Clown in a Cornfield

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://movieswetextedabout.com/clown-in-a-cornfield-movie-review-when-tradition-kills-literally/

"Clown in a Cornfield is a pleasant surprise in the 2025 horror landscape. It starts off rather generically - a conservative town, a group of rebellious teens, a masked killer - but quickly finds its own identity through well-crafted social commentary and a strong execution of slasher tropes.

With solid performances, confident direction from Eli Craig, and a healthy dose of dark humor, the movie wins over its target audience through gory entertainment and thematic relevance, even if not all of its ideas are fully explored and some narrative decisions feel more convenient than organic.

It's a grim but clever portrait of a society in denial, where the past refuses to die… even when it's literally buried in a cornfield."

Rating: B

Based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Adam Cesare, Clown in a Cornfield follows 17-year-old Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) and her father (Aaron Abrams) moving to Kettle Springs, Missouri. After the passing of Quinn’s mother the previous summer, Kettle Springs had an opening for a family doctor which caused the surviving Maybrooks to move from the big city to a small rural town.

The local corn syrup factory burned down recently and its mascot, a clown named Frendo, has become a celebratory icon for Kettle Springs. With a town holiday known as Founders Day fast approaching, the townsfolk are noticeably on edge with new people moving in and the younger generation making dreaded internet videos.

As Quinn tries to make friends in a town she never wanted to move to, an actual killing spree by someone wearing a clown costume drenches Kettle Springs in a sea of blood.

The clown sequences in Clown in a Cornfield are the film's highlights. Interestingly, a jack-in-the-box toy pops up whenever someone is about to die prompting you to think of a connection or deeper meaning to Frendo that never actually occurs. But some of the kills are incredibly solid like the gnarly chainsaw kill in the middle of the cornfield, the barbell kill you see glimpses of in the trailer, and a brutal pitchfork sequence that results in two deaths.

Everything in between teenagers getting slaughtered is rather clunky. Clown in a Cornfield doubles down on this The Breakfast Club meets Dead & Buried ambiance, but never quite gets there. Kettle Springs sees MadTV’s Will Sasso as the town sheriff and it’s bizarre. He plays the role completely straight, but Sheriff Dunne is rather forgettable otherwise.

The cast is mostly fine when it comes to passable performances. Katie Douglas slides into her role as Quinn Maybrook more comfortably as the film progresses and as the events in the film become more hectic. Early on in the film, it’s as if Douglas has this permanent pouty face and duck...

Ok, so there’s not much original about this cornfield chopper, but I think that’s the point. It sets itself up right from the start as more of a parody of so many other films of the genre, and I really quite enjoyed it. Of course we have to start with the daughter/father relationship that’s reeling from a tragedy, then they move to an old rickety house that really does need it’s chimney seeing to before she sets of to school dressed for a “Rocky Horror” party. “Quinn” (Katie Douglas) quickly falls in the with the town’s rowdy crowd, led by wealthy eye-candy “Cole” (Carson MacCormac) which just earns her the annoyance of her dad (Aaron Abrams) and just about all of the local bigwigs. This lot like to have a few drinks then make spoof horror films in which they get brutally slain by a clown from the cornfield then post them on the internet. It’s when once such frolic turns out to be just a bit more serious that things get altogether more menacing for our troop of teenagers. What now ensues, well you’ve seen it all before lots of times but this time it’s tongue is in it’s cheek, there’s a (pretty obvious) twist in the romantic tale and the whole enterprise is reminiscent of “Scooby Do” does the “Klu Klux Clown”. There’s plenty of screaming histrionics, chainsaws, crawling through sewers and you could bathe like Cleopatra in the amount of ketchup, or corn syrup, that’s splashed about as it races along. If you’re looking for BAFTA acting skills, then perhaps not, but if you can watch this in the context that it is an entertaining satire of those gone before it, then I think it’s quite good fun and who knows, there might even be a sequel.

I haven't read the book. I'm kind of an idiot.

I liked the title. I liked the movie. I think that's how it works. The phone thing was funny. There is gore. There are clowns (spoiler).