THE STORY – Quinn and her father have just moved to the quiet town of Kettle Springs hoping for a fresh start. Instead, she discovers a fractured community that has fallen on hard times after the treasured Baypen Corn Syrup Factory burned down. As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning figure emerges from the cornfields to cleanse the town of its burdens, one bloody victim at a time. Welcome to Kettle Springs. The real fun starts when Frendo the clown comes out to play.
THE CAST – Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac, Kevin Durand & Will Sasso
THE TEAM – Eli Craig (Director/Writer) & Carter Blanchard (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 96 Minutes
It’s hard to imagine a time when clowns weren’t primarily associated with fear. The movies haven’t done anything to help resuscitate their image. Between “It,” “Poltergeist,” “Terrifier,“ and a ton of low-budget movies available on C-tier streaming services, clowns have been widely and effectively used by Hollywood as shorthand for menace, terror, and all-around bad vibes. “Clown in a Cornfield“ is the latest film to use these red-nosed nightmares to scare their audience. But as you may have guessed from its silly, “Snakes on a Plane”-style title, it wants to make its audience laugh just as much as it wants to scare them. In that sense, the film wants to be the ideal melding of what clowns represent in their purest form and what they mean to a modern, more ironically-minded audience. Is it totally successful? Let’s just say that if this film were entertaining at your child’s birthday party, you’d give it a decent enough tip but perhaps not recommend it to your friends.
Despite the title confining it to one location, the titular clown exists in more than one place in the film’s world. Namely, the small community in which the film is set – the sleepy farm town of Kettle Springs, Missouri – owes its entire collective lifeblood to Frendo the Clown and the product that uses him as an advertising mascot: Baypen Corn Syrup. This story begins as Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her father, Dr. Maybrook (Aaron Abrams), settle into Kettle Springs in an old farmhouse far from the metropolitan life they’ve left behind. As is quickly revealed, the family’s matriarch recently died of an overdose, and Dr. Maybrook hopes to use this move as a fresh start for both himself and his daughter.
Quinn quickly falls in with a merry band of teenage pranksters who’ve turned Frendo into an image of terror with their horror-themed YouTube skits. Shortly before Quinn arrived, the gang was causing mayhem at the corn syrup factory right before the plant burned down, although the teens contend that they had nothing to do with the fire. Still, the adults of Kettle Springs are beyond suspicious of them. After Quinn is initiated into the group by being the unknowing victim of a Frendo-themed prank, members of the teenage faction start disappearing. While their friends initially assume this is yet another long-form prank, it soon becomes clear that Frendo may not only be real but also has an axe to grind with this collection of youths.
If that sounds like the cliche intro to a horror movie – a family making a new start in a creepy house, a town with mysterious customs, and troublemaking teens – that’s not unintentional. “Clown in a Cornfield“ is a clear homage to the types of scary movies that the creative team likely grew up loving. One of the young characters even calls this out, describing their horrific circumstances as resembling a “bad ’80s slasher.“ But instead of being a hollow exercise in pastiche, like so many mediocre contemporary horror films, this one approaches its references with a post-modern twist reminiscent of the original “Scream.“ The film is funniest when the teens are spouting off knowing comments about the terrifying ordeals they find themselves in, but they never become too obnoxiously self-aware. The movie knows precisely the right tone to strike to make the characters appear appropriately knowledgeable, given the horror-based media they would’ve realistically consumed, while never tipping over into being annoying.
But that doesn’t mean the screenplay is flawless. While the plot takes a turn away from the expected path once the heat really turns up for the characters, it’s a pretty predictable development. The film’s attempts at foreshadowing are far too heavy-handed to lead to any sort of organic surprise. And when the proceedings come to a head during the film’s climax, it suddenly more closely resembles the type of standard, uncreative horror movie that it was so clearly trying to skewer. The conclusion is ultimately disappointing, not to mention one of the main characters’ fates is never fully resolved in a way that feels accidental.
Thankfully, the actors are uniformly committed to every moment, which works to sell the film even though its ridiculous occurrences and energy shifts. They happily step into the oversized shoes the film forces them to wear. Douglas makes for a spunky leading lady who’s easy to root for, with a relatable, down-to-earth energy that calls to mind the early performances of Winona Ryder. As her dad, Abrams realistically threads the needle of portraying a dad who both wants to be a friend to his child while also needing to enforce guidelines and rules. It’s a tough dichotomy that plenty of parents feel, and Abrams sells this conflict well. Kevin Durand plays the patriarch of the family behind the Baypen Corn Syrup fortune, and he fully dives into the over-the-top moments that his character goes through later in the film. Verity Marks plays Ronnie, giving the most memorable performance of the teenage friend group. She’s hilariously pathetic during scenes of terror.
When you put a titular villain front and center, the success of a film like this ultimately comes down to whether or not the clown is actually scary. While it’s a menacing figure, the film doesn’t indulge in the clown’s jovial qualities, which can be particularly terrifying when portrayed in a sinister light. Instead, the red nose and garish makeup are treated like any other mask; the fact that it’s specifically a clown pursuing the characters is of little consequence. Still, this cornfield hasn’t yielded an entirely rotten crop, and anyone who was attracted to the “let’s put it all out there“ energy of the title is sure to have a good time under this big top.
