La Nuit des clowns

This flick was based off on recent horror related young adult fiction by Adam Cesare and was just average. It offers some good practical and cgi gore effects, full of tongue-in-cheek humor.

It offers an inclusive grouping of characters probably that the current administration wouldn't approve of. One of the characters kinda looks like Elon Musk!

The only that original is the intergenerational jokes between older and younger characters. Things like a rotary dial phone, etc. Comes off pretty funny. The clowns were not a creepy as many reviewers have claimed.

The acting chops were not above average, but not horrible. The film is most likely coming at a time where producers are responding to clown with extreme violence like the recent success of Damian Leone's "Terrifier" franchise.

This film has probably got popularity of a new generation of filmgoers trying to feel the 80s/90s straight to gore films. In the way, their new interest is probably to chase folk horror and more subtle horror like "Midsummer" and "The Witch" away

I guess this film by Eli Craig should be indebt to "Terrifier"-crowd funders and independent horror supporters. It's need to be said that Craig is also a trendsetter with horror comedy like "Tucker and Dale vs Evil" (obviously inspired by "Evil Dead" franchise).

A name like "Clown in a Cornfield" promises the kind of pulp-like over-the-top violence and self-awareness that made director Eli Craig's Tucker and Dale vs. Evil so much fun. What we got is something tame and forgettable. Something that isn't nearly as smart as it thinks it is. It tries to be a combination of Children of the Corn, IT, Scream, and others but comes away as less than the sum of its parts.

The story plays like a lesser version of Eli Roth's Thanksgiving. Group of kids being picked off by a masked killer for some perceived crime. But the characters aren't nearly as well defined as Roth's were. There's little suspense built up as the Clown just keeps popping up. Plenty of gore, but no particularly memorable kill. Frendo is pretty tame as a slasher killer, doing nothing to stand out. Not helped by the fact that the Terrifier series has so completely cornered the market on creepy clown villains.

There's some playfulness with the main group playing pranks on each other for YouTube, TikTok, etc. But this largely becomes an excuse to dismiss characters not being around after they have been killed.

The acting is okay at best. Will Sasso seems to be hamming it up. Kevin Durand is doing his usual good job. But the kids are unremarkable.

Then there's the ending. The kind of lousy finale all too common with the latter Scream films, with the mask coming off and the villain monologuing about their motives giving the heroes time to escape. Worse, the dialogue is far too on-the-nose like was taken from a Tumblr rant.

It promises lots of fun but ultimately is forgettable once the credits start rolling.

Sheesh, get your dated decades straight.

At one point, they meta refer this slasher to the 90s. Another joke points to the 80s. From someone who grew up loving slashers, this is way more 90s than 80s. Sadly, also way more direct-to-video than theatrical release. As much as I ultimately liked this (note: not loved,) I seriously can't believe this was released theatrically.

As in most small-town horror films, a family moves in from the Big City with shoddy cell service and some dark legends. When fantastic final girl befriends a group of misfits, they become targeted children of the cornfield.

You know what saved this movie? Well, two things: that second half and that final girl. Granted, the cast wasn't bad, aside from Kevin Durand (more on him later.) In fact, everyone did their job and it's ALWAYS great to see Will Sasso on screen - though, I'm sad to see him play such an incredible jerk. He was always so loveable. Like, everywhere else.

I digress. Yes, this is the typical, no-brainer slasher flick. At least, to start. Mercifully, as the movie progressed, and more twists emerged, notably a wonderful rekindled romance, I found myself enjoying this more.

Because of that, I would definitely recommend this. It's absolutely not perfect, and the "humor" hardly lands. It's just a fun, gory 96 minutes with a cute cast and killer klowns.

***

Final Thoughts: Ah, yes. Kevin Durand. Seriously and honestly, no offense to this actor who can actually act and to his credit, his final appearance was pretty great in this. But, he reminds me waaaaaaaay too much of the real-life monster, Elonnie Muskrat. I seriously can't look at him without seeing that horrible individual. Again, not Mr. Durand's fault. Just an unfortunate coincidence he looks like this country's second worst individual.

What an insult this film is to anyone who's favourite movie genre is Horror!! The film itself is Predictable, unoriginal, no story whatsoever,it's basically just clowns killing young people,that's all there is to it and i've seen it done better so many times before in other horror movies, trust me when I say don't waste your money going to the cinema to watch this utter garbage. Please don't!! I'd only rate this 4 out of 10 and I was quite looking forward to seeing this film, any film that is shown in the cinema is usually half decent, this wasn't at all, in certain scenes I was laughing as it was so absurd.

Clown in a Cornfield (2025) is garbage. Sure, it's well directed-but it's well directed garbage. It's like they brought in a professional filmmaker to shoot a high school play starring only the jocks and cheerleaders. The acting is stiff, the dialogue is cringey, and the characters are so thin you forget their names before they die. The kills are lazy, the tension never builds, and the whole thing feels like a stitched-together checklist of slasher clichés. It wants to be a throwback, but brings nothing new and doesn't even do the old stuff well. It's all style, no soul, and not a shred of wit or originality. I gave it a 3/10. If you value your time, skip it.