Production
Stephen King wrote the initial screenplay which was first optioned by Maine based director Harry Wiland and producer Joseph Masefield who arranged financing from Home Box Office and 20th Century Fox until Fox pulled out of the deal leaving the project $2 million short of the needed funds and causing the rights to be repeatedly brokered to the point King couldn't actually name all the entities that held the rights. Eventually, Hal Roach Studios acquired the rights and hired George Goldsmith to perform a re-write of King's script. One of the drafts eventually made its way to Donald P. Borchers, Vice President of Production and Creative Affairs at New World Pictures, and a deal was quickly made between New World and Hal Roach Studios before the corn in the Midwestern United States could ripen and hired director Fritz Kiersch and Terence Kirby as director and producer respectively.
Hal Roach executives did not want to use King's script and George Goldsmith was hired to rewrite it. Goldsmith said that King's script started with 35 pages of Burt and Vicky arguing in a car, so he decided to tell the story visually through the eyes of two new characters, children Job and Sarah. King was unhappy with the changes but Hal Roach went with Goldsmith. King and Goldsmith debated Goldsmith's approach during a phone conversation during which King argued that Goldsmith did not understand the horror genre and Goldsmith countered that King did not recognize that film is a visual, "external" experience unlike novels and short stories, which are "internal" and only visual in the reader's mind.
The film was shot in Hornick, Iowa, Whiting, Iowa, Salix, Iowa, and Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.
Goldsmith credited King with being extremely gracious when asked about the film in media interviews, stating in diplomatic ways he felt the new approach to be lacking. Hal Roach eventually sold the project to New World Pictures, which decided to go with Goldsmith's script, although it tried unsuccessfully to remove his name from the credits in favor of King's. After release of the highly successful film, Goldsmith revealed that much of the story was a metaphor for the Iranian Revolution, with the takeover of the town by quasi-religious zealots acting for an evil "God" based on the Ayatollah Khomeini and his revolutionary guard taking over Iran. Burt and Vicky became analogous to the American hostages and Goldsmith was using a horror film to expose the dangers and evils of religious fundamentalism, something few critics recognized.
During an interview on The Ghost of Hollywood, Fritz Kiersch explained how Courtney Gains won the role of Malachai by using a prop knife to hold a casting assistant hostage at the audition. Gains claims that one of the great honors of his career is having hundreds of people, even his son's friends, recognize him as Malachai and confess they found him terrifying, some having admitted his performance gave them nightmares. Apparently, even his own parents were greatly unnerved by him in this film.
According to producer Donald Borchers the film was originally offered to Sam Raimi to direct but Raimi wanted more preparation time. Borchers then offered the film to Tommy Lee Wallace who turned it down. He eventually went with Fritz Kiersch who worked in advertising.
Because of seasonal changes, cornstalks had to be propped up and painted green to appear living.
Some of the local townspeople also performed as minor roles or acted as extras in the film.
