Aaron Abrams, Alexandre Martin Deakin, Bradley Sawatzky, Cassandra Potenza, Clown in a Cornfield, Eli Craig, film festivals, horror, Kaitlyn Bacon, Katie Douglas, Kevin Durand, movies, reviews, SXSW, SXSW Film and TV Festival, SXSW Film Festival, Verity Marks, Vincent Muller
May 31, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Eli Craig
Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional city of Kettle Springs, Missouri, the horror film “Clown in a Cornfield” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A 17-year-old girl moves with her widower father to Kettle Springs, and they find out that Kettle Springs has been plagued by serial killngs of someone dressed as a mascot clown named Frendo.
Culture Audience: “Clown in a Cornfield” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the book of the same name and horror movies about killer clowns.
Some fans of the book “Clown in a Cornfield” might be disappointed by the movie’s tonal changes to this horror story about serial killings done by a mascot clown. The self-aware comedic revisions mostly work well, thanks to the movie’s appealing cast. The movie leans more into having sarcastic jokes in the story, compared to the book, and this satire is effective because the cast members have very good comedic timing.
Directed by Eli Craig, “Clown in a Cornfield” (which had its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival) is based on Adam Cesare’s 2020 horror novel of the same name. Carter Blanchard and Craig co-wrote the “Clown in a Cornfield” adapted screenplay. The story takes place in the fictional city of Kettle Springs, Missouri. The “Clown in a Cornfield” movie was actually filmed in Winnipeg, Canada.
The “Clown in a Cornfield” movie begins in 1991, during a party that teenagers are having in a cornfield. A teenager named Jessica (played by Kaitlyn Bacon) takes off her top and runs into a secluded part of the field. Another teen named Tyler (played by Dylan McEwan) follows Jessica because he thinks she might want to fool around.
Tyler notices that there are some large footprints in the muddy field. These footprints look too big for Jessica. Tyler sees Jessica in front of him. She’s vomiting because she’s been fatally wounded. And you can predict what happens next: Someone dressed as a creepy-looking clown suddenly appears and impales Tyler with a machete.
“Clown in a Cornfield” then fast-forwards to 2025 to show a teenage girl and her father arriving from Philadelphia on their first day as new residents of Kettle Springs. Quinn Maybrook (played by Katie Douglas) is a moody and introverted teenager who doesn’t really want to live in Kettle Springs because she thinks she will be bored in this small city. Quinn’s father Glenn Maybrook (played by Aaron Abrams) is a medical doctor who has accepted a job to be Kettle Springs’ chief physician.
It’s autumn, and Quinn will be a starting her last year of high school in Kettle Springs. Quinn and Glenn are grieving over the death of Quinn’s mother/Glenn’s wife a few months ago. It’s later revealed that Quinn’s mother died of a drug overdose. Glenn wanted a fresh start in a place that’s very different from Philadelphia, which is why he decided to move to Kettle Springs.
Quinn is dismayed to find out that Glenn bought the two-story farmhouse where they live in Kettle Springs without going in person to look at the house. He made the purchase based on photos he saw online. When they arrive at the house, Quinn gets even more upset when she finds out there’s no WiFi service in the house. The house also has a nasty odor, which turns out to be a dead raccoon that’s stuck in the chimney.
A big cornfield near the house can be seen from various windows in the house. Quinn notices that in this cornfield is a large building with a sign that says Baypen Corn Syrup Factory. The company clown mascot also appears on the same sign. Quinn later finds out that this clown is named Frendo, and the factory has been abandoned.
Quinn is a loner type who’s not very concerned about how popular she’ll be in her new school. Her first day at the school also happens to be her 17th birthday. A teenager named Rustin “Rust” Vance (played by Vincent Muller), who’s also a student at the school, lives nearby and has noticed that Quinn and her father have moved into this house.
Rust visits the house, introduces himself to Quinn and Glenn, and offers to walk with Quinn to the school. Glenn approves because Rust seems like a friendly guy. On the way to the school, Rust tells Quinn that hunting and fishing are the main leisure activities for the teenagers in Kettle Springs.
“Not everyone is a redneck,” Rust says. “I don’t really care what people think. Be careful who you hang out with. There are some real weirdos at this school.” Quinn thanks Rust for his advice but doesn’t really know what he means by “weirdos.”
