{"id":11891,"date":"2025-05-09T20:57:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T00:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11891"},"modified":"2025-06-01T18:18:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T22:18:22","slug":"clown-in-a-cornfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/05\/09\/clown-in-a-cornfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Clown in a Cornfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Clown in a Cornfield<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RLJE Films\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (bloody horror violence, language throughout, teen drinking)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Eli Craig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Carter Blanchard and Eli Craig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Brandon Roberts and Marcus Trumpp\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Brian Pearson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 9, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: 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, Noah Craig, Bradley Sawatzky.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m going to tell you right up front. Even though some of the action takes place in a cornfield, He Who Walks Behind the Rows does NOT make a cameo appearance in Clown in a Cornfield<\/strong>. Please try to suppress your disappointment.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll tell you something else, something you already know I\u2019m sure. I LOVE the title Clown in a Cornfield<\/strong>. For as long as I can remember, I\u2019m naturally drawn to films with nutty titles like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, The One Armed Executioner, Dead End Drive-In and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama. You don\u2019t see too many titles like that on marquees anymore. Come to think of it, you don\u2019t really see marquees anymore. The whole moviegoing experience has changed since the 70s\/80s and not necessarily for the better. But I digress.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Eli Craig (Tucker & Dale vs. Evil) and based on the YA novel by Adam Cesare, Clown in a Cornfield <\/strong>is a good and bloody (and bloody good) throwback to 80s slasher movies. The heroine of this twisted tale is Quinn (Douglas, Ginny & Georgia), a high school senior who moves to the small rural town of Kettle Springs with her widowed father, new town doctor Glenn (Abrams, Code 8). It doesn\u2019t take her long to fall in with the wrong crowd (according to every adult in town). They\u2019re blamed for the fire that consumed the old Baypen Corn Syrup factory. It used to be the town\u2019s lifeblood until it closed (before the fire) causing the town to fall into economic ruin.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The teens- leader Cole (MacCormac, Shazam 1 & 2), queen bee Janet (Potenza, Bring It On: Cheer or Die), her flunky Ronnie (Marks, Toys of Terror), jock Matt (Deakin, The Next Step) and jokester Tucker (Solanke)- used to hang out there making YouTube videos depicting town mascot Frendo the Clown as a creepy killer. They don\u2019t realize how close to the truth they are. There is a Frendo who\u2019s going around killing teens. Obviously, these kids aren\u2019t Mensa candidates. They decide to throw a big party after the town\u2019s Founder\u2019s Day parade. Guess what uninvited guest shows up and wreaks bloody havoc? That, of course, is a rhetorical question.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Clown in a Cornfield<\/strong> is a splatter movie through and through. It has plenty of the gooey red stuff (regrettably, the CGI kind). The kill scenes kind of rock though. We, the audience, get to witness deaths by chainsaw, pitchfork, bow and arrow and taser (right in the mouth). Somebody gets creamed by a car. One guy\u2019s head gets smashed into a bloody pulp. Another victim is beheaded by a saw blade. The severed head factors humorously into a later scene. Yeah, this one ought to satisfy the gorehounds.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll concede that Clown in a Cornfield<\/strong> doesn\u2019t reach the same delirious heights as Tucker & Dale, but it\u2019s still good. For one thing, the teens in this one aren\u2019t nearly as insufferable as the little a**holes in Hell of a Summer. They are, however, just as idiotic. The only one that appears to have any real intelligence is Quinn, a Philly girl who sees through everybody\u2019s BS. The way she rolls her eyes when the town\u2019s useless sheriff (Sasso, Georgie & Mandy\u2019s First Marriage) calls her \u201csweetie pie\u201d is priceless and 100% accurate. You just don\u2019t do that anymore. In his meager defense, Kettle Springs is stuck in the 90s, an observation made by one of the teens.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Frendo, while creepy (as are all clowns, even Bozo), is no Art the Clown. I\u2019m not going to get into specifics, but his reason for being is more grounded than the popular Terrifier boogeyman. Still, it\u2019s freaky watching him emerge from the cornfield, weapon in hand. The rural setting enhances the terror in Clown in a Cornfield<\/strong>. What could be scarier than being in a place without cell phone service? Not that 911 would be any help. Local law enforcement, which seems to be a one-man outfit, is anything but helpful. The guy is a giant horse\u2019s ass who gets his kicks from harassing Cole and his friends. Same goes for the teacher (Sawatzky, Orphan: First Kill) who lashes out at Quinn on her first day for no good reason.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Douglas has the makings of a great Scream Queen. She\u2019s like a young Neve Campbell. She imbues her character with intelligence and fearlessness in the face of extreme fear. She\u2019s not only smart, she\u2019s smart enough to know when to run away. She\u2019s also tough, but that goes without saying when you talking about a girl from Philadelphia. If there\u2019s a sequel, they definitely need to bring her back for Round 2 against Frendo. MacCormac does a good job as Cole, the son of the mayor (Durand, Abigail), another a**hole adult who blames all the town\u2019s troubles on the teens. The young man has a secret involving his friendship with Rust (Muller), an outcast who always keeps his hunting rifle handy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I liked Clown in a Cornfield<\/strong> a lot. It\u2019s a good not great horror film. It\u2019s scary, fun and gory. The plot itself is no great shakes, but Craig\u2019s tongue-in-cheek approach gives it that extra something. It never takes itself too seriously. It\u2019s greatest sin is overexplaining itself near the end, but that\u2019s easily forgivable. It\u2019s such a fun movie, you don\u2019t mind when it missteps. Me, I\u2019m hoping for a Clown in the Cornfield 2.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clown in a Cornfield (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RLJE Films\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (bloody horror violence, language throughout, teen drinking)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Eli Craig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Carter Blanchard and Eli Craig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Brandon Roberts and Marcus Trumpp\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Brian Pearson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 9, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac, Vincent Muller, Kevin Durand, Will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Clown-in-a-Cornfield-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11891"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11899,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11891\/revisions\/11899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}