Clown in a Cornfield

Clown in a Cornfield

Credits
Title:	Clown in a Cornfield
Directed by:	Eli Craig
Written by:	Eli Craig; Carter Blanchard
Produced by:	Carter Blanchard; George Berman; Daniel Bekerman; Dave Bishop; Jean-Luc De Fanti; George Hamilton; Petersen Harris; Myron John Tataryn; Kostas Tsoukalas; Max Work; Marty Bowen; Terry Dougas; John Fischer; Wyck Godfrey; Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis; Isaac Klausner; Neil Mathieson; Carrie Wilkins
Based on:	Clown in a Cornfield
Music by:	Brandon Roberts; Marcus Trumpp
Cinematography:	Brian Pearson
Edited by:	Sabrina Pitre
Production
Production:	Hercules Film Fund Protagonist Pictures Temple Hill Rhea Films Thundershow Pictures 1821 Studio
Distributors:	RLJE Films Shudder
Released:	May 9th, 2025
Rating:	R
Running time:	96 min.
Country:	USA
Language:	English
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Clown in a Cornfield is an American independent feature film of the comedy and slasher subgenres of horror. It was directed by Eli Craig with a screenplay written by Craig and Carter Blanchard based on concepts originally developed by Adam Cesare. It was distributed through RLJE Films, Shudder and the Hercules Film Fund in association with Protagonist Pictures. It was produced by Temple Hill and Rhea Films in association with Thundershow Pictures and 1821 Studio. It premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 10th, 2025. It was screened at the Overlook Film Festival on April 5th, 2025. It opened to limited drive-in screenings on May 2nd, 2025. The film opened to national wide release in the United States on May 9th, 2025.

Plot[]

Following the tragic death of his wife, physician Glenn Maybrook takes his 17-year-old daughter Quinn out to the rural community of Kettle Springs, Missouri to start a new life. Quinn begins attending school and becomes part of a friend group who likes to post fake YouTube creepypasta videos about an alleged killer clown named Frendo. The group soon discovers that the threat of Frendo is much more than an urban legend as the teens learn to their everlasting regret while attending a barn party during Kettle Springs' 100-year Founder's Day celebration.

Cast[]

Actor

Role

Cole Hill

Rust Vance

Arthur Hill

Sheriff George Dunne

Janet Murray

Ronnie Queen

Ayo Solanke

Tucker Lee

Alexandre Martin Deakin

Matt Trent

Catherine Wreford

Crystal Hill

Daina Leitold

Trudy

Jean-Jacques Javier

Otis

Noah Craig

D.J.

Heath Vermette

Animal control officer

Bradley Sawatzky

Mister Vern

Jeff Strome

Knife Frendo

Dylan McEwan

Tyler

Kaitlyn Bacon

Jessica

Blake Taylor

Daryl

Anders Strome

Pitchfork Frendo

Samantha Hutchings

Ginger Wagner

Robert Borges

Frendo

BJ Verot

Frendo

Darren Ross

Frendo

Krystle Snow

Frendo

Alan Castanaga

Frendo

Notes & Trivia[]

This film is an adaptation of the YA novel Clown in a Cornfield by author Adam Cesare, which was published by HarperTeen in August, 2020. The movie rights for the book were licensed before the novel was even released. Two sequel books were released. Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives was published in August, 2022 and Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo was published in August, 2024.
The tagline to this film is "Are you a friend of Frendo?"
There are twenty-seven credited cast members in this film. 19 are male cast members, leaving 8 female cast members.
Production on Clown in a Cornfield began on September 18th, 2023. Principal filming concluded on October 23rd, 2023. The movie was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Clown in a Cornfield had a domestic opening of $3,648,991 on its May 9th wide release, with screenings in 2,277 theaters. It came in at #4 at the box office, but was the top new film of the week, beating out Fight or Flight and Shadow Force. It was beaten by Thunderbolts*, still holding the # 1 spot for a second straight week, as well as Sinners, which was in its third week and A Minecraft Movie, which had been out for five weeks already, but still managed to slap the make-up off the cornfield clowns by a total of $227,840.
On the movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Clown in a Cornfield has a certified fresh Tomatometer score of 73% based upon 126 posted critic reviews. It has 92 positive reviews and 34 negative reviews. It has a 56% score based on 16 top critics with 9 positive reviews and 7 negative reviews. The movie has a Popcornmeter score of 59% based on more than 500 user ratings, averaging 3.4 out of 5 (totals based on results as of 5-19-2025).
On Letterboxd, Clown in a Cornfield has a weighted average review score of 2.87 out of 5 based on 28,289 user votes (totals based on results as of 5-19-2025).

Explicit content[]

Gore: 5.5 out of 10. Moderate. Stabbings and head & neck injuries mostly.
Nudity: None.
Profanity: Strong language used moderately. Most f-bombs are from Quinn.

Recommendations[]

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