Clown in a Cornfield--My Take On the Movie with Spoilers!
Plot: Quinn and her father move into a new town, which is plagued by bizarre attacks by a clown.
Based on Adam Cesare's 2020 novel, Clown in a Cornfield, the movie may be slightly different and disappointing fans, but that doesn't mean you need to skip this decent slasher.
Yes, Clown in a Cornfield can be best described as a decent slasher and nothing more. It doesn't pick up until the Massacre scene in the third act, and the reveal is good enough to wrap the movie neatly.
However, as the end credits roll, you'll find yourself wondering that, given the concept, the movie could have been so much more.
CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD Plot
The movie begins in 1991. A group of teenagers are having a party when a couple sneaks out into the cornfield. Before that, the girl finds a jack-in-the-box that she thinks nothing of.
The two are briefly separated, and the boyfriend thinks his girlfriend is playing, but then she emerges from the fields with a knife on her back. As she collapses, the guy panics and runs, only to come face to face with a clown only to is impaled by a pitchfork.
In the present day, Quinn is moving into a new town with her father, Dr Glen, who has just gotten a position as the new physician in town. The two have had a strained relationship ever since Quinn's mother died due to an overdose. Along the way, Quinn spots the corn syrup factory with Frendo the clown as the mascot.
Glen tries to get his teenage daughter to talk, but she throws a tantrum. Once they reach the house, the two have a lot of cleaning up to do, including the chimney where a dead animal is stuck.
The next morning, Quinn is off to school but meets with Rust, who she thinks is a bit off. He warns her about being careful around the people of this town. Quinn dismisses him and, on her first day, has a class with Mr Vern, who acts like he hates every single one of his students. He doesn't care that Quinn is new and admonishes her. When her classmates: Janet, Ronnie, Tucker, Matt, and Cole, put up a picture of Mr Vern on the board as a prank, they are all given detention, including Quinn. Cole gives Quinn a lot of looks, and she develops a crush on him.
Quinn's new friends quickly fill her up on the town's history and how the corn syrup factory closed down, leaving the town with a slow economy. They also tell her how they were blamed for the factory fire because they are known pranksters but that they are completely innocent.
Afterward, Quinn and Glen go to a diner where the waitress, Trudy, gives Glen a welcoming smile but is hostile towards Quinn.
Sheriff Dunne comes to see them too and warns Quinn to stay away from Cole and his friends as they are a bad influence. Quinn is distracted seeing Cole and his friends outside. They call her, but she waves them off initially, only to be done with all the adults telling her how to live her life. She leaves and joins Cole and the others who are interested in partying later but requires liquor to have any actual fun.
They enter a store, pay for the beer but run away with a bottle of liquor. They all have a get-together in an abandoned place and tell her the Legend of Frendo and how he has been killing the people in this town after the factory burned down. Rattled by this, Quinn spots Frendo and freaks out, especially when it attacks Matt, causing his guts to spill out.
Quinn makes a run for it only for Cole to stop her and reveal the prank. Apparently, the teens run a vlog on Frendo the clown and create horror shorts.
Cole and Quinn bond as they each reveal their family issues. Quinn has lost her mother due to an overdose, and Cole feels guilty about losing his little sister when they are diving off a bridge.
Cole drops Quinn to her house where Glen is waiting for her, not happy about what his daughter has been up to with the town's allegedly spoiled kids. As an act of rebellion, Quinn kisses Cole in front of her father, showing that she fully intends to do what she wants.
Quinn goes to her room, where she watches a video her friends send her of the Frendo prank.
She pauses when she notices another Frendo clown in the background.
She sends it to her friends who are mystified by it but dismiss it.
Tucker is in his house, playing the drums when he sees the message from Quinn. He responds to the doorbell and sees it is someone wearing the Frendo mask. Assuming it to be Matt playing a prank on him, he turns him away. But when he goes back to his room, he finds a jack-in-the-box in his closet.
Before he can respond, Frendo appears behind him and slashes his throat. Tucker falls onto the plastic sheets, and Frendo quickly wraps him up.
The next day is the Founder's Day Parade. Quinn joins her new friends, and they seem to be enjoying the parade and taking videos when they spot someone on a unicycle wearing Frendo's mask. The clown lights up a float on fire. The teens see this and try to help, but Sheriff Dunne accuses them of arson and arrests them all.
Quinn worries about what her father will say when he finds her in a cell. Much later, they are all bailed out, and Glen grounds Quinn. He had just bought her a new car with a shift stick. Quinn has no idea how to drive one anyway and isn't interested in her father teaching her. He laments that it could have been a bonding moment for the two of them.
