PLOT: After the death of her mother, Quinn (Katie Douglas) relocates to a small town called Kettle Springs with her father, who’s going to become the town’s new doctor. Once there, she becomes friends with a group of teens who like to film YouTube videos featuring a serial-killing clown called “Frendo.” However, they soon realize that Frendo is a whole lot more real than they think he is.
REVIEW: Clown in a Cornfield is based on a well-received series of young adult novels by Adam Cesare. Having not read any of the books, I went into this adaptation relatively fresh, not knowing exactly what to expect. My interest was mainly piqued thanks to the fact that it’s directed by Tucker & Dale vs Evil’s Eli Craig, having been a big fan of that horror comedy gem.
Clown in a Cornfield has a similar mix of humour and horror, although it leans slightly more towards the latter, with it owing a lot to eighties slasher flicks, albeit done through a Gen-Z lens. What makes the movie work so well is the fact that the cast of teen characters are hugely likeable, with the young cast delivering winning performances. Once they start getting picked off, which happens with surprisingly regularity (this goes for a hard-R rating), you’re almost sad to see them die off. That hasn’t happened to me in a slasher for a little while, with the characters typically underdeveloped and tailored to certain types.
Clown in a Cornfield plays with and subverts stereotypes, with the local, gun-toting quiet boy, Rust (Vincent Muller) having surprisingly heroic qualities, and the local rich kid, Cole (Carson MacCormac) ends up being an all-around solid dude with a relatable secret. The movie centers around Katie Douglas’s Quinn, who immediately finds a new group of friends when she moves to Kettle Springs, and she delivers a nicely vulnerable performance. Typically, in movies like this, the parents are clueless, but Quinn’s father, played by Aaron Abrams, is smarter than most and figures prominently once Frendo’s gory reign begins.
Clown killers definitely seem to be having a moment, thanks to Terrifier, and Frendo should strike a chord with audiences, even if the way the plot pans out takes him in a different direction than you might expect. While working with a low-budget, Clown in a Cornfield looks great and has a fun supporting cast, with Kevin Durand chewing scenery as the town mayor, while Will Sasso is the clueless local sheriff, who immediately earns Quinn’s dislike by constantly referring to her as a sweetheart.
Most importantly, the gore is top shelf, with it done in old-school, practical ways. There’s no CGI carnage, it’s old-school makeup and red corn syrup, and the kills are pretty gnarly, even if, given the hoped-for teen audience, they stop well short of being anywhere near as disturbing as anything from Terrifier or In a Violent Nature.
The book this was based on inspired a whole series, and if the movie does well enough, I could see it turning into a nice little franchise for Shudder, who’ll be putting it out in theaters this May before it bows on their service. If you like the lower-key eighties slashers like Prom Night, Terror Train, or My Bloody Valentine, you might get a big kick out of this.
