CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD - Mark Reviews Movies

Clown in a Cornfield, Shudder / RLJE Films

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | May 8, 2025

The title might not be exactly accurate, but to explain why might also give away one of the few surprises of Clown in a Cornfield. It's certainly an accurate description of the generic horror-movie-opening scene, in which a party at an old barn outside a small town is interrupted by a murderous clown stalking and killing teens in a cornfield.

Co-writer/director Eli Craig's movie is a bit cleverer than that familiar brand of prologue and the few kills building up to the movie's blood-soaked centerpiece, in which a group of modern-day teens are stalked and slaughtered by a certain number of clowns. It's probably safe to say that it's not just one clown terrorizing the youth of this particular town, because slasher movies such as this one have been giving us multiple masked killers for a few decades at this point. That'll be the end of any teasing about the number of clowns in this movie, though. Once it's revealed in the movie, Craig and co-screenwriter Carter Blanchard (adapting Adam Cesare's novel) pretty much tell us what's really going on in this story.

It's more interesting than anything up to that point. Here, the little hamlet of Kettle Springs has come upon hard times. It was once the sight of a very particular industry, namely the manufacturing of corn oil. The business single-handedly kept the place alive and prosperous since its inception about a century ago, but recently, the factory burnt down, leaving a lot of people without jobs and the entire community uncertain of how it's going to continue.

Enter into this place Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her father Glenn Maybrook (Aaron Abrams), a doctor who has decided to take over the local medical practice after the death of his wife, Quinn mother's. Quinn quickly gets the lay of the land, which seems entirely normal. The teens rebel, mocking the institutions and traditions of their hometown, and the adults don't take too kindly to their insolence. Despite some warnings, Quinn makes friends with Cole (Carson MacCormac) and his group of pals, including Matt (Alexandre Martin Deakin) and Tucker (Ayo Solanke), who create online videos portraying the corn oil company mascot, a clown named Frendo, as a serial killer.

The notion of the generational divide in this place is far more important than it might seem to the story, considering how much of the first act or so is about the friends hanging out, pranking each other while making those videos, and, inevitably, being picked off one by one by a killer dressed as a clown. Quinn and her father have some arguments and bickering about the company she's keeping and the fact that she doesn't know—and doesn't seem interested—in learning how to drive a stick shift. A teacher (played by Bradley Sawatzky) seems to take unneeded pleasure in giving as many students detention as possible after someone messes with his class, and the local Sheriff (played by Will Sasso) is quite judgmental about kids, when he isn't being condescending toward them.

There's a bigger picture to this seemingly throwaway conflict, however. That's for later in the story, well past the point that it can be developed as anything more than some broad points about the underlying concerns of this generational divide and a reason for the final showdown between the survivors and the now-unmasked killers. For as little as this fundamental idea is actually explored (It amounts to a shouting match of political and philosophical talking points before more violence ensues), the whole thing does end up feeling like a convoluted rationalization for or a phony bit of significance in what isn't anything more than a generic slasher movie.

That means the clown sneaking up on individual teens during the second act, which is quite the accomplishment given the clowns squeaky shoes—that somehow only make noise after the butchering is finished. It's obviously meant to be a gag, but the movie's sense of humor is bluntly, dully self-aware (Characters explaining what has happened as a joke or saying what would happen to them if they were in a bad horror movie just before that predictable thing actually occurs) or counting on the fact that we'll find the gimmick of a killer clown inherently funny.

The filmmakers certainly think it is, because Clown in a Cornfield does little with the murderous clown(s) apart from the obvious. It becomes a routine bloodbath of a horror movie, with characters who are meant to represent a more significant idea about generational differences but just end up being too irritatingly knowledgeable of horror movies to be this dumb when they're in one.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products

Buy the Book

Buy the Book (Kindle Edition)