The third Children of the Corn film and the last to be released theatrically, all films after this one would go direct-to-video.
Eli and Joshua, two children who lived near Gatlin, run away from their home and are adopted by William and Amanda Porter, who live in Chicago. However, Eli is a follower of He Who Walks Behind The Rows, and starts another cult of adult-murdering children.
This film has the eamples of:
- Achilles' Heel: Eli's bible is his weakpoint, he can only be killed if it is destroyed alongside with him.
- Abandoned Area: An abandoned factory resides near Porters' house. Eli turns its interiors into a cornfield and a place of gathering for the cult.
- Abusive Parents: The film opens with elder Porter chasing Joshua through the surrounding cornfield
- Big Bad: Eli is the requisite preaching Dark Messiah leader of the children.
- Bugs Herald Evil: Eli's evil is worked through roaches, and he infects the local food supply with them to turn the school kids into his flock.
- Combat Tentacles: After He Who Walks Behind The Rows makes a physical appearance, it starts killing its former followers with its tentacles.
- Creepy Child: Eli and his followers.
- Decoy Protagonist: Amanda is probably the best example. She's set up as the investigative protagonist when she realizes that something wasn't right with Eli, but she falls on a pipe and dies halfway through the film. After her death, focus shifts to Joshua.
- Disposable Vagrant: A hobo suffers a cruel fate when he eats some of the corn from Eli's field.
- Doing in the Scientist: Last film's (possible) scientific explanation for children's behavior is ignored and everything is fully supernatural again.
- Dream Within a Dream: Father Nolan keeps seeing nightmares about the children, and at one point wakes up into another nightmare before waking up for real.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Eli's voice becomes deeper sometimes when he commands others.
- Groin Attack: One former follower is killed by a tentacle that impales her from the crotch.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Scarecrow Earl is defeated when he is cut in half.
- Let's See YOU Do Better!: Father Nolan invites Eli to preach after he displays unruly behavior during his sermon to embarrass him into behaving, but he instead takes up on the offer and starts sowing the seeds that will eventually turn some of the local children and teens to his side.
- Living Statue: Eli causes Father Nolan to see a statue of Virgin Mary to come alive and attack him offscreen.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Eli and his followers wear sacks with eyeholes when they sacrifice adults to the corn.
- Man on Fire: Eli uses his powers to set the social worker who sent them to the Porters on fire.
- Mouth Stitched Shut: Earl has his mouth and eyes stitched up when he is turned into a scarecrow.
- Numbered Sequels
- Off with His Head!: Malcolm's head is ripped off by cornstalk roots.
- Older Than They Look: Eli has been following the will of He Who Walks Behind The Rows for over thirty years and still looks like a child.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Accompanies the supernatural stuff involving the corn.
- Scary Scarecrows: Joshua's and Eli's father Earl is tied up and turned into an undead scarecrow by cornstalks summoned by Eli, and is then tasked to guard his bible of evil.
- Self-Made Orphan: Eli's followers start killing their parents.
- Sequel Hook: Eli and He Who Walks Behind The Rows are defeated in the end, but the corn which is the key to everything is still loose.
- Sinister Scythe: Some of Eli's followers carry sickles, and he kills William with one.
- Tennis Boss: Eli tries to attack Joshua by hurling fireballs, but he bounces them back with Eli's bible.
