Eli Craig’s “Clown in a Cornfield” is, at first, exactly what you think it is, until it applies a few twists that make it funnier and only a little bit smarter than you’d expect.
Is that a recommendation? In an era of most mainstream movies being a sequel, prequel, remake, rebrand or “rebirth,” it’s refreshing to find a stalk n’ slash horror comedy that’s a little bit better than most.
However, coming from Craig, who previously directed and co-wrote the hilarious slasher movie “Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil” (2010), which is one of the best films of its type (the type being “The Cabin in the Woods” and “Scream”), I expected a lot more.
The plot: Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her father (Aaron Abrams) experience personal tragedy and seek to rebuild their lives by moving to a small town. We know from the pre-title sequence that the town has a history of homicides, involving people being murdered by mysterious figures dressed as clowns.
While Quinn is immediately distrustful of her new surroundings, she is smitten by Cole (Carson MacCormac), a handsome local who expresses his interest…by giving her the gift of a windup jack in the box with a clown inside.
Uh oh.
The good news is that, while “Clown in a Cornfield” depicts the mayhem occurring over the town’s Founder’s Day, the film itself is so much better than the dreadful “Founder’s Day” (2023).
The unfortunate news is that “Clown in a Cornfield” isn’t as sharp or funny as another movie it closely resembles, Eli Roth’s career-best “Thanksgiving” (2023), which also has a holiday-parade-gone-bad sequence.
Much of Craig’s film is about the contrast between the current and prior generation, with lots of jokes made at the expense of young folk who can’t survive without Wi-Fi, are unable to drive stick shift and don’t know how to dial a rotary phone.
Some of these gags are very funny but the horror works better than the comedy, if only because the mild scares are consistent. I wanted more jokes and less jump scares.
Of the cast, the best work comes from character actor pros Kevin Durand (who really should have been Oscar-nominated for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”) and Will Sasso (whose insane depiction of Steven Seagal was one of my favorite things on “Mad TV”).
The obvious question – is “Clown in a Cornfield” as good as “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” (1988)? Nope, not even close. “Killer Klowns from Outer Space,” the gonzo sci-fi/horror masterpiece from the Chiodo brothers, exploited every angle possible of face-painted serial killers. Craig’s film is very good but, for starters, in order for it to compete with “Killer Klowns,” it at least needed a catchy theme song.
I suppose this isn’t going to help anyone diagnosed with coulrophobia, which is the fear of evil clowns. Neither is the “IT” spinoff series, “Welcome to Derry,” which is due to hit MAX any day now.
All of these evil clowns bring to mind my friend Ryan, who proudly told me he went to clown college and studied the art of clowning. I haven’t seen Ryan in a long time and wonder what he’d make of his artistry becoming known as fodder for violent horror movies.
“Clown in a Cornfield” has an underwhelming start, a strong and exciting middle, and then an ending that over-explains and fizzles out. It feels like the kind of teen-baiting slasher movies that Dimension tossed out in the late 1990s- not “Scream,” but “Phantoms” (1998). At least “Phantoms” had Ben Affleck…Affleck was the bomb in “Phantoms.”
Anyway, if you see “Clown in a Cornfield” this weekend, I highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to see the film at a drive-in movie theater. The distributor has the film scheduled to premiere in quite a few drive-ins.
I suggest going to carload.com and finding out when and where “Clown in a Cornfield” is playing. Preferably at a drive-in surrounded by a nearby cornfield.
Two and a Half Stars
