Review: Clown in a Cornfield (2025)

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 out of 5)

Going into Clown in a Cornfield, I didn’t have high expectations. The title alone sounds like something cooked up in a direct-to-streaming slasher title generator—blunt, a little silly, and very on-the-nose. But somewhere between skepticism and surprise, this blood-soaked rural horror story found its footing and won me over.

Let’s get the basics out of the way: yes, there’s a clown. Yes, there’s a cornfield. And yes, there are kills. Plenty of them, in fact. But unlike some genre fare that leans too hard into gimmick or gore, this film offers a surprising balance of atmosphere, wit, and earnest slasher fun.

The setup is familiar but effective: a group of high school teens, obsessed with filmmaking and local legends, set out to tell the story of Friendo the Clown—a regional urban myth rooted in paranoia and whispers. Naturally, what begins as a student film project turns deadly when Friendo steps off the cutting room floor and into the cornfield. From there, the movie launches into a flurry of inventive kills, small-town tension, and a pretty well-paced spiral into chaos.

What works best is the character dynamic. The teens feel believable—funny, flawed, and familiar. There’s a certain Gen-Z sincerity in their banter that doesn’t feel overly manufactured, and for once, the group isn’t made up of eye-rolling clichés. As a viewer who grew up making backyard shorts with friends, I found that nostalgic hook effective and endearing.

Tonally, Clown in a Cornfield threads the needle between funhouse slasher and commentary-laced horror, though not as sharply as something like Thanksgiving (which has quickly become a new standard in revitalized slasher cinema). Still, this film doesn’t try to be prestige horror—it leans into its premise just enough to be self-aware without going full parody.

Is it groundbreaking? No. But it knows what it is, and more importantly, it knows how to entertain. The kills are creative without being exhausting. The humor lands more often than not. And the runtime respects your time.

It’s not overly gory, which I found refreshing. The violence serves the tension rather than overwhelming it, and the film isn’t trying to shock you into submission. Instead, it lets the story carry the suspense. And while it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it doesn’t need to. It’s tight, confident, and most of all, fun.

My rating? A solid 3 out of 5. Horror fans, especially slasher completists, will find plenty to enjoy. And I wouldn’t mind seeing more from Friendo the Clown—there’s enough personality in the mask to warrant another romp through the corn.

Don’t let the title throw you. Clown in a Cornfield may sound like a punchline, but it hits like a proper late-night popcorn flick. Turn the lights down, grab a friend (or five), and enjoy the ride. Just maybe skip the corn maze this fall.

Thank you for reading,

Mick