Based on the novel by Adam Cesare and directed by Eli Craig (TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL), CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD (2025) appears to offer the usual slasher but develops into something far less shallow and rote. It offers a lot of fun in a familiar package.
Quinn is a teenager moving to a small rural town in Missouri from Philadelphia with her dad, a doctor who is looking to escape after the death of his wife. The town is economically depressed after its single major factory–a corn syrup factory with a clown as a mascot–closed. Quinn gets in with a gang of teens who love horror movies, only for them all to find themselves fighting to survive a night of a very real horror.
What I liked: There are a few nice twists, a surprising monster, some great kills, and a theme of the old not understanding the young and trying to hold them back as they struggle to write their futures. The movie softens the gore with some nice touches of comedy that don’t feel grafted on. These and other variations freshen up the familiar story, but what made it work for me was it has just enough heart. The teens are charming, and their interactions feel pretty natural. When it all falls apart, I found myself rooting for them instead of anticipating a juicy kill of some unlikable jerk.
What I didn’t: The last act loses its edge in my view as we get an exposition dump on why this is all happening, and it then overreaches for setting up a sequel. As this is a campy teen slasher, my bar was set fairly low going into it, so these things didn’t bother me.
Overall, I thought CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD was fun and would recommend it to those looking for something new and inventive in the slasher.
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