Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to graphic violence, death, horror themes, and religious fanaticism.

The vast titular cornfields stand as a multifaceted symbol representing both sustenance and malevolence. Initially evoking images of abundance and rural tranquility, the cornfields become a sinister backdrop for the unfolding horror. The rustling stalks and towering plants conceal the children’s rituals and the supernatural entity, He Who Walks Behind the Rows. The cornfields also symbolize the inherently deceptive atmosphere of Gatlin: a trap for everyone who enters.

Where rural farming towns with abundant harvests are often seen as symbols of wholesome American success, the town of Gatlin subverts this stereotype by presenting a poisonous illusion of the American dream. A recurring symbol throughout the story, the corn appears in the abandoned church as a bizarre redecoration of a portrait of Jesus Christ, the creepy corn husk doll, and in Burt’s observations of the deserted stretch of Nebraska highway they traverse while seeking help.

The cornfields ultimately serve to intensify the atmosphere of dread, transforming a staple of rural life into a foreboding landscape where innocence is corrupted and hidden horrors lurk.