Searching for rom coms and action films only ever got me so far as a teenager. At age 19, I started moving over to horror. Since then, my fascination for horror and the macabre has risen into what it is now. One tiktok trailer later, and my mind was made up. I would be seeing a new clown slasher film! “Clown in a Cornfield” released in theaters on May 9th, 2025. While this film didn’t reach horrific levels of something like “Terrifier,” it also didn’t fall completely flat. Minor spoilers ahead!
The Premise
“Looking for a fresh start, Quinn and her father move to the quiet town of Kettle Springs. They soon learn the fractured community has fallen on hard times after losing a treasured factory to a fire. As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning clown emerges from the cornfields to cleanse the town of its burdens, one bloody victim at a time.”
Single parent dynamics are no stranger to horror movie tropes. Seeing a father and daughter was a nice change of pace. Father/son and mother/daughter relationships are usually seen more often in horror movies. Though, as its usually a cliche or common trope, Quinn is the rebellious teenage daughter with a strained relationship involving her father. Even when we do see a father/son relationship later towards the end of the movie, it’s once again the strained hardship of a father who doesn’t understand the generational differences between him and his “disowned” son, as he claims.
The Characters
As previously mentioned, noticiable tropes and cliches were no stranger to “Clown in a Cornfield.” Quinn is a rebellious teenager who clearly has a difficulty connecting with her father. She also doesn’t approve of moving to the strange small town in Missouri. Janet and Ronnie are the feminine, “popular pretty girl” types of characters who add for a bit of comic releif. They serve as characters who give Quinn her main character role. Unfortunately, Janet and Ronnie are also used as kill count cannon fodder.
Rust, the first character Quinn interacts with when moving into Missouri, comes off as the type who’s made to appear as “odd,” or a little “off.” The outcast personality can sometimes be used to make the viewer suspect them early on and possibly rule them out as a killer. Cole, being the classic “pretty boy/love interest,” also shares a few moments of suspicion that could have also made viewers think he was another killer in the movie.
While none of these protagonists in the group turned out to be killers, the push towards that suggestion was noticiable during different scenes. The subtle hints and nudges felt very reminiscent of the Scream movies, specifically with Scream (1996) and Scream 6. (2023) With this in mind, the revealed killers felt unexpected and made for a reasonably well executed, unseen plot tiwst!
Frendo the Clown
Clowns. There’s a very distinct seperation between liking them and absolutely despising them. Frendo the Clown felt like a nice change from other iconic painted faces, such as Pennywise the Dancing Clown or Art the Clown. Seeing a classic clown design that doesn’t make itself too recognizable right off the bat felt like a good choice for Frendo. While having a character who stands out can be good for a film, it also feels interesting when the design is less unique and can blend in with what it’s made from. This can make make something like circus clowns feel even more unsettling, due to Frendo’s simplicity and almost “typical” look. For example, Frendo feels more like an ongoing clown anyone would encounter at a circus. Whereas Art the Clown feels much more fitting for the violence and crimes seen in the Terrifier series.
Critiques and Feedback
“Clown in a Cornfield” was a reasonable horror movie to see in theaters. The scare factor reached just high enough to envoke fear. However, I couldn’t help but feel like this movie could have gone a bit further with its scares. For the use of clowns as the slasher antagonists, there was a bit of a lackluster feeling after seeing the whole thing. This film doesn’t need Terrifier levels of gore and violence, but a bit more of a scare factor could have done the plotline some good.
Another critique to the film was its writing. To give credit where credit is due, there were genuinely funny moments in the movie that didn’t feel out of place or forced. There were also genuinely good scares. However, the biggest issue with the writing in this movie was the excessive amounts of swearing. The amount of swearing in the movie felt like a forced reminder that it was, in fact, a Rated R film. While Rated R films will obviously have swearing, upon other uses of themes and visuals, the swears felt like they were placed too many times throughout the entire film. There were a few scenes and even specific lines that felt like they lost tension because of this issue.
Additional Thoughts
There are a few things that made me think when seeing “Clown in a Cornfield.” The relatability from a modern 2025 movie to the classics stands out well in this particular film. For instance, Kettle Springs, the fictional small town in Missouri, felt like an excellent callback to other classic horror movies. The cornfields and layout of the town itself felt a lot like one of the main settings in “Children of the Corn.” (1984) Even one of the beginning movie shots of a scarecrow in the cornfields felt a lot like the scarecrow who’s seen in “Jeepers Creepers 2.” (2003)
As mentioned previosuly, character personalities can sometimes be made into a classic trope or overused cliche, especially in horror films. While Quinn had the clear tomboy, rebellious teen, final girl energy, it was interesting to see how Rust was portrayed. From his introduction, Rust was made to be seen as strange and suspcious, even being called out for his ways by other characters in the main group. This game of mystery felt a lot like the suspicion of Ethan Laundry from Scream 6. Most of the group had known each other better than Ethan. Ethan was ruled out very quickly as a suspect due to his personality and unfamiliarity to the group who previously survived in Scream 5. (2022) The only difference is that Ethan was, in fact, a Ghostface killer. Rust ended up being a savior protagonist.
Something else that made me think was the movie’s realism. Could this sort of thing happen in reality? The most common answer is, “That only happens in the movies.” However, the idea of clown slashers is actually a bit more realistic than one would think. Recalling back to the strange and almost unexplainable “Clownpocalypse” in 2016, one could say that we’ve already experienced something similar to the slashers in this film. It’s definitely scary to think about. Overall, “Clown in a Cornfield” isn’t the movie that will keep horror fans awake for a few sleepless nights. However, it’s still a reasonably good title to add to your watchlist.