Quinn is late for her first class, which is teaching astronomy. The no-nonsense teacher for the class is Mr. Vern (played by Bradley Sawatzky), who becomes furious when he finds out that unknown students have played pranks on him. First, they put a photo of Mr. Vern’s head on a photo of someone else’s muscular body so that this altered photo appears on the video projector in the class. No one in the class will confess to this prank, so Mr. Vern punishes everyone by giving them a surprise quiz.
Mr. Vern then sees that his dating profile has been copied on a surprise quiz that he hands out to the students. He has a screaming meltdown, which gets recorded by Janet Murray (played by Cassandra Potenza), who likes to think of herself as the school’s “queen bee.” Quinn quickly finds out that the pranksters are the school’s clique of “cool kids,” who introduce themselves to Quinn during this class. Janet is in the clique.
The clique is led by self-assured Cole Hill (played by Carson MacCormac), who comes from the wealthiest and most influential family in Kettle Springs. Also in the clique are Janet’s neurotic best friend Ronnie Queen (played by Verity Marks), Matt Trent (played by Alexandre Martin Deakin), who is Ronnie’s athletic boyfriend; and Tucker Lee (played by Ayo Solanke), who has a fun-loving personality.
This clique has a YouTube channel, where they like to post videos of pranks they’ve pulled on unsuspecting people. Quinn later finds out that Cole and Rust used to be very close, but they had a falling out and no longer speak to each other. The clique has a reputation for being brats who commit petty crimes.
Cole’s ancestors founded Kettle Springs. Cole’s image-conscious father Arthur Hill (played by Kevin Durand) is the current mayor of Kettle Springs. Cole’s great-grandfather founded Baypen Corn Syrup, which used to be the largest company employer in Kettle Springs, until a fire destroyed the inside of the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory about a year ago. The factory has remained abandoned. Kettle Springs has been suffering economically ever since.
Even though Kettle Springs has been going through hard times financially, the city is still continuing its tradition of having its Founders Day parade, where the biggest attraction is a float of Frendo. There’s been widespread gossip that Cole and his friends accidentally started the fire during while partying in the factory after-hours. For this reason and because of the clique’s prank videos, Sheriff York Dunne (played by Will Sasso), who’s in charge of law enforcement in Kettle Springs, has this clique on his radar as potential troublemakers.
The first time that Quinn is invited to hang out with Cole and his friends, they play a prank on her by having Tucker dress up as Frendo and scaring Quinn. They film this prank and post the video on social media. However, Cole notices that there seems to be a shadowy figure of someone else dressed as Frendo in the background of this video. None of this is spoiler information, because the trailer for “Clown in a Cornfield” reveals a lot of what happens in the movie.
Quinn develops a growing attraction to Cole, who seems to be attracted to her too. But this possible romance gets tested during a teen party at the warehouse, where various things happen. All hell breaks loose when people start getting killed in what turns out to be a Frendo massacre.
“Clown in a Cornfield” has many action-packed chase scenes and other terror scenes that should please horror fans but have a lot of typical horror stereotypes of people walking right into a trap when they should be going elsewhere to get help. The gore in “Clown in a Cornfield” is intense but it’s not excessive. This is the type of movie that knows how goofy it is but at the same time it keeps people guessing on who’s behind this killing spree and why certain people are being targeted. (The answer is eventually revealed.)
The movie doesn’t take itself seriously and has some comedy that spoofs how people in horror movies often do idiotic things. For example, there’s a scene where Janet and Quinn are trapped in a place where the only phone they can find is a rotary phone, which they don’t know how to use because they only know how to use phones that operate by pushing buttons. There’s another scene in the movie that’s a not-so-subtle dig at the stereotype of black people get killed off quickly in horror movies, when a terrified Ronnie (who’s black) mentions this stereotype when she says that she’s going to be the next one killed.
“Clown in a Cornfield” is effective because all of the cast members are believable in their roles, although no one is going get nominated for any awards for this movie. The story has some gravitas when it comes to Quinn’s tense relationship with her father and how they’re navigating grief over the loss of Quinn’s mother. Cole seems to be confident on the surface, but he’s also dealing with some insecurity issues having to do with his family and his identity. “Clown in a Cornfield” has an ending that raises some questions that aren’t adequately answered. But considering that the “Clown in the Cornfield” book has sequels, it seems inevitable that “Clown in the Cornfield” will also continue with movie sequels in franchise.
RLJE Films and Shudder released “Clown in a Cornfield” in U.S. cinemas on May 9, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on June 10, 2025.