The guilt and atonement often play a central role in the Slasher cinema. Not only in terms of violent crimes, but also very harmless, everyday behaviors. After all, prudish moral ideas and their enforcement have always been an interesting aspect when it comes to rows like “Halloween” or “Friday the 13th” went. In the meantime, it has long since become a running gag and cliché that has often been taken up and parodyed, just think of the “scream” franchise. In this sense, it is not surprising that “Clown in A Cornfield“Of all things, one of the most iconic slasher scenarios begins: the (attempted) sex that ends fatally.
1991, a party at night: A couple steals into the surrounding corn field to become intimate. The last sip of the beer bottle and the death sentence is signed. A little later, both are murdered by a killer in the clown costume. Cut. In the present, strangers come to Kettle Springs. Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her father (Aaron Abrams) move into the dilapidated small American town to take a restart. Especially when Quinn finds a connection at school, however, a clown called Frendo is on my mischief and looks for the youth for life …
The title-giving cornfeld also looks pretty ghostly without a horror clown …
Another killer clown!? After the hype about the Stephen-King film “ES” and the much more bloody “terry” trilogy, you can skeptically ask what the clown Frendo has to offer to step in such a footsteps. Fortunately, a lot! Because despite all the formula, “Clown in A Cornfield” not only knows how to deliver entertaining slasher food, but also to take a clever look at your own conventions. The new film by the director of “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” hits some thematic hooks that are far from being as usual as the whole thing may seem at first glance.
The phenomenon described at the beginning that Slasher films like to punish young people for their alleged supreme has always reached too short to break down or even devalue the genre in its complexity. The instructive undertone, the black pedagogy, that many films on this division attached, can hardly be dismissed by hand. “Clown in A Cornfield” takes part in such a cynical view of the youth and develops an explicit generation conflict. Above all, he proves that he can go to a meta level without exhausting himself only in popular allusions how one can experience this in many younger, postmodern slasher films.
A surprisingly political slasher
“Clown in A Cornfield” celebrated its German premiere at the Fantasy Film Festival Nights. When director Eli Craig announced his work by means of video message half ironically as a documentary about life in today's America, this naturally ensured laughter. But if you The novel by Adam Cesare* knows or sees this film now, you quickly notice that “clown in a cornfield” actually wants to be understood as a political diagnosis. Among other things, Craig's film deals with populism and reactionary social activities, which in the truest sense literally rob the future.
However, he is largely closely related to Cesares novel, which was awarded the Bram Stoker Award, but makes it easier for him to make some tips and swipes against the current Maga culture in the United States. This is a shame because it seems both the background of the series of murder and the political context of somewhat superficial outline. The examination of the myths and crises of the small town were not consistently convincingly argued in the novel or negotiated too deeply. The cinema adaptation seems to be a bit more bumpy in its polemic, which is followed by it. In this respect, “Clown in A Cornfield” is far from the potential that lurks in his fabric. But the attempt to visualize and re-grow the motifs of the Slasher cinema in such a way can be approved. And he takes a lot more than as many other generic representatives of his genre.
The title-giving cornfeld also looks pretty ghostly without a horror clown …
Now it is the case that the Slasher lives stylistically above all from its persecution scenarios and bloody deeds. In this regard, one should take into account: The novel is part of the Young Adult Literature, so it is designed for a more youthful target group. And it is also apparently related to Eli Craig's film adaptation. Therefore, one should rather not expect that the violent scenes exceed excessive flavor, as is the case in the “teriffers” films. With the clown, Frendo cannot quite record it, although “Clown in A Cornfield” is by no means squeamish when there is a fact when chainsaws, hay forks and other tools are started.
In the end, Craig's directorial work is less about the big shock factor, but about the black humor. Similar to “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil”, “Clown in A Cornfield” turns out to be a fun splatter with a lot of situation comedy and a remarkable feeling for the dynamics between his charming characters. And in the end this film succeeds in being classic and still undermining your own traditions. No bad requirements for a potential series! There are already two continuing novels that could be filmed in the future.
Conclusion: Eli Craig staged a slasher with a high entertainment value. “Clown in A Cornfield” is a little grossly dumped through the topics of his template. Similar to the novel, however, he succeeds in a considerable balancing act between tried and tested formulas and contemporary political twists.