I quite enjoyed the Bram Stoker award winning YA novel Clown in a Cornfield, so it made sense that sooner or later I was going to take in the film adaption of the story. It makes me laugh that the book is very much defined as a teen book, but the film itself, because of gore and language ended up with a harsher rating.

This is a throwback to 80s slasher movies with lots of 21st century self-awareness, even as it checks off the tropes you expect, and delivers some fun twists.

Quinn (Katie Douglas) and her father, Dr. Glenn Maybrook (Aaron Abrams) have moved to a small mid-western fly-over-state town to start a new life. Putting personal tragedy behind, they are looking to forge something new, though Quinn isn’t exactly delighted to be living in the middle of nowhere.

The town they find themselves in had fallen on hard times, they used to be huge, with a corn syrup (one of its uses is blood in horror movies – a nice touch) factory and an iconic clown mascot, Frendo.

The town seems stand-offish and aloof, and despite some warning about specific high schoolers, Quinn falls in with them, and makes some new friends. This group has perverted the character of Frendo, turning him into the villain in their homemade horror movies.

But as the town’s Founding Day draws closer the bodies of Quinn’s schoolmates begin to pile up.

Delightfully gory, with some fun one-liners, brutal kills, and lots of self-awareness this film, like the book its based on works for what it is – a modern take on the 80s slasher. Both Douglas and Abrams are a lot of fun, and there’s some nice chemistry between them. I also quite like the turns delivered by Kevin Durand, and Will Sasso.

There are some nice twists, reveals, and character bits. Not everything in this town is as it appears to be, and there’s a few red fish swimming around.

Honestly, this should be a bit of a crowd pleaser. It’s title tells you exactly what it is, and it now only gives a nice nod to the slashers of yesteryear, it updated it bloodily for the 21st century.

I’m not saying this film is going to win any Academy Awards, but what it is, is a lot of fun. It’s well executed, really leans into its gore and kills, and has some wonderfully comedic moments. Having dug into the film, having enjoyed the book, I may have to read the sequels. I don’t think we’ll see film adaptations of them, which is too bad, because I thought this one was a hoot.