Intensity: 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Eli Craig
Written by Carter Blanchard and Eli Craig
Based on a novel by Adam Cesare
Clown in a Cornfield is a return-to-basics teen slasher movie that gets all the little things right, but shares the same narrative limitations as its precedent source material. Sometimes hilarious, often bloody, this adaptation of a popular YA novel by Adam Cesare is tonally pitched still at a younger audience, and will likely be quite popular with the teen scene.
There is much nostalgia packed into Clown in a Cornfield. Like last year’s Thanksgiving, it is reclaiming the tradition of the 1980s dead teenager slasher films. Think Prom Night, My Bloody Valentine, The Blob, and Sleepaway Camp… films that were cheeky and bloody, but not quite as visceral or mean as the Friday the 13th series.
Clown in a Cornfield utilizes many well-established horror tropes, including:
( CLICK HERE FOR TROPE SPOILER ALERTS)
It would be unfair to call this film derivative, but it totes the luggage from dozens of horror movies before it. There is a comfort level and a familiarity in this movie that many who attended the Overlook Film Festival with me were desperately seeking. It is a classic old-school slasher, with enough character identification and mayhem to stir those old memories, while remaining very much a movie of today’s world. Keeping the story in the modern Midwest allows it to keep one foot in the past and one foot in the present.
The Cast of Clown in a Cornfield
- Katie Douglas plays Quinn Maybrook, the new girl in town who is moving from Philadelphia to the cornfields of Kettle Springs.
- Aaron Abrams is Dr. Maybrook, Quinn’s father, who has answered the call to be the town’s physician. His wife recently passed away, and this is an opportunity for him and Quinn to start a new life far from the painful memories of last year.
- Carson MacCormac plays Cole, the handsome, roguish boy who is the son of the local corn syrup tycoon. He is a light troublemaker and has a lothario reputation for being an unreliable boyfriend to many of the girls in Kettle Springs.
- Kevin Durand is Arthur Hill, the syrup tycoon. He is the most powerful man in town and is responsible for running the Founder’s Day parade that celebrates the town’s harvest and history.
- Will Sasso plays Sheriff Dunne, a hulking individual who is constantly at odds with many of the local high school kids, whom he considers hooligans.
- Vincent Muller is Rust, a big, quiet, and very polite young man who doesn’t fit in with the other kids in school. He is an avid hunter who used to be good friends with Cole.
- Cassandra Potenza is Janet, the alpha queen of the high school. She sets the agenda for what the popular kids in town do. Right now, it’s shooting horror movies.
- Verity Marks portrays Ronnie, Janet’s lieutenant and yes woman. A likely Frendo victim. Girls like this rarely survive a slasher movie.
- Alexandre Martin Deakin plays Matt, one of the football players at Kettle Springs High. Ronnie’s boyfriend and another likely Frendo victim.
- Ayo Solanke is Tucker, Guildenstern to Matt’s Rosencrantz. Also a football player, and Janet’s boyfriend. Tucker is also a top mark for Frendo.
A Short Summary of Clown in a Cornfield:
Clown in a Cornfield opens with, not surprisingly, a party at a farm with a large cornfield in a flashback to 1991. Two horny teenagers rush into the cornfield for some sexy shenanigans amongst the corn stalks. A clown with big squeaky shoes and a pitchfork stalks and slaughters the pair before they can fully undress. The legend of Frendo the Clown begins.
Flash forward to the present day as the Maybrooks arrive at their new home in Kettle Springs. Quinn grumbles and fumes because they left the urban bustle of Philadelphia for the farming life of middle America. It is her senior year, and this is not how she planned on spending it. The Maybrooks settle in and are greeted by the local sheriff and the rest of the quaint farming community at the local diner. Quinn finds the sheriff a blowhard bully, and her mood continues to plummet. The next morning, Quinn is escorted to school by her awkward country bumpkin neighbor Rust. Despite this generous gesture, Rust makes her uncomfortable. Things improve when, on her first day in class, Quinn makes good with the “in crowd” popular kids.
They like making amateur horror movies, and pranking Quinn with some scares that use the legend of Frendo the clown, known for the murders twenty-four years ago. The town has been struggling since the Baypen Corn Syrup factory burned down. Frendo is the mascot for the Baypen corporation, and the legacy limps along through the efforts of the Hill family. The town suspects Cole, the son of the Baypen CEO, of arson. Nobody filed charges, so Cole remains a free young man. Still, the sheriff and the local townsfolk are wary of the teenagers, considering them hooligans.
