Review: Clown in a Cornfield (2025)

Clown in a Cornfield, based off the novel by Adam Cesare (which is a fun read), follows Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas), who has recently moved from Philadelphia to Kettle Springs, Missouri.  Kettle Springs is home to the Baypen corn syrup factory and its mascot Frendo the Clown.  Quinn quickly falls in with a group that makes horror YouTube videos based off the mascot, and when that group is pursued by a veritable army of costumed Frendos, she has to find a way to survive.

This movie is very much a throwback slasher:  Characters are fairly thin outside our lead, motivations are an afterthought, and the redshirts are fairly obvious.  However, it is still a fun time with some inventive kills and sly comedy scattered throughout.

Slashers - especially one that is paying homage to the 80s slashers - live and die by their energy.  Slow slashers rarely work (and for them to succeed, the slowness needs to be part of the gimmick like with In a Violent Nature) and boring/cliche kills can turn it into a slog.  So there is a constant battle to one-up previous slashers in both these ways that can turn the story into something perfunctory just so the focus can shift to those other priorities.

Because this is based off an existing novel, the story part is taken care of.  The adaptation trims quite a bit from the story, but the bones are there and allows the focus to shift to other aspects of the filmmaking.  Short of a complete rewriting of the novel (which, why would you adapt from a novel if that is your aim?), they have a blueprint to keep things from going too far off the rails.

The movie also succeeds with some inspired casting: getting a whole cadre of character actors to fill out the roles of the townspeople.  The biggest name is probably Will Sasso, but Kevin Durand and Aaron Abrams also make appearances.  All of the performers do an excellent job.  None of them break new ground with their performances, but they match the tone that the movie is asking for and flesh it out just enough to give it a pinch of realism.

The movie also wisely moves along at a quick pace to go along with the high energy.  We meet our characters and set up conflicts fairly quickly, and the kills start soon after.  At 96 minutes, it has to be judicious with its scenes and director Eli Craig (with an assist from editor Sabrina Pitre) makes sure not a moment is wasted.

All in all, this is a fun little movie.  It isn't doing anything to rewrite the genre, but it's a fun time.

6 out of 10