Though a movie known as Clown in a Cornfield would possibly encourage little confidence in something of substance, writer-director Eli Craig‘s newest movie presents far more than the title suggests.
Primarily based on the 2020 novel of the identical identify by Adam Cesare, the satirical slasher stars Katie Douglas as Quinn Maybrook, a troubled teen woman who strikes together with her physician dad (Aaron Abrams) to the small city of Kettle Springs, Missouri.
A once-booming city caught within the ’90s, residents nonetheless collect to have a good time its Founders’ Day, in addition to Frendo the clown, the mascot for the once-thriving Baypen corn syrup manufacturing facility that has since caught fireplace and left many with out work. After Quinn rapidly befriends a bunch of troublemaking teenagers suspected of setting the blaze, the youths are picked off by the titular homicidal jester.
Past the absurdly darkish humor and brutal kills, the film emphasizes many Center America struggles whereas enjoying on the myths folks create to deal with the world.
On the city’s centennial celebration, its older residents cheer for “custom” and “small city values,” which reads particularly MAGA, full with the clown nostril. “Inform folks what they need to imagine and you will get away with homicide,” says one nefarious character, which sounds acquainted.
It’s fairly straightforward to guess who the baddies are when you understand the movie is principally Jaws (1975) set in a landlocked state. The predictability doesn’t make the message any much less timeless or satisfying.
The movie additionally speaks to a generational divide on the coronary heart of so many U.S. points, because the privileged, idealist Cole Hill (Carson MacCormac) passionately asserts that their mother and father had been those who “fucked the whole lot up” for his or her future.
It’s additionally humorously demonstrated as Quinn — arguably the neatest teen of the bunch — can’t work out how one can dial 9-1-1 on a rotary cellphone when her life fairly actually relies on it. A candy arc of Dr. Maybrook educating his daughter how one can drive handbook (which is useful) truly speaks to the generational divide coming collectively.
Clown in a Cornfield marks one other father/daughter bonding movie set after the demise of a mother, which appears to be a standard theme at this 12 months’s SXSW with Demise of Unicorn, starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega. Why is it so typically the mother who dies as an expositional machine in horror movies? Justice for Maureen Prescott!
Different horror tropes are addressed in a extra tongue-in-cheek means, like one character who notes the state of affairs feels “like we’re in some terrible ’80s slasher film,” which implies “I’m subsequent” as the sexy teenagers and Black characters are among the first to go.
For a movie that doesn’t get too artistic with the title, Clown in a Cornfield’s enjoyable, witty and absurd tackle the slasher style additionally feedback on a divisive tradition fueled by corrupt authorities, distracting America with its personal struggling and pitting its folks towards one another.
Title: Clown in a Cornfield
Competition: SXSW (Narrative Highlight)
Distributor: RLJE Movies, Shudder
Launch date: Could 9
Director: Eli Craig
Screenwriter: Craig, Carter Blanchard, Adam Cesare
Forged: Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac, Vincent Muller, Kevin Durand, Will Sasso, Verity Marks, Cassandra Potenza, Ayo Solanke, Alexandre Martin Deakin
Operating time: 1 hr 36 min