The first thing Matt does when he is out is work out in his garage. He is lifting weights when Frendo appears. Matt suspects it's one of his friends and asks him to spot him except the clown pushes the barbell on him and adds a saw to it. The barbell comes down on him and decapitates him.
The friends all decide to meet at a bonfire party. Quinn sneaks out to meet with Cole. As they drive off, they find Rust in the middle of the road, hunting. He had warned Quinn to stay away from Cole and isn't too happy to see them together.
They drive off and think Rust is weird.
At the party, they all notice that Matt and Tucker aren't present but don't really make it a point to check up on them. They think the two are thinking of new pranks and going about enjoying the party.
Quinn takes Cole to a shed and makes out with him, only for him to put an end to things. Quinn thinks she received the wrong signals and is embarrassed. She joins Ronnie and Janet, who then tell her that Cole keeps rejecting all the girls for some reason.
Just then, a girl emerges from the cornfields. She collapses, and everyone sees arrows sticking out of her back. Next, Matt's head is tossed at them. Ronnie and Janet think it's a prop, and Matt is going to prank them yet again. Quinn checks on the girl and states that she can not feel her pulse.
Horrified, Janet and Ronnie realize that they have been playing with an actual human head!
CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD Ending Explained
Frendo appears out of the cornfields and begins shooting arrows at everyone. Panic ensues, and people keep running about until Rust shows up with a shotgun and blows off Frendo's hand.
Just when everyone thinks the threat is over, multiple Frendos emerge from the cornfields. Everyone scrambles to a shed and bolt the doors.
Rust and Cole start to argue, and the others quickly deduce that the two used to be in a relationship but that Cole was too embarrassed to come out of the closet and broke up with him. Quinn now understands why Cole wasn't into her when she literally threw herself at him.
As the Frendos start to break down the door, the teens discover a hatch, which leads them down to a sewer, but also out of this area.
Holding their noses, they all head down, but Rust stays back, hoping to provide a distraction so that they can all escape.
He lights up some propane tanks, and when the Frendos enter, he blows up the shed.
The others emerge out of the sewage tunnel and assume Rust is dead. Since we didn't see him die, you know he's still alive.
Glen goes to speak to his daughter, but doesn't find her in her room. He drives around looking for her, but then sees his clinic broken into. He goes to check and is held hostage by a Frendo clown who orders him to take care of the other clown whose hand was blown off.
Glen distracts the other Frendo by pretending the injured one has flatlined. He asks the Frendo clown to help his friend by holding the defibrillators. The clown puts away his knife, and Glen uses this chance to take the knife and slash his throat.
Meanwhile, Cole, Quinn, Ronnie, and Janet are running about the fields when they spot a car. It is Sheriff Dunne, and he arrests Cole and leaves them all behind. Since they are being chased by maniacal clowns, the girls pretty much beg to be arrested, too, but the sheriff has long driven away by now.
As the girls run about, they are attacked by one of the clowns. Ronnie is the first one to go. Quinn and Janet take refuge in a house only to find a Frendo clown waiting for them. Janet gets impaled by a pitchfork, which Quinn then uses to kill the clown.
Quinn runs outside and finds a truck only to find out it is a stick shift. She wishes she had learned it when her father had offered.
The Frendo clowns come and take her away.
When Quinn wakes up, she is in the corn syrup factory. Cole has a rope tied around his neck, and it is his father who has orchestrated this whole massacre against the teens. It was Cole's father who had set fire to the factory to collect insurance and pinned it on his son as punishment for letting his sister die.
The other townsfolk, the waitress, sheriff, and even the teacher are all on in it.
They apparently view the teens as a threat to their heritage and think the town would be better off without the new generation spoiling everything.
As Cole is being strung up, Glen drives through the factory just in time to give Cole some support.
The waitress and the sheriff are killed in the ongoing chaos. Cole's father tries to make a getaway by driving off in Glen's car and letting Cole hang to his death, but Rust appears in time to shoot Cole down.
Rust and Cole make up and kiss.
They all begin to leave, and Quinn gets in the car only to find a stick shift issue. This time, her father teaches her just as Mr Vern comes towards them menacingly.
Quinn manages to drive the stick shift and the car over her teacher.
Time passes. Glen is now running for mayor. Quinn is heading off to college. Rust and Cole, now publicly a couple, come to see Quinn off and gift her a baton that they think will come in handy for her to protect herself.
Quinn waves them all goodbye and drives off. On the way, she sees a jack-in-the-box in her car. Not wanting to get into the Frendo business again, she throws it out of the car. The clown pops out.
The movie ends.
Final Thoughts On The Movie
Clown in a Cornfield had the potential to be funny and possibly do something else with the ending. If all the townspeople intend to kill all their youth, how did they expect their so-called traditions to continue?
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