Frendo the Clown in “Clown in a Cornfield.”
Clown in a Cornfield — a horror comedy from Tucker & Dale vs. Evil director Eli Craig — is new in theaters.
Rated R, Clown in a Cornfield opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. The official summary for the film reads, “In Clown in a Cornfield, Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her father (Aaron Abrams) have just moved to the quiet town of Kettle Springs, hoping for a fresh start. Instead, she discovers a fractured community that has fallen on hard times after the treasured Baypen Corn Syrup Factory burned down.
“As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning figure emerges from the cornfields to cleanse the town of its burdens, one bloody victim at a time. Welcome to Kettle Springs. The real fun starts when Frendo the Clown comes out to play.”
Clown in a Cornfield also stars Kevin Durand, Carson MacCormack, Cassandra Potenza, Verity Marks, Ayo Solanke, Vincent Muller and Will Sasso. Based on Adam Cesare’s acclaimed book of the same name, the screenplay for Clown in a Cornfield was written by Craig and Carter Blanchard.
As of Thursday, Clown in a Cornfield has earned an 84% “fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 73 reviews.
The RT Critics Consensus for the film reads, “Clown in a Cornfield doesn’t reinvent the corn maze, but its clever insights, subversion of expectations and solid foundation help slash its way to the top.”
The RT Popcornmeter score, which features verified user ratings, is still pending.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘Clown In A Cornfield’?
Among the top critics on RT who gives Clown in a Cornfield a “fresh” rating is The Wrap’s Rafael Motomayor, who writes that the movie “may not rewrite the rules of the genre, but it does deliver a lean, mean, fun killer clown movie with wide-audience appeal that speaks loudest to Gen Z.”
Nick Schager of The Daily Beast also gives Clown in a Cornfield a “fresh” rating, writing on RT, “If its fondness for stock formulas and scares means that it’s not shocking, it also knows how to play the hits — and, of course, to deliver on its promise of killer clowns in cornfields.”
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Mick LaSalle signs the praises of the director Eli Craig, writing in his review on RT, “Craig is so in command of the movie’s tone that he can have a character say, ‘It’s like we’re stuck in some awful ’80s slasher movie,’ without diminishing the genuine terror of clowns in cornfields.”
Among the top critics on RT who give Clown in a Cornfield a “rotten” rating is Owen Gleiberman of Variety, who writes, “The film, in its trivial way, exudes a dyspeptic downer vibe, the result of everyone in it being so testy and unpleasant.”
Jake Wilson of The Sydney Morning Herald also gives Clown in a Cornfield a “rotten” review, writing, “There’s nothing wrong with using a teen horror movie to comment on the generation gap, class relations and the decline of the US manufacturing sector. But it helps if the plot isn’t so cluttered with half-realized ideas.”
Barry Hertz of the Globe and Mail also gives the film a “rotten” review on RT, writing, “Clown in a Cornfield takes far too long to reveal its big conceit, which is itself neither especially clever nor subversive. The whole idea represents a spurt of fresh blood when it should be a gushing geyser.”
Clown in a Cornfield opens in theaters nationwide on Friday.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2025/05/08/clown-in-a-cornfield-reviews-is-horror-comedy-making-critics-smile/