and then all a said there was like a couple women are sitting next to a table across from us and I she's like so she that boy so scary and like she made the make move into her entire group to a different part of the restaurant I be like and a week later like going on an audition again get on an elevator in Hollywood and also this woman sees me she like jams the door and runs off the elevator she could not be on the elevator with me it's like you hear about this stuff with soap opera actors where the you know evil person the soap opera and they'll go how could you do that to just how could youat on your wife like so it's like sort of like that like no I was just acting but it's like as C said earlier it was a b movie so in some respects I would go out like I was up for a dairo part I can't remember the name of the movie it was obviously a kid still and and then finally I came down to it and then producer just like he was just a Children of the Corn like can't use him because it was just like a hierarchy of you know quality film and so it was like it hurt at first later on I did cousin his family and stuff like that but by that time it was like six or seven years later and then they thought it was fun it was also a different genre it wasn't the you know Dao movie yeah I thought I was a failure as an actor you know after I had a pretty good run for like 10 years but I really I was never like a lead in a big movie or anything like that nobody ever came out hey you're in Children of the corner ever till five 10 years ago maybe when they showed the Americans in the tech and then at around that same time returnal Living Dead became a cult movie you know and you know Point Break kind of became culty you know Point Break was huge but not when it came out really yes so I mean I was I had quit I thought I was a failure as an actor until these conventions started and you know people started I started going to conventions and people were like hey that was cool I like that movie you did you know and I'm looking at pictures of myself from when I was 20 something but that's pretty cool but at the time I didn't feel that till much much later I'm just glad I stayed alive and this really just got lucky with those culty cult cult movie you don't start out trying to make a cult movie you don't know what's going to happen we just got lucky with this one and you know and here we are I can tell you from like the promoter standpoint the the horror films of the 80s have become iconic you know for for the you know it's going to sound crazy but for the purity of the way the films were you know I mean the the biggest lines the most interest the most requests I get from fans or are for stars from films from that time period you know and it's and sadly you know you guys were young kids you know when you were making you know Children of the Corn but you know for the people that were older adults in films from that time period like we're losing them we've been doing this for 21 years and the list of people that that I've had at the show for the past 57 shows you know from that time period they're no longer with us it's just you know it's astounding but like that time period was a really really special of horror film history I that I think people are going to be writing books about you know 40 years from now I think the reason is is because horror was independent film making and and so it was outside the box of the the studio system so more crazy stuff happen people did yeah that they would be like you can't do that that's not okay you know yeah and I mean so many people that became iconic directors their first films a lot of times were their biggest films you know Halloween John clker you know Night of the Living Dead George Romero you know the list goes on and on so you know it's it's for me it's it's it's still interesting to see how much interest there is in that time period of films and when I go to put a convention together I'll go through the list of 8s films and like hey you know maybe it's time for a reunion for for this film or for that film you know so when the 40th came up this year I was like God this is perfect you no brainer yeah yeah how mindblowing was it to do Back to the Future well the thing was I mean we knew it was a big deal cuz Spielberg was involved that's about all all we really knew right and seus wasn't a well-known director at that point like he is now you know he came from SC and that kind of thing but I couldn't have predicted that that movie was going to go on to be or the the the Back to the Future Trilogy was going to go on to be one of the most successful trilogies in Hollywood history I I couldn't have predicted so for me as you know been in this game a long time now and getting older I look back and just think that's it just blows my mind that even I have a small heart in one of the biggest trilogies in Hollywood history that just it's hard for me to kind of wrap my head around that I even have any involvement in something that historic you know I'm just dis grateful that's all I can be you know did you have any scenes with Eric stch when he was Marty with I did I did the scene in the the hallway where you the you know I'm kicking when says kick me EXs was in that scene and then uh so because you already know the answer I don't want to know so the the the the blessing there was that's obviously awful for Eric to to got gotten fired but for me it was very fortunate because I was going to be supposed to work uh maybe a week on that thing I end getting paid for like 6 weeks nice and then so because that that's how your residuals get based how much you made so my residual income from from back in the future is pretty much the best reable income I've had in my career so it's been nothing but a blessing um was Isaac a false prophet was that what it was supposed to be I think that's subjective I just like he is whatever you think is like was he possessed you know who knows I I just played him for what I thought and that he wanted power that he was the the the smart guy this guy was right hand henchman doing