A Teen’s Worst Clownish Nightmare
Clown in a Cornfield is a 2025 American slasher film. The film was directed by Eli Craig and was written for the film by Craig and Carter Blanchard. It is about a group of teens who are being killed one by one by the town’s mascot, Frendo the Clown. It is based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Adam Cesare. Temple Hill Entertainment and Rhea Films produced the film, while RLJE Films and Shudder distributed it. Clown in Cornfield has a runtime of 96 minutes and was released on May 9, 2025.
PSA: Teens Do Not Live In Kettle Springs
The plot of Clown in a Cornfield is a mix of elements from the popular 1990s slasher film Scream, like the reveal of the killer and the teens being the target, and the clown element from the 2017 film IT. The movie and the book are different. The main characters of the film are Quinn, Janet, Matt, Ronnie, Tucker, Cole, and Rust. Quinn is the new girl in town after her dad takes a job as the town’s doctor, and she meets the rest of the teens at school and finds out they are content creators. The plot of the film is generally slow at the beginning. It gets confusing when the group of teens is connected to the Frendo the Clown killer and why he is choosing them to be his victims. What is also confusing is why the town is blaming the teens for a factory burning down. It does not make sense until the end of the film. The film takes place during the town’s 100th Founder’s Day celebration. Three of the main settings in the film are at a Founder’s Day party, the local high school, and the Founder’s Day festival. The party is when the plot takes off into a battle of life and death. It leaves audiences on the edge of their seats to see which characters will survive. This part of the film is when it takes the Scream approach with the multiple masked killers. This twist emerges mid-movie and sets up the better second half of the film. There are more than one killer throughout the film, so it’s hard to remember who is not a killer and who is. Overall, the plot had little originality to it.
An Interesting Cast of Characters
The cast of Clown in a Cornfield consists of Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac, Vincent Muller, Kevin Durand, Will Sasso, Cassandra Potenza, Verity Marks, Ayo Solanke, and Alexandre Martin Deakin. Most of the cast are not well-known actors, so it is interesting to see a cast of characters that can be new faces in the industry. Katie Douglas is a well-known face to viewers of the Netflix series Ginny and Georgia.
Douglas played the teen and main character Quinn Maybrook. Douglas’s acting in the slasher scenes made the audience feel her intense fear of being the next victim of Frendo. She was a strong lead actress with the intense emotions of a teen who was not being listened to. An aspect of her acting and character that everyone can relate to at some point in their lives. Will Sasso, known for his work in Young Sheldon and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, plays the role of Sheriff Dunne. Sasso’s character is seemingly nice to the adults but a horrible, corrupt sheriff to the teens in the town. Sasso’s acting made his character believable. His acting would make the audience hate his character because it was as if he were a corrupt sheriff who hated the local teens. His character is evil, and this character trait showed in scenes when the teens asked him for help after being chased by Frendo, and he did nothing to help them.
Lack-Luster Cinematography
The cinematography for the film is lackluster at best. It lacked elements that would have made the movie fantastic, such as better lighting, an effective soundtrack, and better camera work. The film only had a $1 million budget, so it makes sense why the film lacked elements of cinematography. The lighting of the film was dark in most scenes that were not filmed in the daytime due to the lack of natural lighting. This could have been symbolism for the darker aspects of the second half of the film. But the lighting made the film hard to watch.
The soundtrack was not effective for the film. It was almost as if they tried to put every hip-hop song from the 1980s in random scenes of the film. The only scene that made sense for non-horror orchestrated music to be in was the party scene towards the middle of the film. Finally, the camera work had so much potential but ultimately failed. The best part of the camera work was in the kill scenes. Audiences would get a glimpse of Frendo’s face to possibly indicate that the character was a supernatural being like the clowns from both IT and Killer Klowns From Outer Space. Honestly, some of the scenes were shaky at times. This is because of the lack of camera work. In the end, the film’s cinematography needed some work to make it an amazing piece of art.
Should ‘Clown in a Cornfield’ Be Streamed?
Based on the elements of plot, casting, and cinematography, Clown in a Cornfield is not at all the best slasher movie. It would be an intriguing film to watch for indie film lovers, even though it lacks in places; it tells an interesting, twisted story. It would also make a good guilty pleasure film to watch.
Stream Clown in a Cornfield in August on Shudder.
Clown in a Cornfield (2025) Official Shudder Trailer
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Author
Elke Simmons' writing portfolio includes contributions to The Laredo Morning Times, Walt Disney World Eyes and Ears, Extinction Rebellion (XR) News/Blog, and Dead Talk News.