Passes the Bechdel test
Children of the Corn
1984. Directed by Fritz Kiersch, written by Stephen King and George Goldsmith.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
3 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 151. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
A boy preacher named Isaac goes to Gatlin, Nebraska and gets all the children to murder every adult in town. A young couple on a road trip stop in Gatlin to report a murder and seek help, but the town seems deserted. They are soon trapped in Gatlin with little chance of getting out alive.
- Released
- 09 Mar 1984
- Genres
- Horror, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 5.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 45 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 3 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Burt 201 lines, man
- Vicky 148 lines, woman
- Job 52 lines, man
- Sarah 34 lines, woman
- Isaac 28 lines, man
- Malachai 27 lines, man
- Diehl 26 lines, man
- Joseph 10 lines, man
- Amos 6 lines, man
- Girl 5 lines, woman
Full cast, 18 people
- Peter Horton as Burton Stanton
- Linda Hamilton as Vicky
- R.G. Armstrong as Diehl
- John Franklin as Isaac Chroner
- Courtney Gains as Malachai
- Anne Marie McEvoy as Sarah
- Robby Kiger as Job
- Julie Maddalena as Rachel
- Jonas Marlowe as Joseph
- John Philbin as Amos
- Dan Snook as Boy
- David Cowen as Dad
- Suzy Southam as Mom
- D.G. Johnson as Mr. Hansen
- Teresa Toigo as Hansen's Customer
- Patrick Boylan as Hansen's Customer
- Elmer Soderstrom as Hansen's Customer
- Mitch Carter as Radio Preacher (voice)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 151
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 0 | 7 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 to 12 | 8 | 6 |
| 13 to 16 | 6 | 22 |
| 17 to 20 | 4 | 8 |
| 21 to 24 | 6 | 6 |
| 25 to 28 | 8 | 4 |
| 29 to 32 | 4 | 2 |
| 33 to 36 | 3 | 3 |
| 37 to 40 | 6 | 8 |
| 41 to 44 | 5 | 4 |
| 45 to 48 | 13 | 24 |
| 49 to 52 | 14 | 16 |
| 53 to 56 | 1 | 27 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 2 |
| 61 to 64 | 5 | 6 |
| 65 to 68 | 3 | 10 |
| 69 to 72 | 4 | 10 |
| 73 to 76 | 5 | 10 |
| 77 to 80 | 0 | 1 |
| 81 to 84 | 8 | 15 |
| 85 to 88 | 3 | 3 |
| 89 to 92 | 2 | 2 |
| 93 to 96 | 4 | 6 |
| 97 to 100 | 11 | 15 |
| 101 to 104 | 22 | 12 |
| 105 to 108 | 11 | 7 |
| 109 to 112 | 0 | 0 |
| 113 to 116 | 10 | 0 |
| 117 to 120 | 9 | 2 |
| 121 to 124 | 0 | 2 |
| 125 to 128 | 1 | 16 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 0 |
| 133 to 136 | 5 | 23 |
| 137 to 140 | 2 | 35 |
| 141 to 144 | 1 | 11 |
| 145 to 148 | 2 | 19 |
| 149 to 151 | 3 | 16 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
VICKY: Well hello! What a darling little girl. What's your name? SARAH: Sarah. VICKY: Sarah. That's a lovely name. I'm Vicky, and this is Burt.
SARAH: They're gone. VICKY: Gone where? SARAH: Into the corn!
VICKY: How's it coming? SARAH: Fine. VICKY: What is it? SARAH: You.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 34 are women's.
189 lines from women, 360 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
3 women and 9 men in the cast. 3 women and 9 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 11 of 558.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 36 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 25% of the words (1,264), men 75% (3,766). Women have 34% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
8
Two men
24
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 9 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 25% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Fritz Kiersch (man)
- Written by
- George Goldsmith (man)
- Produced by
- Donald P. Borchers (man), Terrence Kirby (gender not listed)
- Shot by
- João Fernandes (man)
- Edited by
- Harry Keramidas (man)
- Music by
- Jonathan Elias (man)
- Costumes by
- Barbara Scott (woman)
- Cast by
- Linda Francis (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
1 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 0 men
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 18 on average. Men: 29 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Anne Marie McEvoy 8, Julie Maddalena 20, Linda Hamilton 27
Men
Robby Kiger 10, Courtney Gains 18, John Philbin 23, John Franklin 24, Peter Horton 30, R.G. Armstrong 66
Exhibit H: the money
It made 18.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $800,000
- Box office
- $14.6 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 151 scenes and 558 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
