Clown In A Cornfield Is The Next Bloody R-Rated Horror Adaptation
Horror fans who dig the “killer clown” trope do not have to wait much longer for another terrifying entry in one of the creepiest sub-genres of fright films. The 2020 novel, Clown in a Cornfield, has been green-lit for a film adaptation set for an undetermined date. As of this writing, the highly anticipated clown slasher is in post-production, giving fans hope that they won’t have to wait long to see it come to life on the big screen.
Clown in a Cornfield stars Will Sasso (Loudermilk), Katie Douglas (Spooksville), Aaron Abrams (Hannibal), and Carson MacCormac (Shazam!).
Clown in a Cornfield is the first of three novels in a series written by American novelist Adam Cesare. Though categorized as young adult horror, the book series has become quite popular with adult segments of the population, particularly with fans of 1980s and 90s slasher movies. The book won the 2020 Bram Stoker Award for Best Young Adult Novel and spawned two sequels over the next three years.
Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives was published in mid-2022 while the third installment, Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo, hit shelves in 2023. The sequels aside, fans of the original have been patiently waiting for a film adaptation of the book for quite some time. Before the novel was even sent to publication, it was announced that Temple Hill Entertainment had secured the rights to make a movie based on Adam Cesare’s work.
Eli Craig gave fans a hit in 2010 with the cult classic horror-comedy Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and scored a critical hit with the 2017 movie Little Evil.
As Clown in a Cornfield in currently in post-production status, a great deal is already public about the cast and crew. The film stars Will Sasso (Loudermilk), Katie Douglas (Spooksville), Aaron Abrams (Hannibal), and Carson MacCormac (Shazam!). The movie is being directed by Eli Craig, who shares writing credits with novelist Cesare and Carter Blanchard.
Clown in a Cornfield will not be director Craig’s first go-round at the helm of a horror film. The filmmaker gave fans a hit in 2010 with the cult classic horror-comedy Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and scored a critical hit with the 2017 movie Little Evil.
How close the film adaptation of Clown in a Cornfield will stay true to the book is uncertain at this point. The novel focuses on high school teen Quinn Maybrook, a senior who was recently uprooted from Philadelphia and beginning her final year of school in the small rural town of Kettle Springs, Missouri. Quinn and her father, Kettle Springs’ new town doctor, moved to the little community in hopes of a new start after the death of Quinn’s mother the year before.
The town of Kettle Springs has been hit by financial hardship following the closure of the community’s largest employer, the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory. The generation gap in the community is a strong one, with religiously conservative town elders at constant odds with the teenagers that ache for a life different than what the town is capable of. In the midst of this, Quinn finds friendship in the town rebel, Cole, and several others.
Whether you’ve read the novel or not, Clown in a Cornfield is poised to give horror fans another slasher that’s as fun as it is chilling.
Clown in a Cornfield takes readers from the emotional turns of a teenager coping with the loss of her mother and the desire to fit in and quickly transforms it into a tale of terror. The community’s annual Founder’s Day event sees the long-time town mascot, Frendo the Clown, come alive and begin to kill Kettle Springs’ troubled teenagers one at a time.
The film seems shaping up to deliver the bloody gore that soaked the pages of the novel. Whether you’ve read the novel or not, Clown in a Cornfield is poised to give horror fans another slasher that’s as fun as it is chilling.
