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Rating: There are serious, ambitious films that depict dramatic or even tragic current events and/or tackle deep moral and philosophical questions, demanding the viewer’s constant attention. Then there are those movies that simply ask you to switch your brain off for 90 minutes or so, grab a nice big bucket of sugary popcorn, and just relax and have fun. Finally, there are some films that go even further—films that are outright trash and are fully aware and proud of it. Il Clown di Kettle Springs falls squarely into this last category, although I definitely prefer the original title, Clown in a Cornfield.
What can you really expect from a movie quite literally called “clown” (obviously evil) in a cornfield? Clearly nothing, except an evening of enjoyment filled with gore and a series of ever-more satisfying murders. Actually, the movie is based on a book that, I admit, I haven’t read, but which is apparently quite a bit better. The director Eli Craig, however—the illustrious Sally Field’s son—let’s face it, must be one hilarious wise-ass, and he must love those horror movies that make you smirk and don’t take themselves seriously, kind of like his “masterpiece” Tucker & Dale vs Evil.
No point going into too much detail about the plot: after a tragic family event, Quinn and her father move to the small town of Kettle Springs, Missouri, your classic backwater tied at the hip to a corn syrup factory called Baypen, where nothing ever seems to happen—aside from some pranks by a group of teenagers—until one day the factory’s mascot, Frendo the clown (who hands out jack-in-the-boxes by the fistful), starts butchering them. To be fair, the movie does include some less superficial elements, like the problematic relationship between Quinn and her father Glenn, the dynamic between the protagonist and the town’s heir-apparent Cole, or the mysterious Rust, but these are mere exceptions in an otherwise cheerfully self-aware trashfest: the clown, the teenagers, and guess who dies first? You got it—the Black guy. Not much thinking, not much logic, gaping plot holes, almost zero character development: this is a puppet-show where the highlight is the murder scenes, which are actually staged really well. The acting is decent too; I didn’t know the younger actors (protagonist Katie Douglas does a good job), but I did know Will Sasso, who’s actually there for real, and above all I was looking forward to seeing the legendary Kevin Durand, a great craftsman unjustly underrated. So, it’s a movie to just gulp down with zero expectations, maybe for an evening with (young?) friends; in fact, at one point there’s even a Gen-Z panegyric-rant that felt out of place and I didn’t like it, but those are details. Finally, I’ll note that the premiere of Clown in a Cornfield was held at South by Southwest.
Forgettable movie? Yes, but it succeeds where many modern big-budget films fail: it entertains.
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