Movie · 2025 · Horror, Mystery, Thriller · 1h 36m · R · English
Curator score: 1.0/10 (201.8K ratings)
Are you a friend of Frendo?
Overview
Quinn and her father 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.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.0/10
IMDb: 5.6/10
Letterboxd: 2.56/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
Metacritic: 55
TMDB: 6.1/10
Director
Eli Craig
Production
Temple Hill Entertainment, Rhea Films, Protagonist Pictures, Thundersnow Pictures, 1821 Pictures, Hercules Film Fund
Cast
Katie Douglas, Carson MacCormac, Kevin Durand, Dylan McEwan, Aaron Abrams, Alexandre Martin Deakin, Vincent Muller, Will Sasso, Cassandra Potenza, Verity Marks, Ayo Solanke, Catherine Wreford, Daina Leitold, Jean-Jacques Javier, Noah Craig, Heath Vermette, Bradley Sawatzky, Jeff Strome, Kaitlyn Bacon, Blake Taylor
Where to watch
Hulu, AMC+, Philo, Shudder
Curator Review
Verdict
A scrappy, self-aware slasher with a strong small-town rot premise and some sharp genre-movie energy, but it sounds uneven in execution and more divisive than essential. If you like teen horror that mixes gore, satire, and rural Americana, it has enough personality to be worth a look.
Best for
slasher fans who enjoy meta humor
viewers interested in small-town horror and social satire
audiences who like brisk, bloody genre movies with a comic edge
Skip if
you want polished, high-tension horror
you dislike campy or knowingly silly slashers
you prefer straightforward scares over satire and gore
Overview
Clown in a Cornfield has a premise built for modern horror: a town in decline, resentful locals, and a masked killer turning community collapse into carnage. That setup gives it a nice mix of slasher mechanics and social commentary, and the movie seems to know exactly how ridiculous its own concept is without fully undercutting the threat.
Worth noting
The response suggests a film that plays best as a crowd-pleasing genre exercise rather than a major reinvention. The humor, teen energy, and small-town politics give it personality, but the low-to-mid reception points to unevenness in tone and payoff. It looks like the kind of horror movie that lands hardest if you’re already on its wavelength.
Bottom line
For viewers who enjoy bloody, self-aware slashers with a bit of bite, there’s enough here to recommend. For everyone else, it may feel like a clever setup in search of a stronger movie.
Top Letterboxd reviews
-ˏˋ mak ˊˎ- (1.5★) · 7633 likes
brokeback cornfield
kat (4★) · 7046 likes
“girl its bad..” said to friend with pitchfork through torso
undeaddogteeth (4★) · 4349 likes
why is there woke in my clown slasher film
Haunted Hippie (3.5★) · 4280 likes
Casting the Elon look-alike was craaaazy work
andrea (3★) · 4030 likes
me talking about rust: i like him i like that autistic man
1974 · Horror · 1h 23m · R · Curator 7.2/10 (937.5K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Philo, Shudder, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
The essential rural-horror template: decaying communities, menace in the landscape, and relentless dread.