In Clown in a Cornfield, Frendo the Clown terrorizes a small farming town.SHauna Townley/Elevation Pictures
Clown in a Cornfield
Directed by Eli Craig
Written by Eli Craig and Carter Blanchard, based on the novel by Adam Cesare
Starring Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams and Kevin Durand
Classification N/A; 97 minutes
Opens in theatres May 9
The new slasher Clown in a Cornfield boasts a big, terrible title but two small surprises, both of which try mightily to elevate, or at least differentiate, the horror flick from its many genre cousins.
The first surprise isn’t spoiling much: While this is an American-flavoured tale, set in the born-in-the-USA heartland and with a “Make America gory again” vibe coursing through its veins, it’s also quasi-Canadian: filmed in and around Winnipeg and starring Canadians both emerging (Katie Douglas, Carson MacCormac) and familiar (Aaron Abrams, Kevin Durand, Will Sasso, all exceptionally game). That’s a fun enough homegrown wrinkle, and provides far more entertaining distractions for Canadian moviegoers than the film’s second, ostensibly larger twist.
The movie opens with the cynical teenager Quinn (Douglas) grousing about how she’s been uprooted by her widowed physician father (Abrams) to Kettle Springs, a small farming town located in flyover country. But Quinn’s grumpiness is soon offset by the realization that her new home, aside from being populated by teenage clichés, is being terrorized by Frendo the Clown, a kind of creepy town mascot who has somehow made the leap from urban legend into homicidal reality.
Without spoiling things, director Eli Craig, adapting the novel by Adam Cesare, attempts to pull a The Cabin in the Woods-esque switcheroo on the familiar slasher formula. Except unlike Drew Goddard’s 2011 cult classic, Clown in a Cornfield takes far too long to reveal its big conceit, which is itself neither especially clever nor subversive. The whole idea represents a spurt of fresh blood when it should be a gushing geyser.
This is all the more disappointing given Craig’s genre background, especially his feature debut, 2010’s similarly Canadian-but-not-quite horror-comedy Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, which upended the Texas Chainsaw Massacre tropes of what happens when sexy young idiots stumble into hillbilly backwaters.
So, by the time that Quinn comes face to face with the real horror haunting Kettle Springs, it becomes clear that there’s just not enough meat on the bones of Craig’s film to justify all the dismemberment. Send in the clowns. Wait, don’t bother – they’re here. And kind of boring.
