Written by: Carter Blanchard & Eli Craig
Starring: Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac, Kevin Durand, Will Sasso
Rating: [3/5]
Sometimes all one needs for some good old-fashioned entertainment is a clown wielding a chainsaw looking to have some fun. A simple formula that does not always indicate high-quality filmmaking but can sure scratch the itch of what a slasher can provide at its most basic level. Clown in a Cornfield does just that in telling the story of how a group of teens try to escape the clutches of a masked clown hitting just the right amount of buttons.
Moving to Kettle Springs, Quinn (Katie Douglas) befriends a group of classmates who inform her about the town traditions, especially the one centered on Frendo the Clown. Often utilized as a way to prank others, conditions quickly change where someone wielding a Frendo mask begins picking them off one by one.
There’s something so sinister about the use of clowns as a mechanism to drive home fear. It baffles me that at any point people saw them as a way to entertain children. The perspective of them shifting, for many valid reasons, to a mechanism of horror more than anything else makes much more sense. The endless deluge of clown-centered horror films further cements that status. Therefore, it makes it questionable how Frendo the clown could possibly serve as the mascot of a town. That alone should raise some questions about the character of the individuals within this municipality. Any suspicions rightfully come to fruition as the bloody massacre that ensues displays what a demented individual sporting this mask does throughout the film.
Underpinning the tensions in this film, the main one centers on the teenagers versus the adults in the town. This stems from a fire that occurred at a local corn syrup factory, where the teenagers placed the blame. This tension between the teens and adults remains ever-present, which makes certain revelations that transpire later on that much more clarifying. This particularly leaves Quinn in a difficult spot, given she did not partake in anything prior to her arrival to the town but now finds herself in the middle of something beyond her control.
As with any slasher, most of the entertainment emanates from the creativity and gruesomeness of the kills, and it certainly gets some gnarly ones in this feature. From a bad spot on a bench press to various impalements, Clown in a Cornfield has fun trying to kill characters off in ways that are both unsettling and carry some level of humor. These bits of levity exist all throughout the film, further adding to the fun at hand for the audience to enjoy. It reminds us that no matter how dark certain elements get, we’re all here for some goofy fun.
Kettle Springs as a setting adds so much to the success of the film. A small-town vibe allows for a level of connection between all of the characters. They inhabit a town where everyone knows each other and the death of one person makes waves. It further makes it that much more concerning when trying to decipher the identity of the murderous Frendo. The idea someone would take the identity of the beloved mascot of the town and go around killing people feels much more important within the context of a small town such as this one. It also doesn’t hurt that it allows for plenty of isolation when these kids decide to congregate away from other crowds of people. Oh, and the whole concept of the these clowns emerging from the cornfield as well, which provides its very own nifty visual to take in.
While the finale and the ultimate reveal of the sinister plot at hand somewhat disappoint, Clown in a Cornfield provides the exact type of fun one would want from a film carrying this very title. We get a bunch of Gen Z teenagers trying to escape the grasps of an individual bearing a killer clown mask seeking to wreak havoc on this small town. We have a decent final girl performance by Katie Douglas at the center of it all who brings the necessary humor and fright projection necessary to make the experience all the better. Certainly not the best killer clown movie out there, but it did just enough to garner my appreciation and provide the much-needed entertainment on a spooky night.
Films with Josh 
