I’m a slasher guy. It’s a tough life, since I’ve unfortunately been saddled with friends and family who rank slashers as the lowest of the horror subgenres. That doesn’t stop me, however, and I’ve made it my personal mission to seek out every and any slasher I can find. I take it all very seriously, often thinking about the subgenre’s form and structure more than I probably should.
We all have that one thing we can yap about for ages. Get me started on a slasher, and I’ll never stop. This year, that particular slasher is Eli Craig’s Clown in a Cornfield, the long-awaited adaptation of Adam Cesare’s 2020 YA novel of the same name.
I reckon the contemporary boom is due to David Gordon Green’s Halloween. Not only did his sequel renew interest in that particular franchise, but also in what Roger Ebert (not very endearingly) referred to as the “Dead teenager film.”
The core elements are always the same. Some killer (often masked) tracks down and slaughters a bunch of teens until the sanctioned final girl puts them down for good. There are twists and pivots—Scream is meta, You’re Next is subversive, Final Destination casts death itself as the antagonist—but the cinematic core remains the same. Which, if you’re reading this, you already know. You also know just how many not-so-great slashers have been released since 2018.
It’s serendipitous, then, for Craig’s Clown in a Cornfield to release when it did. Cesare’s novel features a pretty gnarly twist midway through (and for readers out there, the series only gets better in the two subsequent sequels), though the thrust is still firmly, conventionally slasher. Masked killer, power tools, final girl. The chases are there. The jump scares are there. The post-1996 meta commentary is even there. Ostensibly, it’s all quite unremarkable, though fans of Cesare’s work and those who helped render it IFC Film’s biggest opening weekend ever know better – this clown is no joke.
Largely, Clown in a Cornfield succeeds exactly where You’re Next did more than a decade ago. The adjustment of one key variable helped refresh the peripheral familiarity. In the latter, Sharni Vinson played the survivalist final girl. Take that away, You’re Next is still good, but nowhere near as inventive. In the former, it’s the climactic reveal where Clown in a Cornfield soars.
Cesare’s novel is distinctly more political, something the adaptation gestures toward but never fully embraces, though Craig’s clear admiration for the subgenre and horror filmmaking experience helps to fill in the sociopolitical gaps left over in the wake of Cornfield’s wide domestic release.
Just think about how January 6 skeptics would feel about Clown in a Cornfield 2’s most significant plot points. Craig’s prowess augments where lesser adaptations would neuter. It’s fiercely funny, sufficiently violent without being cruel, and features arguably the strongest slasher performance of the century. Seriously, if nothing else, Katie Douglas has already entered the echelon of top-tier final girls. More than that, it’s one of the most convincing and authentic performances I’ve seen in a slasher ever.
Principally, what Craig accomplishes is the perfect distillation of the slasher formula. It never veers so far out of bounds to qualify as new age or arthouse (I loved In a Violent Nature, though I understand why some didn’t), opting instead to perfect what’s come before.
As the old adage goes, if the Cornfield ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And Clown in a Cornfield needs very little fixing. The pacing is excellent, the tension sustained, and at a crisp 96 minutes, never overstays its welcome, even if I personally wouldn’t have minded spending a little more time in that world.
Which takes us to one of my favorite elements of both the novel and film, and why I’m fortunate to be writing about this film in June. Cole (Carson MacCormac) and Rust (Vincent Muller) are at odds to start, though anyone with even a dash of queerness in their system can see why.
They’re in love, dammit, and echoing the sensitivity and matter-of-factness of Cesare’s novel, there’s little hoopla made about the matter. It’s an organic, diegetic romance, one that feels built into the world, perhaps a little curious (as noted by the in-film reaction upon the reveal), but not surprising. Instead, it’s just two leads who happen to be queer. Bonus points for letting them both survive (even if the sequel novel risks jeopardizing some of that goodwill).
So, what we’re left with is a queer-positive, funny, scary, and generally entertaining slasher. In 2025, that’s no small feat. Heart Eyes got close, while Fear Street: Prom Queen was doused in pig’s blood, though Clown in a Cornfield will likely remain the best slasher movie of the year. Of the past several years, if we’re being honest.
The combined talents of Craig, Cesare, the cast, and co-writer Carter Blanchard accomplished the near impossible. Decades after the subgenre first began, it captures that nebulous yet thrilling feeling of seeing your first slasher movie ever. The kind of movie that makes you fall in love with movies. We didn’t call it a “pitch-perfect teenage slasher” in our review for nothing.
As a slasher fan through and through, it’s titles like Clown in a Cornfield that renew my faith in the subgenre. Skeptics might question how much mileage can be gained from a formula that amounts to something so simple. With the power of corn syrup and an earnest appreciation for slashers as more than just entertainment, but as key values, Craig and company have more than proven that there’s plenty of life left.
Clown in a Cornfield is currently available to rent or purchase on Premium Video-On-Demand. The film will be available for streaming on Shudder this August. I’d suggest you watch it. Nothing good comes when you f**k with Frendo.
Categorized:Editorials
