Director: Eli Craig
Writers: Carter Blanchard, Eli Craig
Stars: Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac
Synopsis: A fading midwestern town in which Frendo the clown, a symbol of bygone success, reemerges as a terrifying scourge.
The slasher subgenre is appealing because it rarely delves too deeply into the supernatural. The slasher is mayhem and carnage that, while sometimes impossible, is most terrifying because behind the mask is a fellow human choosing to kill others for their own reasons. There is someone mortal behind the mask. That is of course until the sequels when all bets are off as the killer can and will come back again and again with increasingly supernatural abilities. In these first films the killer can be hurt and killed, but they seem invincible because of the terror they’re able to invoke. This subgenre endures because of its tropes and formulas. Every new iteration is a new way to show off horrifying new ways to kill people, but also to show how even if we have different technologies or knowledge, we’re still vulnerable to a person in a mask with a grudge. The slasher is evergreen because it can change while staying the same. Clown in a Cornfield is a lot like its slasher predecessors. It’s got nothing very new about it.
Familiarity is fine. Formula is fine. These axioms are true especially for a slasher because the slasher doesn’t need to be elevated in any way. Clown in a Cornfeld sticks to that well worn territory. Though, just as you start to become Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) from Scream, shouting at the screen, pointing out the “rules” of the slasher, a twist comes in and changes the film into something else. The issue with Clown in a Cornfield is that its filmmakers wait far too long into the action to pull this twist and to put their specific spin on the slasher formula.
Much of the finger pointing at possible suspects is absent. Much of the terror of thinking the killer clown, Frendo, is one of the core group of teens is too subtle. Everything but the gore and the motive for the killings is subtle. Too much of the film is focused in the wrong direction and for the wrong reasons that the unique aspects of Clown in a Cornfield quickly become too predictable once they’re known.
Even with this predictability it’s difficult to write about particular scenes or plot points that are good because with slashers any details of the journey can ruin the catharsis of the ending. Though, it is easy to praise pieces of the whole in a way that doesn’t give too much of the plot. There are a lot of good points about director Eli Craig’s style for instance. He’s an old hand at horror-comedy and while not everything that is intended to be a joke in Clown in a Cornfield lands, Craig at least has the pacing down. There isn’t a wasted moment or a reveal that’s not timed perfectly. Even his jumpscares, though very predictable, are not drawn out or attempts to trick the viewers. He gives us what we want.
Katie Douglas, who plays our heroine, Quinn, is also quite intriguing. She plays Quinn with a brassy sense of street smarts that comes from growing up in a city and being forced out to the country. Douglas gets us to believe in his character’s vulnerability and sadness. Unlike many slasher heroine’s of the past, Quinn isn’t hung up in the innocent camp. She’s a modern teen with a mix of experience and naivete that breaks the rules of the horror film, while also honoring them in a way. Douglas plays this mix well while also having excellent timing and an expressive face.
Clown in a Cornfield is a pretty O.K. film. A clown is used to scare instead of delight, teens are killed in gruesome ways, and we all walk away from the film a little more unsettled than we were before it started. While the story and film attempts new twists on the old formula, it doesn’t commit hard enough to the old formula to make the new twists all that fresh or exciting. If you’re a fan of the subgenre, you may want to check it out, but if you’re looking for a unique take on the subgenre, this isn’t it.
