‘Clown in a Cornfield’ Movie Review: A Corn Syrup-Filled Slasher Film That’s Fun Enough
Photo from RLJE Films
From Jeremy Kibler
Based on Adam Cesare’s 2020 horror novel (the first of a trilogy with a fourth book on the way), Clown in a Cornfield is such an evocative title for nightmares — and not just for coulrophobics. The film adaptation won’t earn such a lofty claim, but it is a fun, competently made, sufficiently bloody good time for a slasher film, and sometimes a little more than that. Ambitious enough to introduce a hopeful new slasher and appease fans of the popular source material, this love letter to the horror sub-genre is catered to a teen audience without talking down to them.
Similar to director Eli Craig’s very cute, very gory, very clever 2011 feature debut Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Corn in a Cornfield comments on certain genre tropes a couple of times when it isn’t just playing the classics. Right off the top, the ‘90s opening sequence is clearly a Jaws homage, where a young woman at a hangout leads her crush into the cornfield rather than the ocean for sexy time.
New to the Missouri town of Kettle Springs, 17-year-old Quinn (played with an appealing edge by Katie Douglas) gets plucked from Philly after her mom dies and her dad (Aaron Abrams) takes an opening as the local physician. Though she’s the new girl in town, she quickly falls in with a cute boy, Cole (Carson MacCormac), and his clique, who have turned the town’s corn syrup factory mascot, Frendo the Clown, into an urban legend to fear for YouTube subscribers. Of course, a real killer clown dressed as Frendo emerges and gets to slicing, like, for real.
The generational-divide angle Clown in a Cornfield takes is actually not that fresh, especially when it turns out to have a lot in common with recent slasher throwbacks Thanksgiving and Founders Day. Craig’s script, co-written with Carter Blanchard, does at least have more on its mind about a false flag of small-town conservative values, but it’s most surprising in how the love-interest trope gets a welcome tweak.
Otherwise, the basic slasher-movie criteria is fulfilled and often surpassed. The characters are a mostly likable lot, but besides Quinn and Cole, only the blonde mean girl Janet really stands out because of Cassandra Potenza’s energy and the character being named “Janet.” The kills are quick and nasty (the token Hot Jock learns the way hard that you shouldn’t drink and bench press when Frendo is around). There’s a cheeky genre self-awareness poking around the climactic farm hoedown, especially when Frendo follows a pattern set by girlfriends stifling another’s scream. An old rotary phone also figures into the generational divide for a light chuckle during a perilous situation.
Clown in a Cornfield is skillful but never as subversive with genre conventions as it could have been. Though for late-night scares on a Friday night with a crowd, the teenyboppers could do a whole lot worse.
Rating: 3/5
Clown in a Cornfield is currently streaming and hits Shudder on August 8, 2025.
