Clown in a Cornfield Review: A Graphically Violent and Snarky Teen Slasher
Clown in a Cornfield is exactly what it is. There’s a crazy clown named Frendo who kills teenagers passing through the cornfield in the (fictional) small town of Kettle Springs, Missouri. The movie gets off to a cliché-ridden start with the 1991-set prologue, where a pair of horny teenagers become the victims of Frendo the clown after the two sneaking off into the cornfield during an outdoor party. I was expecting something grisly here, only to be disappointed by Eli Craig’s (Tucker and Dale vs Evil) somewhat pedestrian direction. The kill is lame and has none of the visceral shock, let alone a sense of macabre fun commonly associated with such a slasher horror.
Soon, the movie fast-forwards to the present day as we are introduced to Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her doctor-father, Glenn (Aaron Abrams), moving into Kettle Springs, hoping to start a new life following the death of Quinn’s mother. The story follows the predictable route, such as the reluctant, big-city girl like Quinn, is trying to get used to the new surroundings. Not to mention, the obligatory estranged relationship between her and her father.
It doesn’t take long before Quinn makes new friends, notably Cole Hill (Carson MacCormac), where they go to the same local high school. Cole and his friends love to pull off pranks, making YouTube videos about the town’s closed-down corn syrup factory’s clown mascot, Frendo. They even mocked the clown’s appearance by dressing as one. Meanwhile, Cole’s father, Arthur (Kevin Durand), who is the town’s mayor, is fed up with his son’s antics. And so does Sheriff Dunne (Will Sasso), who grows increasingly annoyed dealing with pranksters like Cole and his friends.
The first half is pretty much a hit-and-miss affair, making me wonder if Clown in a Cornfield will ever find its proper footing. For a while there, it’s hard for me to root for any of the characters here, even when one of them ends up getting killed. The story is inept, and there’s nothing scary about Frendo the clown slashing and hacking the teenagers every now and then.
But just as I begin to suspect this is going to be a run-of-the-mill slasher horror after all, it’s like a sudden wake-up call around the 50-minute mark. It is as if Craig remembers he has an important task to fulfil, and that is, ratcheting up the tension while effectively combining horror with self-aware comedy. It’s a wild, fun ride from here on. Let’s just say Frendo goes crazy with a series of killing sprees, and horror fans can look forward to a copious amount of blood and graphically violent kills. And I’m talking about gruesome death by various murder weapons, from a chainsaw to a crossbow, and even a pitchfork.
The comedy is spot-on, while the second half isn’t just a full-on stalk-and-slash moment as Craig piles up with some nasty surprises. He even subverts expectations that turn the otherwise familiar slasher horror inside out, including one of the unlikely twists, I didn’t see it coming. The movie is also worth mentioning for having a field day making fun of Gen-Z, especially the way some of these teenagers aren’t particularly smart and savvy in dealing with old-school technology. At one point, a panicked teenager is having trouble trying to call for help using a rotary phone. Not to forget, a scene where the chance of driving off the vehicle from harm due to an inability to drive stick.
Clown in a Cornfield is adapted from Adam Cesare’s young adult novel series of the same name, and with the first movie unsurprisingly concludes with an open ending, I’m looking forward to seeing more of Frendo the killer clown mascot in the future.
