Clown In A Cornfield (2025)

Clown in a Cornfield: A Little Drop of Baypen | 3.5/5

Written by Noah Dietz: 5/10/2025

A couple years ago Casual Obsession decided to cover Adam Cesare's novel "Clown in a Cornfield" for our April book club. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a book with such a goofy title actually felt smart, a little nuanced, and incredibly fun. After recording and universally agreeing it was a great time, we learned that Eli Craig (Tucker and Dale vs Evil) had been brought in to make the film adaptation. With his background in comedic horror we all thought he would be an amazing director to take on the task of an adaptation. After a year of waiting I'm happy to report that Clown in a Cornfield manages to keep a majority of the energy the novel had without sacrificing too many moments from the book.

Fresh from Philly after a family tragedy, Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her dad Glenn (Aaron Abrams) moved to Kettle Springs, Missouri. This quiet town that's trapped about 30 years in the past at any given time and has a strange energy to it that her neighbor Rust (Vincent Muller) highlights for her on a walk to school. There's hostility here toward younger people that Glenn, as the town's new Dr, doesn't notice as much as Quinn. Ranging from as little as a snide look from a diner waitress, a heavy talking down to from Sheriff Dunne (Will Sasso), and getting detention on her first day due to a schedule error, the powers that be clearly have something against most of the high school age kids. Quickly being forced into "the bad crowd" based on proximity alone, Quinn makes several new friends rather quickly that her dad doesn’t feel great about. As luck would have it, Quinn and Glenn moved here just before Founders Day, an event celebrating the town's founding family who own the only industry in the area. Primarily, it also features the mascot of Baypen and the town itself, Friendo the Clown. After a prank at the parade goes wrong, Quinn sneaks off to an afterparty hosted by her friend Cole (Carson MacCormac) that he's throwing out in the cornfield. I'm sure you can guess what happens after this, but if not just go back to re-read the title of the movie.

I'd love to highlight Katie Douglas' performance as Quinn. Without fail throughout the film she manages to convey the emotion of being a transplant who is stuck dealing with situations far beyond what she's used to. She's funny, relatable, and carries the movie cleanly through the finish. Her interactions with her dad actually pulled at my heart a little as well, with Abrams really nailing his role of “exasperated girl dad” in a way you might not expect from something like this. Additionally, for fans of the book, the character casting is really solid across the board. I would like to call specific attention to the standouts of MacCormac as Cole, Sasso as Sheriff Dunne, and Muller as Rust. There's a lot of fun performances in here (Kevin Durand is as fun as he always is), but those 3 really manage to nail every element of their book characters in ways you don’t usually expect to see in screen adaptations.

Unfortunately, as with many book adaptations, there are some moments here that feel a little like we’re checking off book scenes to make sure they happen. I don’t think these will bug people as much who don’t know the buildup they’re missing, but some character arcs are slightly sacrificed in the name of making a better film. Janet (Cassandra Potenza) and Ronnie (Verity Marks) are a little 2 dimensional here compared to their book counterparts, but as far as the film goes they still work well as Slasher Girls™.

Something I wondered is whether or not this was actually as fun to people who haven’t read the books. Does it hold up? According to Joe Lynch (Mayhem, Insatiable Flesh) and his Letterboxd review, it does! Quote, “Having never read the popular books I didn’t know any of the lore but I could see this world produce more “Frendo” flicks in the future for sure (especially since there’s a bunch of books it seems)... Really well placed title card moment announces it’s going to deliver exactly what it says on-screen (and a little more) A solid Friday night Kill-coaster!” Full post here. And it’s not just Joe, I’m seeing many others who are enjoying the great summer slasher this is while mentioning this is the first time they’d even heard of the books. While some plot holes stand glaringly here, with the greater knowledge of the book itself many of them fill in. It’s something I wish would be rectified in the film, even a post credits scene would fix the largest one, but for fans of the novel this won’t be a problem. 

While there are some issues, clocking in at just over 90 minutes I think this stands as a fantastic kickoff for a potential franchise. Fans of summer slashers and Hot Fuzz aren’t going to want to miss this. I know if they decide to make an adaptation of “Friendo Lives” or “The Church of Friendo” you’ll find me in the theater on day 1.