Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned horror movie? From classics like Halloween and The Exorcist, to newer ones like The Babadook and Talk to Me, there’s just something cathartic and being in a dark theater with a group of people getting the crap scared out of you. Of course, not all films in this genre are meant to be stereotypical “horror.” Some have more fun making you laugh either at well-timed jokes or gore so over the top that you can’t help to react with sheer incredulity. Clown in a Cornfield manages to do all of the above to scratch the itch that few genre films can.
Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her father Glenn (Aaron Abrams) pack up shop and move to podunk Kettle Springs Missouri looking to start over after the untimely death of her mother. As with most small towns, the people give off a weird vibe, and it’s not until Quinn befriends Cole (Carson MacCormac) and the other misfits that she starts to feel like she fits in. Of course, nothing good can last, and as people start to disappear, the kids become embroiled in a life or death battle with the town mascot, Frendo the Clown, who has no plans on letting them get away alive.
I know that sounds quite scary, and there are legitimate moments that will make you squeamish with some blood and jump scares. And while the clown works well for a creepy villain, there’s something … hokey about it. And before you leave here thinking it’s going to be some underwhelming B movie, it absolutely isn’t. In fact, this is a huge part of what gives it its charm and makes it work.
To understand this, we need to go back to 2010’s Tucker & Dale vs Evil which was written and directed by Eli Craig who also did Clown. Tucker & Dale was a masterclass in how to mix horror and comedy, what with its extreme gore, hillbilly stereotypes, and utilizing horror movie tropes to reverently poke fun at them. This same sensibility is used to great effect here by doing a lot of the same things. Is there supposed to be an obvious jump scare coming? Absolutely, and it’s right when you think it should be. Do we have the jock, the mean girl, and the obvious final girl? Yes, however, this is where it takes a slight turn.
These characters feel intelligent, so you’re not going to catch them running into the cornfield to investigate a mysterious noise. They know something is up, and they’re not going to fall for the traps we expect them to. Throw in the fact that there is legitimate care for one another outside of just trying to survive, and they end up feeling more real and lived in than simple caricatures.
While the script is not quite as razor sharp as the aforementioned Tucker & Dale, it doesn’t change the fact this is enjoyable from start to finish. While the story itself is nothing new, the characters and setting give it a slightly fresh and spine-tingling feel that we haven’t seen often before. It’s not going to live up to the classics we talked about earlier, and that’s just fine. Not every movie needs to become permanently etched into the annals of history, but this definitely needs to end up in everyone’s rotation to watch each October. Silly, scary, and bloody sounds like a good time to me, and I think that’s what most people expect and will get from Clown in a Cornfield.