Eli Craig’s ‘Clown in a Cornfield’ tries to spoof ’80s slashers but gets lost in the stalks
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Are you ready for “Children of the Corny?” Based on a 2020 novel by Boston University graduate Adam Cesare and directed by Eli Craig (“Tucker & Dale vs Evil”), “Clown in a Cornfield” gleefully appropriates tropes from Stephen King novels and movies (“Children of the Corn” and “It,” most obviously) and 1980s slasher flicks such as “Friday the 13th” and the “Scream” franchise. The trouble with Craig’s killer-clown pastiche is not that it is not original (it’s not supposed to be). It isn’t very funny or scary either. Beginning with a prelude set in 1991, “Clown in a Cornfield,” shot in Winnipeg, Canada’s third-largest corn-producing region, shifts to the present day.
The film’s plucky female protagonist, a slasher-film trademark, is 17-year-old Quinn Maybrook (Cailee Spaeny-sized, smoky-voiced Katie Douglas), whose mother has died recently of an “overdose” (we don’t get the details). Quinn arrives with her doctor father Glenn (Aaron Abrams) from “sophisticated” Philadelphia to the hillbilly haven known as Kettle Springs, Mo. Once famous for its Baypen corn syrup, the town was home to the Hill family, who still rule it today. The brand’s mascot is a clown called Frendo (someone has seen “No Country for Old Men”). Bozo-and Pennywise-like Frendo has a painted white face, a red bulb for a nose, a red wig, a tiny brown hat and a demonic grin. He wears comically oversized clown shoes that squeak, sometimes inappropriately.
Quinn meets her first Kettle Springs resident in the form of the towering, polite yahoo named Rust (Vincent Muller), whose favorite pastimes are “huntin’” and “fishin’” and who has come to walk her to school. At school, Quinn encounters and befriends some “mean girl” types named Janet (Cassandra Potenza) and Ronnie (Verity Marks) and the young man Cole (Carson MacCormac), who is a scion of the Hill family, and comic videographers Matt (Alexandre Martin Deakin) and Tucker (Canadian actor Ayo Solanke). Kettle Springs also boasts its stereotypical redneck sheriff broadly played by prolific character actor Will Sasso. Sheriff Dunne refers to Quinn as “Toots.” Hilarious.
Also among the cast of characters are Cole’s grotesque parents, Arthur Hill (Kevin Durand) and his wife, Crystal (Catherine Wreford). The Hills preside over the annual Kettle Springs celebration, Founders’ Day. Yes, the parade features a giant Frendo float. Once the gruesome killings begin, they don’t stop until the end, which is par for the course for these films. Guess who dies first?
The screenplay, adapted by Carter Blanchard and directed by Craig, has Quinn repeatedly sneaking out at night to go to gatherings with Cole to drink alcohol (these teens have no weed). Sheriff Dunne throws the group into the slammer with a spooky old man named Daryl (Blake Taylor).
The Frendos in the film sport a slasher-film-ready variety of weapons: knife, sickle, crossbow, sledgehammer and chainsaw. If these young people didn’t wear headphones and buds constantly, they might hear the clowns sneaking up on them. Rotary phones and manual transmissions are mystic conundrums to these young’uns. Cole and Quinn share an embarrassingly bad dance scene. Several Frendo-branded Jack-in-the-Box toys are wound up, always with the same result.
The novel, which I have not read, won the Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award. It may be better than the film, which is amiable and funny enough at times, but for the most part, almost proudly second-rate. At one point, Ronnie remarks, “It’s like we’re in some awful ’80s slasher movie.” Like?
‘Clown in a Cornfield’
Rating: R for bloody horror violence, language throughout and teen drinking.
Cast: Katie Douglas, Carson MacCormac, Aaron Abrams, Will Sasso
Director: Eli Craig
Writers: Craig, Carter Blanchard
Running time: 96 minutes
Where to Watch: AMC Boston Common, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, Liberty Tree Mall and other suburban theaters
Grade: C+
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