These aren’t horrible teens, though. Michieveous, yes, but they are emblematic of the youthful impatience and sass that often comes with adolescence. After a couple of nights of light mischief with guerrilla filmmaking, Cole brings Quinn home with beer on his breath, which infuriates her father. Now grounded, she suffers the ignominy of not being able to hang out with the cool kids. As the town prepares to celebrate its Founder’s Day celebration and parade, Frendo kills some of the unlucky teenagers.
Remarkably, nobody takes notice of their absence, other than to chalk it up to unreliable friendships. (Nope… they are dead and not even their parents know.) So, heedless of those events, the group soldiers on. One thing all teens enjoy is a big, drunken party. It is at a big barn party (At the same barn we see in the intro) that Frendo goes on a killing spree. Or make that, Frendos plural. Clowns emerge out of the cornfield, wielding weaponry of all sorts, cutting down the teenage revelers.
Quinn and her new friends scramble for safety, but find themselves surrounded and overmatched—little hope of making it out of the cornfield alive remains.
EVALUATION
I want to state in advance that I am not part of the target age demographic for this. These teenagers act like self-centered idiots. This is not unusual in movies like this, and I recognize that, but it has been a while since I have seen a movie about dimwitted teens being pitted against brutish adults. It is difficult to identify, and unfortunately, my allegiance tended to land on the side of the brutes. However, this was based on a Young Adult novel, so the perspective of being oppressed and having your freedoms limited because your parents don’t want you to hang out with the friends you just met is a common teenage dilemma. This movie speaks to that. So, teenagers could end up LOVING this movie.
Clown in a Cornfield executes a lot of the little things very well. The best gags often come at the expense of Gen Z. Our teenage protagonists struggle with analog technology. Rotary phones and stick-shift cars become daunting obstacles, much to the delight of the over-40 audience members. The Frendo costumes are terrifically menacing, and despite the YA origins, they do not skimp on the violence. You want dead teenagers? You get dead teenagers!
This movie wears its references on its sleeves. The opening sequence is largely a Jaws reference, substituting a Cornfield for the waters off of Cape Cod and the big shark replaced by an equally toothy cloud with big squeaky shoes. The plucky (and snarky) teenagers are lifted from your pick of favorite horror franchises. To me, this felt like A Nightmare on Elm Street in the casting. If you squint, you can see some Johnny Depp in young Carson McCormack. Structurally and thematically, this movie bears a strong resemblance to last year’s Thanksgiving, a slightly superior film, and Carved, a somewhat lesser one. Harvest festivals seem to be the in-thing for horror slashers these days.
From a casting standpoint, my key takeaway is that Kevin Durand would make an excellent Elon Musk if anyone were to produce a biopic on the controversial mogul. The rest of the cast is suitable for the task at hand. However, only Vincent Muller as Rust seemed to elevate above the material.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ON CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD
It was nice to see an Eli Craig horror film on the big screen again. He built his reputation on the cult favorite Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and was never given another swing at the horror piñata until now, fifteen years later. He knows how to entertain an audience, although I’m not sure if he’s found the voice of Gen Z. At times, the characters and dialogue feel imposed upon the performers. By contrast, another film I saw at Overlook, It Ends, captured the nuance of dialogue by young people in a way that felt natural and lived-in.
Robyn, one of our patrons who joined us at Overlook, said that this movie was everything she wanted and more. Clown in a Cornfield brims with confidence and brio. It will find an appreciative audience who longs for the straightforward fun of the classic teen slasher movie. Even though the characters are largely pancake flat in their character arcs, there are a pair of characters whose story takes a dramatic turn that subverts expectations. Is it elevated horror? Hell no! And for many, that is appealing.
The MPAA has given Clown in a Cornfield an R Rating for bloody horror violence, language throughout, and teen drinking. It is, however, a movie pitched at teenagers, who will probably enjoy this at a slumber party. (Or, if you sneak into the theater, and don’t tell them I said to do this!) The movie debuted at SXSW, and I saw it at the Overlook Film Festival, where it was the closing night showcase. The film will release widely on May 9, 2025.