Clown in a Cornfield isn’t a terrifying or particularly groundbreaking slasher horror, but it’s still a great time just the same. Aiming for maximum entertainment value and offering up a handful of nifty twists to break up genre conventions and familiarity, Clown in a Cornfield is focused on delivering a good and gory ninety-five(ish) minutes above all else. Sure, there’s some nastiness and malevolence that’s inherent in all slasher movies, but also an endearing sense of humour and affinity for the kinds of viewers who’ll eat this sort of thing up. If you enjoy the kinds of slashers that were coming out around the turn of the century (post-Scream), you’ll probably get a lot of enjoyment out of director and co-writer Eli Craig’s adaptation of Adam Cesare’s novel.
Teenager Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) and her widowed doctor father (Aaron Abrams) are making their way from big city life on the U.S. east coast to the tiny midwestern hamlet of Kettle Springs, where he has officially signed on to be the new physician in town. Quinn arrives at an interesting time, just as the town is about to celebrate its 100th birthday and when tensions between conservative adults and fun loving teens are at an all time high. Quinn falls in with a merry bunch of pranksters who get a kick out of turning the town’s beloved mascot – a clown named Frendo, created by the now defunct Baypen Corn Syrup company – into a Creepypasta type serial killer in viral videos. The kids are, admittedly, a bunch of screw-ups who don’t expect to suffer the consequences of their actions, but the adults certainly aren’t helping matters any with their attitudes. Just as Founder’s Day rolls around, the teens’ vision of a killer clown starts to become a reality as they start getting stalked and picked off one by one.
Clowns in horror are hot right now, and while Frendo isn’t on the level of a Pennywise or an Art the Clown, the overall concept of Craig’s film is a solid one. The rural, bucolic, and rundown setting and visual style of Clown in a Cornfield evokes the seaside memories of I Know What You Did Last Summer more than classic 80s or post-modern horror. The production design and cinematography (which is very well lit and clean, a marvel for most horror of the era) are impeccable, with Craig (beloved/underrated horror comedy Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil) constructing a world and mythology that’s just as interesting as the young characters trapped within it.
Craig brings a lot of energy, panache, and humour to the ghoulish proceedings. Clown in a Cornfield, to its detriment at times, doesn’t move at a breakneck pace, but at least there’s always something of interest happening to keep the viewer locked in. The clown gimmick is a fun one that gets better around the midway point, once Craig offers up his biggest plot reveal and the action picks up in a big way. The death scenes aren’t all timers for the genre, but they’re gleefully bloody and brutal, with some nice visual nods to past slasher icons. Craig also isn’t afraid to get lightly political in the latter stages when discussing conservative adults keen on leaving the world a worse place for the next generation, while poking gentle fun on things modern teens wouldn’t understand (including great gags involving stick shift transmissions and rotary telephones).
Douglas makes a likeable heroine, one with a requisite amount of emotional baggage, while Abrams brings a good amount of warmth as Quinn’s adoring father. Their chemistry is outstanding. (It’s also fun to note the casting of Children Ruin Everything star Abrams in a horror film where people genuinely believe that children ruin everything.) Carson MacCormac proves that he studied the slasher movie playbook for his role as Quinn’s pretty-boy crush, a guy who’s clearly hiding a secret or two, and Vincent Miller broods nicely as the creepy kid who keeps providing thinly veiled warnings about the town’s bleak history. Cassandra Potenza steals some outstanding scenes in the film’s second half as the increasingly stressed out mean girl of the core friend group. Seasoned adult performers Will Sasso (as the ineffective town sheriff) and Kevin Durand (as MacCormac’s stern father and the richest man in town) provide some solid back up to round out a well put together cast.
Clown in a Cornfield is derivative, but that doesn’t come at the expense of entertainment value. Craig and company know when to lean into cliches and when to subvert them, offering some novel wrinkles in the slasher movie template while delivering the goods with the requisite number of jump scares, near misses, and shock reveals. It’s like eating at a diner, albeit one that has perfected the formula and leaves the viewer wanting more, even if they could get the same meal elsewhere, made for the same price, but with a lot less love and care.
Clown in a Cornfield opens in Canadian cinemas on Friday, May 9, 2025.
