Clown in a Cornfield (2025) | Review
Kettle Springs’ got 99 problems, but a clown ain’t one (actually, it is). In the hallowed tradition of “titles that tell you exactly what you’re in for” (looking at you, “Snakes on a Plane” and “Hobo with a Shotgun”), “Clown in a Cornfield” delivers its blood-soaked promises with corn-fed enthusiasm, earning a respectable nod from me. While admittedly chock-full of those eye-rolling clichés we horror veterans could recite in our sleep (complete with dialogue gems like “Why are you doing this?” and the ever-insightful “You’re insane!”), the film compensates with a gleeful carnival of gore that would make Tom Savini slow-clap in appreciation.
Director Eli Craig (who previously gave us the hillbilly-horror subversion “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil”) shepherds Quinn Maybrook and her doctor dad to Kettle Springs – a Midwestern hamlet that makes Gatlin from “Children of the Corn” look like a thriving metropolis. Here, they discover a town where the factory that made corn syrup (how deliciously on-brand) has burned down, leaving only bitter adults, rebellious teens, and an unsettling clown mascot named Frendo who’s about to turn harvest season into an organ harvest.
Unlike the 80s slashers where horny teens paid for their sins with creative deaths (à la Jason Voorhees’ “premarital sex detection system”), this Gen Z offering skips the nudity but keeps the arterial spray cranked to eleven. The kills here are inventive, twisted, and executed with the kind of enthusiastic splatter that will earn many horror fans’ stamp of approval.
Katie Douglas leads the teen ensemble as Quinn, bringing the same “I’m too smart for this rural nightmare” energy that made Laurie Strode the blueprint for final girls everywhere. Vincent Muller’s “written-off redneck” Rust emerges as the unexpected MVP, while Will Sasso delivers a sheriff so frustratingly useless he makes Dewey from “Scream” look like Sherlock Holmes.
What elevates “Clown in a Cornfield” beyond just another masked killer flick is how it gleefully chainsaws through the generational divide, speaking directly to younger viewers about being disregarded by adults while never watering down the carnage. It’s like if “The Breakfast Club” and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” had a blood-spattered baby – addressing real social commentary between decapitations.
The film’s brisk pace doesn’t allow for deep character development, but Craig and crew deliver a tidy and satisfyingly violent conclusion that leaves the door (or cornfield) open for more of Quinn’s story. For horror fans craving a slasher that balances old-school bloodletting with new-school sensibilities, “Clown in a Cornfield” is like finding a perfectly sharpened machete in your trick-or-treat bag – familiar, dangerous, and exactly what you were hoping for.
