- Director: Eli Craig
- Writer: Eli Craig, Carter Blanchard
- Stars: Katie Douglas, Kevin Durand, Carson MacCormac, Aaron Abrams
REVIEW
As the term “cozy horror” settles into the book world, it begs the question, what is a cozy horror film? Slashers seem like the most obvious answer because they’re reliable: there is an obvious villain, a clear cut hero, or group of heroes, a red herring and, to quote Randy Meeks, “That’s the beauty of it all. Simplicity. Besides, if it gets too complicated, you lose your target audience.” Clown in a Cornfield understands this. Mostly.
Based on the novel by Adam Cesare, Clown in a Cornfield tells the story of Quinn Maybrook (Douglas), a new resident of Kettle Springs. A small town where the local economy revolves around the Baypen Corn Syrup factory, there isn’t much to do and the caste system is firmly in place with most people getting by on their factory income while Arthur Hill (Durand), heir to the corn syrup kindgom, lives well. Arthur’s son, Cole (MacCormac) runs with a group of friends who spend their time making YouTube content. Creating horror content based on the Baypen mascot, Frendo the Clown, the teens are accused of starting an accidental fire that shuts down the factory and this is when Quinn joins the group of friends and finds herself being stalked by a homicidal Frendo.
Clown in a Cornfield chugs along nicely, if a bit too obviously, with Quinn learning about the history of Kettle Springs and fighting with her dad. Always a comedic breath of fresh air, Aaron Abrams (Hannibal tv series) is the dad who just can’t make his teenage daughter happy, but their banter is always rooted in love and it’s fun to watch. In fact, a lot of the humor in the film stems from generational differences: a bit with a rotary phone is laugh out loud funny. As these Gen Z kids are picked off one at a time, a larger conspiracy begins to reveal itself and by the time everything is revealed, it’s hard to tell if the movie is critiquing wokeness, celebrating it or both. Kevin Durand plays Arthur Hill and he is, as always, great. Not sure if he meant for his character to come off like Elon Musk, but it definitely works for both the comedic aspect and the commentary.
Clown in a Cornfield is a serviceable film that harkens back to The Prowler, My Bloody Valentine and more recently, Thanksgiving, but it takes a hard left that will work for some and be exasperating for others. The kills are gory and ridiculous and all of the teens are delightful, but I do wish the film would have stayed with the simplicity of a slasher because when it got overly complicated, it lost this member of it’s target audience. With the fourth book in the series set to be released soon, the setup for a sequel comes as no surprise. Ultimately, Clown in a Cornfield scratches that cozy horror itch and the overall 90’s slasher vibe that it brings is a welcome change to all of the grief driven elevated horror that has been slowly suffocating the genre.
Available On Shudder
Lisa Fremont
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