Clown in a Cornfield (2025) Review

 "Never fuck with Frendo."

-Daryl

Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) and her father move from Philadelphia to the small town of Kettle Springs, Missouri.  She quickly falls in with a group of kids who are considered bad news by the locals.  At a barn party, a murderous clown emerges from the cornfield and Quinn and her new friends have to fight to survive.

Spoilers Below.  There's a lot more going on in this movie than you would think and the only trailer I saw didn't really give anything away.  I can't say much about this movie without getting into spoilers, but it's a really solid horror movie that is a lot smarter than I was expecting.  I really hope it gets a sequel.  Horror fans, go see this one before it gets spoiled for you.

What Works;

This movie is setup to be a pretty standard slasher/whodunnit and, to some extent, that's what it is.  It does a solid job with those elements, which are the focus of the first half of the film.  We get a creepy clown and some good kills.  It gets the basics right for this kind of movie, but all of that is just a launching pad.  I'll call it a successful launch.

We also get some really good and gnarly kills.  It's not Terrifier by any means, but I don't want every movie to be Terrifier.  Even some of the bloodless kills are fun.

Our main characters are also very well acted, even the ones that aren't three-dimensional.  All of the kids in Quinn's new friend group are likable in their own way and they become very sympathetic over the course of the movie.  We're told that they're the bad kids in town, but they aren't at all.  The adults really just suck.  It makes them slasher movie victims that are easy to root for, which is an accomplishment all on it's own.  I especially like Carson MacCormac's performance as the mayor's son, Cole.

Quinn is an excellent protagonist and Katie Douglas does a spectacular job.  She and her dad, played by Aaron Abrams, have great chemistry, even when they aren't getting along.  The conflict between them doesn't stop you from feeling the love and care they have for each other.  Both of them are very easy to root for as well.

Now for the big moment.  The only thing I really remember from the trailer is a clown in a cornfield heading towards a barn party.  I don't know if any other trailer spoils what happens after that, but I'm going to here because it was so unexpected.  The clown starts his attack on the barn party, but quickly gets killed.  I was wondering if maybe the clown would end up being some supernatural entity, but nope.  Instead a group of clowns appear from the cornfield and my jaw dropped.  It's such a great moment that really gave me a jolt of excitement.  

Finally, the big reveal that a group of the town's leaders are behind it all is pretty great.  Sure, it's very similar to Hot Fuzz, but there are enough differences.  The focus on the generational conflict is really interesting, if a bit on the nose with the dialogue.  I know it's based off a book that came out in 2020, but having this come out in 2025 gives the movie some additional interesting context.  There's a lot of political subtext here that I found fascinating.  In the end, most of us are just teenagers at a barn party and these fucking clowns are trying to kill us.

What Sucks:

This is a horror movie, not a horror comedy like director Eli Craig's earlier work, but this is still a funny movie.  There's nothing wrong with that, in fact I love when a good horror movie is funny.  It's just that there are a few times where the comedy falls flat or feels out of place.

Finally, the ending of the movie gives us some sequel bait that makes this film not feel as satisfying as it could be.  Our big bad guy, Mayor Arthur Hill (Kevin Durand), escapes the finale of the film and he isn't seen or addressed again.  He's behind it all, even keeping some things from his clown minions, but he seems to escape scot-free.  There's some interesting real world commentary there, but it doesn't help this movie in particular.  That said, I know this is based off a novel and that there are sequels to that novel.  I'm guessing the same thing happened in the book and the Mayor returns in the sequel.  I don't know that for sure, I'm just guessing.  So if we get a film adaptation of the sequel that gets back to this plot point in a satisfying way, I can absolutely forgive this movie for ending the way it does.  We'll have to wait and see.  

Verdict:

Clown in a Cornfield is exactly what I expected for the first half and then it goes off the rails in a fun and memorable way.  Even before the insanity, it's a solid slasher film with likable characters, good kills, and a story that's easy to get invested in.  The comedy doesn't always work and the ending isn't super satisfying, but a sequel could remedy that, so I really hope we get one.  If we don't, this movie has still got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good