The Brutal Clown Slasher Critics Are Calling “‘Scream’ for the Digital Era” Is Now Streaming
These days, the slasher genre is saturated with films that ape the look and feel of ‘80s exports without doing much to deviate from the formula. That’s why stalk-and-slash flicks that go for the unexpected really resonate with me. I love a film that keeps me guessing instead of exclusively nodding to familiar ideas for the sake of nostalgia. Though it took me some time to finally get around to it, I had a blast with the way Clown in a Cornfield repeatedly upended my expectations. I caught on to some of the surprises, but there are enough of them that I missed more than I predicted.
In addition to an overall lack of predictability, the flick also features great effects work. The viscera is abundant, with plenty of well-timed kills that are as graphic as they are inventive.
Co-writer and director Eli Craig brings the Adam Cesare novel on which the setup is based to life in a way that’s largely faithful to the tome, save for a few deviations. As is often the case, some fans will tell you the book is better, but just as many will tell you that Craig does a commendable job of keeping the spirit of the Clown in a Cornfield alive while streamlining some of the details for brevity.
It’s All for Laughs
If you’re unfamiliar with the setup, the picture follows Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas), who relocates to the sleepy town of Kettle Springs with her father, Glenn (Aaron Abrams), who has accepted a position as the town doctor. Glenn is looking for a fresh start after his wife, Quinn’s mother, died of a drug overdose. The pair quickly find that their new hometown has its fair share of dark secrets, and staying alive may be easier said than done.
Quinn’s backstory makes her more layered than your average slasher heroine, but Craig never gets too heavy-handed with the grief angle, offsetting the more downbeat components with well-timed kills that keep us from getting too deep in our thoughts.
I’m not alone in my appreciation for the film. Not by a long shot. Former Dread Central Editor-in-Chief Mary Beth McAndrews critiqued the picture out of SXSW earlier this year and dubbed it “a pitch-perfect teenage slasher.”
In her summary, McAndrews makes a flattering comparison to the gold standard of modern slasher pictures, saying, “Clown In A Cornfield is Scream for the digital era: a dark horror comedy unafraid of slaughtering its darlings in the name of skewering a collapsing society.”
If you’d like to take the film in, all you’ll need is your Shudder subscription. The picture is a platform exclusive.
That’s just about all that we’ve got for you, for the time being. Stay tuned to Dread Central for more streaming recommendations in the near future.
Categorized: Streaming News
