The Upcoming ‘Clown in a Cornfield’ May Seem Like a Simple Horror Romp — but, Trust Me, It’s So Much More Than That
After being lured into the sewers by Pennywise and getting ambushed by the demonic entity in the Terrifier series, it’s time to outrun Frendo, a clown mascot that becomes a killer’s costume in the upcoming slasher Clown in a Cornfield, which is set to be released in theaters and on Shudder on May 9. Adapted from the 2020 YA horror novel by Adam Cesare, the movie will give you exactly what the title promises: a killer clown in a spooky rural setting unleashing mayhem. But the deceptively simple concept is a jumping-off point. The best part of the book and what will be on the big screen is how the plot reveals itself to be a timely horror satire about current events in the United States as it welcomes you to a small Americana town that has more problems than a killer clown.
Horror Fans Will Meet a New Slasher in ‘Clown in a Cornfield’
Clown in a Cornfield follows a teen girl who moves with her father to a sleepy Midwestern town, hoping for a new start after the death of her mother, but finds herself in the middle of community unrest that triggers someone to begin a killing spree. Eli Craig, director of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, helms the film adaptation, bringing the characters off the page in the final girl, Quinn (Katie Douglas), her father, Dr. Maybrook (Aaron Abrams), the quiet but kind neighbor Quinn meets, Rust (Vincent Muller), the rich, popular boy in town Quinn befriends, Cole (Carson MacCormac), and his father, an important man in town, Arthur Hill (Kevin Durand).
Before watching it in theaters, the book should be your introduction, and don’t hesitate simply because it belongs to the YA horror subgenre. Joining Haddonfield and Woodsboro is a new hotbed for a slasher to emerge; Kettle Springs, Missouri, is like the cozy towns from Halloween and Scream, where masked killers slice into the quiet. The book’s handling of classism subverts the first impressions that Quinn has of those around her, after only knowing the city life of Philadelphia for most of her life. Her new classmates are not the redneck stereotypes she expects, and the group of popular kids she becomes a part of are rebelling against the local authority figures.
The loss of the main source of revenue, a corn syrup factory, has caused economic hardship for Kettle Springs, exacerbated by the generational divide where the adults feel the teens are disrespectful, and the youths feel set up for failure by the adults. Five years after the book was released, Clown in a Cornfield feels more relevant by how the bad blood in Kettle Springs takes inspiration from the political unrest that is defining the 2020s. The small town becomes a microcosm of the anxieties affecting the US in how the older and younger residents respond differently to a constantly changing world.
The Satire of ‘Clown in a Cornfield’ Takes Aim at Trump’s America
The slogan that Quinn sees on posters for the town’s celebration is, “Make Kettle Springs Great Again,” an almost exact copy of Donald Trump’s slogan, which itself was revised from Ronald Reagan‘s slogan. All three are proud declarations that view the past through rose-tinted glasses. American Horror Story: Cult might have tried to explore the turmoil of Trump’s America (with killer clowns too), but Cesare’s book does a far better job of blending social commentary with intense slasher thrills — this is a book where one of Quinn’s new friends is decapitated and their body trips over the head on its way to the ground.
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Frendo and Kettle Springs represent the violence that comes from wanting to force the world to turn back to “the good old days,” with director Eli Craig saying in an interview, “The duality of a clown is like the duality of America: It’s hopeful, and yet it’s falling to pieces at the same time, and it’s angry. There’s so much anger hidden beneath this plasticky facade of happiness.” Cesare updates the teen slasher formula by fusing creepy clowns with current events, showing the horror subgenre can still put out an original story that isn’t a legacy sequel.
A Clown Is No Laughing Matter in Kettle Springs
“In the late ’70s, a guy showing up and crashing your babysitting job with a knife was probably a key fear, but what is the fear now?” Adam Cesare said while talking to Collider, “What are teens worried about? They’re doing shelter-in-place drills.” Unlike the school shooting backstory that feels grossly tacked onto 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Clown in a Cornfield has a better handle on the real-world crisis by not being heavy-handed and letting you recognize how a mass killing by a slasher could be seen in today’s climate.
Often, slasher movies need to do creative problem-solving to figure out why there is no adult supervision to help the youths in trouble. Maybe there is a summer camp far from help. For Quinn and her friends, the generational divide has the teens secluding themselves in the middle of a cornfield so they can party, drink, and blast music, until the celebration becomes a hunting ground. Horror fans who like comparisons may enjoy knowing that Clown in a Cornfield is closer to Scream than It, becoming a satire that cuts deeper than a typical slasher. Kettle Springs was already falling apart before Frendo ran out of the darkness with a chainsaw.
- Release Date
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May 9, 2025
- Runtime
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96 Minutes
- Director
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Eli Craig
- Writers
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Eli Craig, Adam Cesare, Carter Blanchard
- Producers
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Georges Bermann, Wyck Godfrey
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Katie Douglas
Dr. Glenn Maybrook
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Katie Douglas
Quinn Maybrook
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Carson MacCormac
Cole Hill
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Cassandra Potenza
Janet Murray
