Medical
students Vicky (played by a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton) and
boyfriend Burton (Peter Horton) are travelling across rural Nebraska, when
they accidentally collide with a young boy standing in the road. However,
when Burt goes to check the body, he finds that the young boy was actually
dead before being run over.
Stuck out in the middle of nowhere, they decide their only option is to take the body with them and try and find help. Eventually they stumble across a small farming town named Gatlin, but to their surprise they find the place completely empty. As they begin to wander around they are alarmed to discover that the townsfolk obviously didn't just leave, they somehow disappeared.
Coming across a young girl named Sarah (Anne Marie McEvoy) hiding in one of the deserted houses, they then discover the shocking truth about Gatlin, and how some 3 years previously the children of the town, lead by a (rather ugly looking) boy preacher named Isaac (John Franklin) and his henchman Malachai (Courtney Gains), viciously slaughtered all the adults and used their blood to water the drought stricken fields and replenish their corn crops.
It turns out the guy they knocked down was one of children from the town, who Malachai murdered whilst trying to escape. Prior to Burt and Vicky's arrival, nobody had disturbed the deathly silence of Gatlin, but they leave it a little too late to get back out of town, as they are forced into confrontation with young Isaac, Malachai and the rest of their bizarre religious cult members. Because in Gatlin, every adult must die in sacrifice to their god, "the one who walks behind the rows".
Based on a short story by Steven King, this is definitely one of the better films to bear his name. This is a very entertaining and creepy film, in particular the opening scenes with the coffee shop massacre, which really sets the tone and feel of the film well. Just a pity about the effects at end of the though. .
