Clown in a Cornfield

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Although this isn't gonna end up being one of my favourite horror flicks due to a lot of cliches and a lot of predictability, I can still give it some credit for what it represents - slasher horror for the next generation, and that idea seems abundant in this movie as it's quite literally about the generation gap between us 80s/90s Millennials, and today's now relatively grown Gen Z's. This film seemed to take the idea of 80s slasher horror and everything that came with it to create something for the "Zoomers" and Millennials to bond over.

The idea of my generation telling this generation, "This was the kind of stuff we grew up with," is not only a subject brought up quite a bit in the film, usually in a comical way, but also, cleverly, precisely what the movie is: an 80s slasher movie for today. The cliches of a standard 80s slasher are here, which some, like me, will appreciate. Some will think it has gotten stale, but where the film shines is its wonderfully cheesy sense of humour, pointing out "Gen-Z problems" in a comical way, like working a rotary phone in an emergency or driving a standard vehicle.

Glenn Maybrook (Aaron Abrams) and his teenage daughter, Quinn (Katie Douglas), move to the small, sleepy town of Kettle Springs when Glenn is hired as the new town doctor. As Glenn is generally welcomed with open arms, Quinn seems to get a lot of side-eyed glances from the other adults in town, altogether feeling unwelcome until she befriends some kids at school who we learn the adults seem to have it out for. The handful of friends Quinn makes gets group detention on Quinn's first day, making the classic teenage argument of "they just hate me, I've done nothing wrong" a real thing and not just an excuse.

Quinn discovers that her new friends have a YouTube channel where they post creepy videos of themselves getting chased or attacked by the creepy town mascot, "Frendo," the clown who terrorizes the town's youth and resides inside a burned-down factory. After one particular night goes awry for the group trying to show Quinn a fun time, she tunes into the group's YouTube channel to see some video they shot that night only to see a creepy new "Frendo" face in the background. Soon enough, the group realizes that their YouTube prank is quickly becoming a reality that turns on them.

All in all, this is run-of-the-mill stuff for anyone used to 80s slasher movies. A lot of the kills are pretty easy to call as far as who will get killed and how; no reveals are really that surprising, and a lot of it feels very typical right down to the idea of a clown terrorizing people, which isn't only classic Stephen King material but imitates the character of Art the Clown from the 'Terrifier' series which has proven extremely successful in its evolution. You also know precisely when a character will be killed, as it's all signalled with a small clown music box that seems to "summon" Frendo (like a 'Hellraiser' light).

So now that I've mentioned the film imitating bits and pieces of 'Hellraiser' and 'Terrifier/It,' it feels stylistically like a 'Friday the 13th.' At least one of the kills is lifted (albeit altered) right out of 'Nightmare 4.' So, with all of that in mind, it bears repeating that it feels like a movie meant to bridge the gap in generations, making all of this stuff old and cliche, but somewhat necessary for what the film is trying to accomplish. If nothing else, it does it all with a good sense of humour; it seems self-aware, and I can't be mad at any of it. It's refreshing for people these days to see a slasher movie that isn't just a remake of something old.

This movie is an opportunity for a Millennial to catch a fun horror flick that can remind them of the good old 80s as well as share what was typical back then with a Gen-Z horror fan whose tastes are probably more recent and most likely more about hauntings, demons, the paranormal, etc. I can't entirely praise the film for being a true original, but it's a fun watch in its ways, and I can appreciate what it tried to do, although this isn't something I could see having a future several-sequel series of films following it.

3/5

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