the Dirty Work the muscle turn that but and the same note I want to just add an anecdote about MCC courney getting extended for the first adid family it was Barry sfi's first big movie he had been DP uh can't remember the but for Director of Photography a lot but they asked me in like October to come in and rehearse a dance the dance B scene so I went in and it was just one day and then they could do a drop and pick you up so they picked me up again in January and then they could no longer drop me so I was on payroll for 6 months because just they couldn't drop me again so that one day of rehearsal I was like thank you God guardian angels I did my kitchen bought a house CL I can say yeah was amazing um I worked for Tony movie I help this candy corn a few years before that I a terrible and I know I know may may because she's part of our um same company you know say manager and stuff she's great and uh I honestly feel like that movie was was so much talent that I don't feel was fully utilized I found like but for me getting to see Bruce Duren again was the real reason I did the movie because I was all when I did The Burbs I was already a big Bo St fan I think he plays uh the son of a about his good you can play you know he's great at it and uh so the scene where I come out with the trash can and do the whole smash thing that I just s that just kind of came out the way it came out I don't know why it got so violent like it did it just sort of happened um you know he came up to me afterward he was called me by my character's name I like hey that was a was great work Con he kind of took me under his wing you know and he gave me some really really wonderful compliments and this really gave me uh an affirmation that what I was doing with this character was working and and to have somebody that I consider you one of the best pleas were to do that you tell me this one bit of information that really took the weight off my show as an actor I we' done some scene I was like ah it wasn't it wasn't 100% there he said he looks at me he said you know I used to study with Geraldine Paige she's the best in the business if you never seen a Geraldine Paige movie do like watchie call Bountiful she she's a beast she's she's she's a great he goes she's only there 60% of the time I'm only there about 40% of the time if I'm doing well and I was just like oh my God like I don't have to be perfect I don't have to be there all the time if Bruce G's only good 40% of the time man and and it change it changed my life because now I'm just grateful if I have one good moment in a seat you know as opposed to thinking of all has to be great what so one connection I'm thankful that's that's all so it was so great to get to see him again and to thank him and tell him how much you know it meant to me that he recognized that I was doing today it's like cuz I'm kind of like stepping back from acting I'm actually just wrote a young adult novel I'm trying to get agents and but I I wrote CH in cor number six I love writing it's just I seem like you have more control and the auditions that I do get some are you know decent but it's like because it's no longer film and it's just digital anybody can make a movie so you get scripts sent to you and they're just like poorly written um and you just kind of wonder what's so it's it's just it's a different world as far as acting and film making so that it's just think it's when it's film and that costs a lot of money I think they really tighten the script they try to concentrate more on getting names and project and make sure it sells and gets foreign distribution and all that Stu it's it's a different world it's a little different okay yeah I think that's an I think that's an interesting observation there's there's not as much um when you're doing independent moviews today there's not as much reverence on the set and you go on the set everybody's talking and it's because because you can just film in film and film you see you put a little digital chip in there and so it's just not as precious back in the day back in my when we shot 35 mm film it cost a lot of money like he said so you rehearsed everybody knew what they were doing the set got really quiet everybody was focused because you had to get it it it meant something and I I I got to say I miss that yeah Dave if uh cornstalks have popped up around hotel with a storm we all left okay um well they my agent actually I just got moved here from Chicago south suburbs and it was like two or three weeks after I signed with an agent because I looked 13 you I was over 18 um and she submitted me for Malachi and thankfully uh Linda no director Franc Linda Francis Linda Francis blessed herself she had foresight to call me in for Isaac so I I went in and there were like you know a room full of Isaac's you know 30 Isaacs waiting there audition and then they I call back like a week later and then there were like five of us and then the next time I got called back it was just me reading with Malachi and you never want to jinx it or you know say hey am I getting the burn you so you just shut up and and then so they just kept bringing malach in and then this that came in and I tell you let him tell you your next story no Okay so there was an article that just came out talking about it I uh I uh pulled a knife on the reader and Thea it was a fake knife it was a little toy knife like this but you know but he didn't know it I pulled it out and put it under his neck and he he couldn't see whether it was R I saw that of the corner of my eye I saw the producer and the director like whoa you was my better guy that reader guy went on to become a very successful casting director um did a lot of comedies like West uh cheers years guy never cast me in anything and he's told many people like you know to don't ever do that what I did to him so Jeff Greenberg Jeff greenber is his name but uh yeah so that's kind of how geeked up I was to get that gig but also it was like we had such chemistry and he was like and he just like grabbed me and the scene and I was like into it too CU I was