Clown. Cornfield. Blood. There, wasn’t that easy? You already know whether or not you want to see this movie. If that’s all you cared about, you can probably stop reading.
For the rest of you, we are in Kettle Springs, Missouri, where the town’s woeful lack of anything fun or original is assuaged considerably by the fact that every generation, a clown comes out of the cornfield and starts disemboweling teens. Isn’t that sweet?
The plot seems straight out of a Stephen King novel; why would anybody stay in this creepy backwater town? “Well, it’s got nothing to offer and the jobs all dead-end without need for anything beyond high school education, but on the plus side, maybe you’ll get murdered before you graduate.”
Speaking of dead end, new-to-town misfit Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her father (Aaron Abrams) have come to kettle down in Kettle Springs. Well, dad has at least. He’s the new town doctor. Wonder why there’s a vacancy. Quinn can’t wait to graduate and evacuate. Warned of staying away from the bad crowd, Quinn can’t help doing otherwise as these are the only people who befriend her.
And what do the bad seeds do in Kettle Springs? They make fake Clown in a Cornfield murder videos. It’s pretty easy – just have someone in a clownsuit pretend to murder people and film everybody not in on the joke. Woo! Viral! Oh, you bad kids. Just wait until you get a real murderous Clown in a Cornfield. Then you’ll be sorry!
Trust me. They’re already sorry; they’re teens in a nothing town. They abuse an “I f***ed your grandmother” ruse
to collect alcohol and jollies from the town mini-mart. Don’t ask.
A bit of creepiness precedes every murder: a small clown-themed jack-in-the-box magically appears to each victim as if choosing by itself who’s next. The surreal touch is nice and questions: “Is this supernatural?” Well, is it?
I can’t tell you. The biggest problem with Clown in a Cornfield is Act III is the one worth seeing, but won’t make sense out of context and I’m not going to spoil it.
For now, I’ll tell you this – the film is both progressive and regressive horror. Progressive in that a character comes out, which is pretty out there for the corn belt, even in 2025, and regressive in the first black guy to show up present day is the first guy to die. Geez, how old is that trope?
For a while, this feels like a standard teen slasher with forgettable youngsters mercifully dying on cue in disgusting ways. The film perks up as the plot develops, but not enough for me to rave about anything.
In cornfield, there’s a psychotic clown
Slaying every bad kid in the town
Now, I’m no farmer
But in lieu of armor
Have you tried crops closer to the ground?
Rated R, 96 Minutes
Director: Eli Craig
Writer: Carter Blanchard, Eli Craig, Adam Cesare
Genre: *Awful thing* in a *spooky setting*
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Horror junkies
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The blood challenged
