Clown in a Cornfield

Clown in a Cornfield
Directed by: Eli Craig
Written by: Eli Craig
Starring: Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac, Katie Douglas, Kevin Durand, Will Sasso

Tucker and Dale Vs Evil director Eli Craig delivers a slasher set in a cornfield with a killer clown….what more do you need?

Much like Michael Myers himself, the slasher genre refuses to die. Having seen the original Halloween inspire an 80’s boom of copycats, which that itself created a horde of horror icons, with new slashers being released on a daily basis, only for the audience to tire of seeing too many teens having bad dreams in Elm St and sat back to watch the bubble burst.

Then of course SCREAM in 1996 caused its own mini slash boom, the antics in Woodsboro influencing more masked killers to the screen, some good, some not so, until of course fans again grew tired of the “Guess who the killer is?” and endless scenes of the unmasked fiend spurting out yet another motive into why they decided to dress up and go on a rampage.

Ironically, both Halloween and SCREAM, thanks to their latest literation’s have once more caused a third cycle for a new generation of fans, with films like Thanksgiving and Heart Eyes both jumping on the bandwagon of success and we also have The Fisherman set to return in yet another legacy sequel as a new bunch of teens face up to the consequences of what they did last summer.

Here, as the title suggests, director Eli Craig delivers a straight forward horror. We have a cornfield and we have a clown, and guess what happens? Based on the 2020 novel by Adam Cesare, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that is cheap ploy to get on trail of money that is currently being earned at the box-office by Art the Clown, but while Terrifier is simply a ultra violent love-letter to the Video Nasty era of the 80’s, Clown in a Cornfield is a mixture of Ghostface and *CENSORED* – now I will not mention that other film as it will basically ruin the twist, but I am guessing many watching will have their minds racing back to a similar plot from a much superior film.

All the slasher tropes are on display.  After the sad death of her Mum, Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her Dad leave the big city and arrive in the small town of Kettle Springs, where he has appointed as the new Doctor. The town now failing on hard times due to the closure of the local factory, some locals acting strange, a Mayor wanting the annual FOUNDERS DAY celebrations to go according to plan and whose son Cole (Carson MacCormac) takes an instant shine to Quinn.

He’s also part of a group of Youtubers who have turned FRENDO, the clown mascot of the towns Baypen Corn Syrup Company, into a Social Media hit. Making fake videos of Frendo as some kind of bogeyman, hiding in the shadows, stalking and killing with the group getting a huge thrill as the numbers watching keep going up. Of course its all fun and games until someone actually decides to dress up as the clown in the middle of the cornfield while holding onto a chainsaw. That dismembered head you holding that you believe is fake?… Its not and you better run…

While not as clever or as funny as it could be, there is still much fun to be had. It benefits from having a very likeable cast and its lean running time, means not once will you ever feel bored. There are some cool kills and enough gore to appease the blood-hounds and while the reveal is something we have seen all before, there are still some decent turns in the plot that you can only admire and some one good one-liners that may make you chuckle –

“It’s like we’re in some awful 80s slasher horror movie!” utters one character as they walk through the dreaded cornfield, while in another scene we see the look of bafflement as they try to dial 911 on an old fashioned dial up phone. The Meta on show isn’t quite the same as the blunt force of SCREAM, but it does more than enough to make it a solid entry in the third chapter of the Slasher boom.

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is currently in cinemas and available on VOD is some areas.