Sometimes a movie's title just puts everything right out on Front Street (Snakes on a Plane comes to mind). Audiences see it, and they know exactly what they're getting. Clown in a Cornfield seems like it would be something along those lines: a fun slasher movie about, well, a killer clown lurking in a cornfield. However, the newest feature from director Eli Craig has more going on than its title would suggest.

Of course, the title itself comes from the movie's source material, a book written by Adam Cesare. It's not that often that a slasher movie is adapted from a literary source. That works to Clown in a Cornfield's benefit, as the movie is far smarter and more thematic than audiences may be expecting, and already sets it as one of the better horror titles of the year.

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By Catherine Armecin Martin

The set-up for the story is pretty simple: a teenage girl, Quinn (Katie Douglas) moves with her physician father to a small, rural town in Missouri. The town has seen better days, as the Baypen corn syrup factory that used to be its lifeblood was shut down after a mysterious fire. The mascot of that corn syrup factory is Frendo the Clown, who still holds a looming presence. Quinn befriends a group of other teens who make scary YouTube videos depicting Frendo as a killer, but they all run into trouble when Frendo really starts killing people, and he seems to be targeting them specifically.

Clown in a Cornfield derives a lot of its plot elements from other horror stories: killer clowns, a small town with a secret, and even the use of cell phones and making viral videos. However, there are small details that suggest more to the story than meets the eye. Quinn is met by one of the local kids, Rust (Vincent Muller), a typical farmboy who warns her about 'weirdos' at the school quickly warms up to Cole (Carson MacCormac), the son of the town Mayor (who also happens to be part of the family that founded the Baypen corn syrup company). Both of them have dark points in their past that serve as the impetus for their fates intertwining, and hint at some of the deeper themes that drive the story. There's also more to Rust's story further along, as he breaks the mold of the gun-toting local.

The development of Quinn and Cole, while beneficial to the story, does highlight some of the shortcomings of other characters. The rest of the friend group are essentially boiled down to a typical group of teenagers without any real defining traits. Even the bog-standard archetypes so often found in slasher movies are thrown to the wayside, with only two dumb jocks and two popular girls remaining. What is refreshing is that despite how different Quinn is from this group, they are quickly bonded by their contempt for an unfair teacher, and Quinn is not made to be the subject of bullying or any other type of mean behavior from the locals. It's a move that makes even more sense further into the story, when the slasher action really starts to ramp up.

The cast of adults in the town fares slightly better in their performances than the teens. Kevin Durand exudes the perfect Southern sliminess as Cole's father, while Will Sasso balances an air of menace with his incomparable comedy chops as the town's Sheriff. Aaron Abrams (star of the Canadian sitcom Children Ruin Everything) brings a great perturbed energy as Quinn's father, and plays a bigger role than one might expect in a story like this.

Eli Craig, who directed the solidly hilarious Tucker & Dale vs. Evil brings a similar flare here for combining horror and comedy. That's not always the easiest line to walk, but Craig has developed a talent for keeping tension high in scenes while managing to wring some levity from outlandish situations. A scene where two characters die simultaneously is played for laughs, as they both express the same feelings of contempt in their final breaths. Craig also isn't afraid to hold back on the violence, with some of the kills in the movie being pretty brutal and sudden.

Summary

Clown in a Cornfield offers more depth than expected, adapting smartly from literary source material.
The film cleverly weaves themes into the story, balancing horror, comedy, and genuine heart for a fresh take on slashers.
Despite some character shortcomings, Clown in a Cornfield delivers on scares, surprises, and twists for a fun movie experience.

What Clown in a Cornfield also does very well, and far better than most slasher movies, is present a theme and actually deliver on it. That may be a benefit of being adapted from a book, where the thematic elements often play a bigger role in the storytelling. The script from Craig and Carter Blanchard smartly brings a lot of that to the screen. However, divulging what those thematic elements are could potentially spoil what is a really fun plot, but suffice to say that it all makes sense by the final act.

For slasher fans who are dying for something other than another Scream or Halloween movie, Clown in a Cornfield is a great option. It's a fresh take on the genre with a lot of genuine heart, scares, and comedy. It's also a movie for the times, with a theme that will likely hit close to home for younger viewers (and older ones too, depending on how they feel about the current state of the world). While some of the characters could have used a little more to differentiate them, it certainly doesn't take away from the storytelling in a major way, and there's enough fun surprises and twists to make up for it.

Clown in a Cornfield is now in theaters.

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