There's a ton of exciting stuff coming this summer, but it's looking like a particularly good summer season for the horror genre. Even just this month we're getting a return to the Final Destination franchise and the sophomore effort from the duo behind Talk to Me. To start things out though, we have Clown in a Cornfield, one of the biggest surprises for me so far this year.
Clown in a Cornfield is a killer clown slasher based on the 2020 novel by Adam Cesare, and directed by Eli Craig, whose resume includes the iconic horror/comedy Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (he's also Sally Field's son which is awesome). The film stars Katie Douglas as Quinn, a teen whose dad moves her to a new town in the middle of nowhere. She befriends a group of classmates hated by the elders of the town for making slasher spoof videos of their town mascot Frendo. When the yearly founder's day celebration rolls around, an abandoned barn party becomes the stage for a masked Frendo to slice and dice his way through the youths.
This is very much for those who enjoy the late 90s slasher genre. It follows all the familiar beats while poking some fun at them, and while it took a bit for Craig's tone to fully take hold, I wound up having a blast with it. It does take a fun twist with the mystery behind who the killer is, but for the most part it does exactly what you would expect it to do but does so very well. Tonally it's a film that takes itself just serious enough to never fall into parody, which makes it feel somewhat off at times when a joke is made or a moment is played for laughs. Once you get a feel for what Craig is going for though it delivers a pretty great blend of scares and laughs, while also managing to give some of the best kills I think we'll see in a movie this year. The kills start out kind of tame which had me worried, but as the film goes on there's some wild stuff thrown at you.
I mentioned in my summer movie preview, but I went to school with Katie Douglas so it's a bit weird to see her on the big screen, but I thought she did a really good job. The film's tone is a tough one to balance and I found she carried it well. Her father is played by Aaron Abrams, and while he's very much the 'dad trying his best to connect to his teen daughter' trope, I found him very endearing. The cast of teens are all pretty expendable, but Carson MacCormac had some pretty bright moments, and I really enjoyed Vincent Muller in his film debut as the very obvious red herring. There's also a bit of Kevin Durand in here and I loved every second he was on screen, I only wish he was in it more.
This feels like a perfect drive-in movie. It's a fun slasher that delivers a bit of everything you could ask for, introducing a fun new killer and a whole lot of blood. I wouldn't say it's one you have to rush out to see, especially with all the horror we have coming soon, but I would definitely suggest checking this one out. 3.5/5
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