from the theater like let's do it they just like okay these yeah the photo you see when I'm shaking in the movie that exactly we didn't and uh I was had been cast in a movie I was going to shoot in like 4 weeks in Pontiac Illinois and I had never done a movie before my agent said hey you could sneak in on this I know these cast directors Linda Francis and Jeff and you can you know try to get into a you know this lowbudget horror movie and it's a good scene it's a small early part you'll only be there for like 10 days and you can practice working in front of the camera and I was like oh yeah horror movie yeah great I never thought you know I just went and did it like I'd never been in front of the camera before so that was yeah was my so I mean I I did it to get that experience I never thought it would amount to anything I thought the next movie I was going to do was going to change the world it was so serious and I spent a lot of time when I was in you know Iowa or whatever where P where were we I researching my other role was to play like a you know a handicapped person and I thought I didn't think any you know this movie was going to do anything and and no one was ever going to talk about that other movie no one's talking about that this turned out to be the one who knows um uh so I auditioned for that for my name is a a show that I like a lot actually for like four seasons and it's kind of a story St that that you know that they keep bringing you back it means they like you and they're trying to find you something sometimes actors get real frustrated after a while and go like what do you want from me that's it they're not bringing you back you know if they keep bringing you back they're trying to find you something and it turned out to be the best role addition for almost four years is that one and the one I got um really you know just say turn it around quickly what was cool about that character for me was that it got to be things I've done individually like playing crazy guys or that and playing nerds but I never got to do those together right so I took you take like the Kenneth character some crazy guy did and boom you have it and that's that's what was fun about is if it had that kind of art and I could do both those characters but I never got to do them both together so that's that's what that's what I drew on to be to pull that off quickly yeah well I love mol that was the best thank you U English teacher yes yes after 911 I just felt really weird and silly going into audition for a commercial to be a greate you know the world had changed really had changed and like and while believe the legacy of entertainment was nice you know the cousin did Isaac Etc more um I just was burned out I said I need to step back so I had been a theater major went University of Illinois champagne B and I had was a theater major but I had enough credits to become an English teacher and back then Los Angeles school district and like 2001 hiring emergency credentials so they like take a two we course with us in the summer put here's your keys to the classroom it's like what and then I continue you know teaching during the day and then going to the calate north just during the night for a year and a half to get my teaching credential but it's so rewarding and I did it for 14 years and the kids love me and I love the kids it's the whole a lot of bureaucracy that and red tape with the administration that kind of wears you down but like I have you know so many Facebook friends I'd say like two-thirds of my Facebook friends are past students you know who are now in their 30s and they're having kids it's just so endearing and the kind remarks that it did so it's like I'm tearing up now you know you made a difference made a difference thing I when people realized who you were before and what you did before um did people audition for to be your teacher bestie it was I ended up after Los Angeles disc for three years I transferred to a smaller School of Northern of LA county and it was only the second year of the school and they had started off with freshman and sophomore and I came in the junior year and then after the second year they're going okay next year we're going to be teaching senior and Shakespeare counts as Senior English who wants to teach Shakespeare and everyone's like I'm like I'll take it you like went to U ofi we had a whole year of Shakespeare stage combat you know uh foil fencing diction and I just ran like an acting class and the kids loved it it was so much fun we did a comedy and a drama every semester their final was performing you know a truncated short inversion because it took like two or three periods every time we would like even rehearsing and like talk found everything with stage combat I had like wooden doels for the foil fencing and I mean every time a principal had anybody visiting the school like let's go see his class cuz they all the kids were always up and doing stuff and then eventually all the acting kids got to be in the class cuz they wanted it because they were bed to Shakespeare so I was like the cream of the crop acting kids who really you know wanted the lead roles and then I had other kids um young adults always seniors um that were like terrifi and then suddenly they lost them and became really funny or serious and dramatic and and I had female hamlets and just whoever was best for it it was just no color intended nothing everybody was just blind casting who was the best so it was really really cool I love that thank you than ladies and Gentlemen let's please have a great Round of Applause for John filon courtley Gaines and John Franklin it's over another cor [Applause] reunion

Channel: Halloween Year-Round

Views: 445

Keywords: children of the corn, children of the corn 40th anniversary, monster mania, monster mania 58, panels, isaac, stephen king, horror movies, horror conventions, comic con, horror, halloween year-round, john franklin, courtney gains, john philbin, dave hagan

Id: X1_LzgVeOtY

Length: 33min 37sec (2017 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 11 2024