Easily, one of my most anticipated films going into SXSW was the premier of the feature length adaptation of Philly writer Adam Cesare’s first book in his hit slasher YA series Clown in Cornfield (2020). Directed by Eli Craig (Tucker and Dale Vs Evil) the film follows Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) a street smart Philly girl who just moved to the small rural farm town of Kettle Springs, Missouri with her dad. Quinn immediately gets the attention of the local bad boy Cole (Carson MacCormac), who’s also the son of the owner of the Baypen Corn Syrup company, which once employed the majority of the sleepy town before burning down.
Cole and the gang’s favorite pastime is crafting mini horror videos featuring the Corn Syrup’s beloved clown mascot Frendo, who they’ve turned into a serial killer in their videos, hunting their friends in their viral scare skits. This perversion of the town’s beloved clown mascot who calls back to a simpler time is an unintentionally sharp metaphor by the kids; that is until life imitates art and Cole’s friends start dropping thanks to a killer on the loose in a Frendo mask. The narrative eventually pits the teens of the town against Frendo, who’s hunting anyone not yet old enough to vote as we soon discover stands for something surprisingly bleak when all is said and done.
My biggest surprise was, sitting down for what I thought would be an edgy YA film – only to get a HARD-R slasher with ample heapings of the red stuff and some TRULY gnarly kills. While the safe bet would have probably been to go with a PG-13 a la most of the horror films at the multiplex, we quickly realize there is absolutely nothing safe about Clown. For a modestly budgeted slasher, I think that was the smartest move they could have made and kept in step with the 80s horror that was always aimed at a much younger audience. While Clown does skirt nudity and sex, for violence, I can’t be mad given how many times Clown made me squirm in my seat with some pretty grisly kills.
The gore is paired with an actual message and a socially conscious script, that is all about subverting the tropes of the subgenre, tied together with thematic tissue that has something genuinely more terrifying to offer than a simple redneck rampage. This is aided by a cast led by Douglas who never quite feels like your a-typical final girl. She’s not the most innocent girl, and she’s never portrayed as helpless, it’s more or less just the wrong place at the wrong time. The film also plays with the other archetypes of the slasher with everyone turning out to be something a bit more than you’d expect. It manages to do this without trying to be meta or looking down the subgenre, or just being mean, which makes it a hell of a lot of fun.
The other thing that struck me about the film is kids in Clown feel unapologetically like kids, and less than simply meat for the grinder. I think that’s something a lot of slashers struggle with is their 13 going on 30 casts, who feel more like caricature sketches than anything else. A symptom of that is, because you’re not invested in the prey, you end up rooting for the hunter. Here that’s not the case and I found myself rooting for the ensemble led by Douglas who together with her co-stars deliver some fun twists while fighting for their lives. This is backed up by a script that is about talking to, rather than down to its YA demographic as the sinisterness behind Frendo’s motives is something that I found myself pondering long after I walked out of my screening.
Simply stated Clown in Cornfield is a blood soaked blast! The film thankfully leaves behind the nihilism of the other clown franchise to use its runtime to explore generational trauma and the hopelessness of small town life through the slasher lens. It’s how the film chooses to leverage those ideas and the film’s kill count that explain the well deserved fandom around the series. That said I think my favorite part going forward and something that’s unprecedented in the slasher subgenre is there are two more books out with another one on the way. So this might be the first slasher who’s ever had this kind of literary blueprint going forward, which judging by the audience only gets better. I honestly can’t wait…
