'Clown in a Cornfield' Review: A Delightfully Goofy & Gory Gateway Into the Horror Genre
- Shauna Bushe
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
By Shauna Bushe - June 9, 2025
Director Eli Craig’s (Tucker and Dale vs Evil) adaption of Adam Cesare’s young adult novel Clown in a Cornfield offers a lot more than meets the eye, with increasingly brutal deaths, a likeable final girl and sinister clowns on the prowl. It unexpectedly subverts expectations, becoming more than just another teen slasher but a genuine fun viewing experience.
What is 'Clown in a Cornfield' About?
The film begins with Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her father, Dr. Maybrook (Aaron Abrahms) moving to Kettle Springs for a fresh start. Quinn quickly falls in with a group of teens led by Cole (Carson MacCormac) who’s hobbies are playing menacing pranks on the towns people, film them and make a hit online. Their current infatuation is of Frendo the Clown, creating a bunch of mockumentary videos, compiled with grisly murders and skilled special effects. But it’s not long before the real Frendo shows up, turning their fake blood into real blood.
Naturally, the main gag is the use of clowns and serving up gruesome kills, of which Clown in a Cornfield succeeds in a crowd-pleasing fashion. Using everything from bench presses, to chainsaws, to pitchforks. In one jolting moment specifically pulling a reaction of both hilarity and horror, this is a welcome, pleasant surprise. Typically, it mirrors horror films we’ve seen, like; A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), but in a respectful way that credits the heritage of films that Clown in a Cornfield is proudly fitting into.
Clown in a Cornfield drives home a lot of heart, humour and spunk spirit. All thanks to Quinn and her friends who make for a likeable group of lambs being led to their slaughter. They act how you’d expect teens to act in a slasher movie, drinking around a campfire, pulling dangerous pranks and hanging out at abandoned buildings. But they also keep a tight connection, where they trade jokes, be expressive and reveal hidden parts of themselves. They do all of this in a way that makes their friendship feel genuine and authentic. Quinn is emotionally vulnerable, having lost her mother the summer before, all she desires is to feel ok, and being surrounded by teens longing for the same sustenance helps her break out of her shell and deliver a strong, admirable final girl performance.
Taking a detour from the meta-commentary, there is one place where Eli Craig decides to be incredibly meaningful, involving a subplot between Cole (Carson MacCormac) and Rust (Vincent Muller), a character we meet early in the film when he walks Quinn to school on her first day. The consequent twist and timely message are adorable and genuinely unexpected.
Clown in a Cornfield uses plenty tongue in cheek horror tropes, rendering itself predictable in the 3rd act but neither of those distract you from enjoying the clown fuelled carnage and its interesting premise which flips on its head, surprisingly. Think of Children of the Corn but reversed. A lot of the beats feel the same, a masked killer preying on delinquent teenagers isn’t exactly new anymore, adding to that the unsettling old-fashioned atmosphere, the odd dialogue and eerie cornfields, this is purely for lovers of the genre.
'Clown in a Cornfield' is out now in UK cinemas
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