A One Mann’s Movies review of “Clown in a Cornfield” (2025).
I went into this horror flick, new in UK cinemas today, with a distinctly negative attitude towards it. I hadn’t heard anything about it. But from the title I was expecting some horribly crass and cheesy horror film. And, do you know, that’s exactly what I got… and it was glorious!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“Clown in a Cornfield” Plot:
Dr. Glenn Maybrook (Aaron Abrams) gets a new job as the doctor in the fading rural community of Kettle Springs, dragging his reluctant teenage daughter Quinn (Katie Douglas) with him. Kettle Springs is surrounded by cornfields but times are tough since the famous corn syrup factory burnt down with a bunch of teens – now Quinn’s new friends – suspected. The teens are making horror flicks for Youtube featuring a killer version of Frendo the clown – the corn syrup company mascot. But where does fiction end and reality start?
Certification:
UK:Â 15;Â US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong bloody violence, gore, horror, language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac, Vincent Muller, Kevin Durand, Will Sasso, Cassandra Potenza, Verity Marks, Ayo Solanke, Alexandre Martin Deakin, Catherine Wreford, Daina Leitold, Jean-Jacques Javier, Bradley Sawatzky.
Directed by: Eli Craig.
Written by: Carter Blanchard & Eli Craig. (Based on the novel by Adam Cesare).
Running Time: 1h 36m.
“Clown in a Cornfield” Summary:
Positives:
- A really knowingly ridiculous horror film that smashed the six-laughs test.
- Some clever nods to other horror films.
- The two teen leads give winningly enjoyable performances
Negatives:
- Look… if you take this at face value as a “horror film”, you will think it’s terrible… formulaic and utterly predictable!
Review of “Clown in a Cornfield”:
A ‘straight’ horror film with its tongue firmly in its cheek.
There are, of course, more B-class horror films flooding our cinema screens than ever. Most of them are truly terrible! But there is a lesser genre of horror films that lean more towards black comedy than horror. Some of these deliberately lead with the comedy by parodying other horror films: 2000’s “Scary Movie” is the obvious choice here. But others choose to play their story pretty ‘straight’ but in a very knowing way, leaning into the ludicrous nature of the story or ridiculousness of the ‘kills’. I would put both 2023’s “Cocaine Bear” and last year’s “Abigail” into that category, both of which I enjoyed very much, and last year’s Hugh Grant film “Heretic” had at least one foot into that camp. But “Clown in the Cornfield” also definitely fits.
For the film plays its story in such a wonderfully po-faced manner but with that little twinkle of ‘knowingness’ that belies the fact that the director and co-writer, Eli Craig, knows EXACTLY what he’s doing.
A film with some great laughs that will be fun to see with a crowd.
I think it’s because it is played so straight that I found it so funny. Some of the comedy comes from the ridiculous kills but others come from some clever lines and the situations that Quinn finds herself in when descending from the sophisticated Philadelphia into Hicksville, Arkansas. A manual (US readers: stick-shift) car and a rotary-dial phone are both sourced of great hilarity.
Riffing off a number of other films.
The film obviously bears close comparison with the classic “It” films, with, Trump aside, Pennywise being the character most likely to be associated with the word “clown”. But the film also has fun in drifting into some different film genres and even specific films. The opening of the film (set in 1991) is surely a loving tribute to the opening beach scene in “Jaws”. There’s the equivalent of the music box from “The Monkey” (another film leading into the comedy angle). A riff on “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. And probably lots of other 80’s slasher movies that horror aficionados will lap up.
A cute teenage couple (with a twist).
The film doesn’t need to hint very hard that the two good-looking leads, Katie Douglas playing Quinn and Carson MacCormac playing the mayor’s son, Cole, will be the ‘couple to root for’, in true slasher-horror fashion. Both Douglas and MacCormac turn in really charming and winning performances that adds a lot to the film. You would naturally expect them both to survive the coulrophobic-nightmare to engage in some well-deserved sexual intercourse in the finale. But even here, the film delivers a clever twist that was very entertaining.
Naturally with a killer clown on the loose, there needs to be some hunky teenage boys and cheerleader-class girls to butcher. These are provided in the form of Ayo Solanke (Tucker) and Alexandre Martin Deakin (Matt) for the former group and Cassandra Potenza (Janet) and Verity Marks (Ronnie) for the latter group. All of the young actors punch again rather above their weight with Verity Marks being particularly engaging and funny as she relates what’s happening to an 80’s teenage slasher movie!
In fact, in a cast of relative unknowns, the only actor I recognised in the whole film was Kevin Durand playing the mayor, Arthur Hill. And that’s probably only because I was a massive “Lost” fan and Durand played the nasty mercenary Martin Keamy in one of the later series.
But if you are looking for true horror then you’ll hate it.
There will, no doubt, be people who turn up for this film expecting a good, scary horror film. Those people are sadly going to be mightily pissed off by this film, which is highly formulaic, predictable and downright stupid at times.
Monkey?
There is no monkey (you’re welcome), but there is a pretty killer track over the start of the titles: “Won’t Take Me Alive” by Dirty Honey.
Summary Thoughts on “Clown in a Cornfield”
One of the surprises of the year for me. I found this one really entertaining: so much so in fact that I was tempted to give it one of my relatively-rarely-awarded “4 star” ratings. This is the sort of film that if you can find a packed Saturday night cinema audience to enjoy it with, I predict you will have a raucously fun time.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Clown in a Cornfield”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tBSOKyyZT8.
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