Clown in a Cornfield Review

Clown successful a Cornfield opens successful theaters May 9.

Some titles fto you cognize precisely what you’re successful for, and if Clown successful a Cornfield isn’t a memoir by a Midwestern comedian, past it tin lone beryllium a slasher. Adapted from Adam Cesare’s acclaimed 2020 novel, it’s afloat of rowdy teens who portion and past dice astatine the hands of, yes, a red-nosed madman successful a maize crop. The root worldly whitethorn beryllium shelved successful the YA section, but it and its R-rated adaptation propulsion fewer punches successful presumption of decease and violence, operating champion successful the no-nonsense throwback mode that fits the simple, descriptive title. But past the halfway point, Clown successful a Cornfield grasps for greater thematic weight, and determination it withers, a promising harvest that ne'er rather grows to maturity.

Our soon-to-be-final miss is precocious schoolhouse elder Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas). Originally from Philadelphia, she’s wrestling not conscionable with her mom’s decease but with her dad’s (Aaron Abrams) impulsive means of coping by moving them to Kettle Springs, Missouri, wherever he’s taken a occupation arsenic the municipality doctor. That determination tin beryllium specified a happening arsenic a “town doctor” tells you everything you request to cognize astir the size of Kettle Springs. It’s 1 of those places wherever everybody knows everybody else, and everybody knows the section teens that Quinn falls successful with are trouble. They’re the worst benignant of delinquents: YouTubers.

Led by dreamy affluent kid Cole Hill (Carson MacCormac), the teens person refashioned section instauration Frendo the clown into the grinning prima of their DIY fearfulness shorts. The mascot of Kettle Springs’ now-shuttered main root of industry, the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory, Frendo’s look is plastered each implicit municipality – a ubiquity that leaves america guessing whether the clown is simply a supernatural entity oregon a masked assailant erstwhile the murders successful the kids’ videos commencement occurring IRL. Director and co-writer Eli Craig is known for fearfulness comedies similar hicksploitation send-up Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, and helium intelligibly has amusive conceiving prankish fake-out scares for Cole and company. But speech from a fewer winks similar an ill-fated teen encountering a clown-sized shoeprint, Craig starts retired by playing the slasher notes with a reasonably consecutive look and a creaseless competence. There’s nary gag to the camera pursuing a unfortunate from 1 country to the next, toying with our expectations of erstwhile (or if) Frendo volition strike. Coupled with a strong, likable pb successful Quinn, the unvarnished slasher Clown successful a Cornfield appears to beryllium during its aboriginal stretches is astir comforting.

Unfortunately, there’s a twist lurking connected the horizon, and it complicates that unfussy appeal. Without giving excessively overmuch away, struggle betwixt the kids and adults successful Kettle Springs has already reached its boiling point. Quinn clocks it beauteous aboriginal connected – excessively early, fixed that she’s lone encountered a fewer of the town’s authorization figures. Beyond telegraphing the large reveal, the adaptation besides dilutes the governmental backdrop of Cesare’s root material, muddying the root of generational strife into vague buzzwords and laughter lines.

And that’s the different occupation with the second fractional of Clown successful a Cornfield: The code gets goofier arsenic it goes along. The circumstances go overmuch much grave, and successful the lack of teens kidding astir and shooting videos connected their phones, Craig’s comic instincts person nary outlet but to leak into the action. Multiple deaths are wholly undercut by jokey dialogue, and teens shriek successful despair erstwhile they can’t fig retired however to usage a rotary phone. A fewer of these scenes surely are funny, but they support puncturing the hostility portion the crippled builds toward mealy-mouthed commentary that’s adjacent harder to instrumentality seriously.

But adjacent with the film’s throwback charms, there’s a lingering consciousness that our pal Frendo has missed his taste moment, with small to separate himself from a agelong cinematic contented of masked murderers and/or slayer clowns. Apart from 1 late-film usage of a cattle prod, the all-important slasher movie kills present are abbreviated connected invention, bloody but ne'er visceral oregon adjacent originative – 1 is arsenic elemental arsenic Frendo firing a crossbow. Clown successful a Cornfield can’t assistance but travel disconnected arsenic a spot tame and unremarkable by examination to the over-the-top clown cruelty of the Terrifier movies oregon the town-mascot-driven carnage of Thanksgiving. It’s the benignant of happening you mightiness half-watch successful the inheritance of a Halloween enactment and ne'er beryllium inspired to inquire what the rubric is – though it’d beryllium beauteous casual to conjecture it.