Clown in a Cornfield Marks the Arrival of Horror’s Next Icon
On a bookshelf behind Eli Craig sits a clown. Not just any clown—Frendo, the cheerfully unhinged face of Clown in a Cornfield, Craig’s latest horror film. “Clown on the bookshelf,” he chuckles as we begin our interview. It’s a fitting welcome into the mind of a director who thrives at the intersection of horror and humour.
Known for the cult classic Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and the devilish Netflix gem Little Evil, Craig’s genre sensibilities are uniquely his own: clever, self-aware, and never afraid to play with the rules. But Clown in a Cornfield marks a tonal shift—leaner, meatier, and yes, scarier.
Clown in a Cornfield, adapted from Adam Cesare’s horror novel of the same name, immediately grabbed Craig with its clever premise. “When I first came across Adam’s book, I was instantly hooked,” he says. “I thought, oh man, I really want to take a bite out of this.” Though the title initially suggested something campy, the book surprised him with its well-crafted characters and timely themes. “It’s kind of been my thing to play with genre tropes a bit, but this is the first time I’ve really played with genre tropes in horror,” Craig explains. “And yeah, there’s comedy in this, but it’s not like Tucker and Dale or Little Evil, which is comedy first. This is a horror film first, with some comedic moments.”
Adapting the novel for the silver screen, Craig first checked in with Cesare. “It was important for me to talk to Adam about the things that were really important to him,” Craig says. “To Adam’s credit, he was kind of like, ‘Go do your thing. I can’t wait to see what movie you make out of this’.’”
Working with co-writer Carter Blanchard to bring that vision to life, Craig focused on blending character-driven storytelling with dynamic action. “Carter’s great at writing action sequences, and I took what he brought, then combined it with Adam’s book to craft something that’s both rich in theme and fun—like a Disneyland ride,” Craig explains. “It’s the kind of film you can unpack for deeper meaning, or just sit back and enjoy the ride.”
And the movie isn’t your standard teen slasher flick. While it draws on horror traditions with familiar elements and a blood-soaked body count, it also probes deeper themes—generational tension, economic decay, and the death of the American Dream, all cloaked in clown makeup and rural dread.
That grounding in horror gave Craig the opportunity to lean into the film’s atmosphere. Visually, Clown in a Cornfield feels rooted in ’80s slasher grit but elevated with a textured, modern palette. “We were looking a lot toward ’80s slasher films,” Craig says. “When you look at the cabin in Evil Dead or the design in Friday the 13th and Halloween, we wanted it to feel a little bit nostalgic and yet have a modernized feel as well.”
He also points to the small-town feel of It as a visual reference but quickly clarifies: “We really wanted to stay away from It as a reference,” he explains. “But when I look at Andy Muschietti’s version of the film, the town of Derry feels so beautifully small and specific. We were crafting our own town, which is a little more rural and has a different colour palette. Still, it was just as important to look at films like that, understand how to diverge from them, and use the elements that could really enhance our film as well.”
One standout image Craig describes: “There’s a shot where you’ll see just orange hair poking through cornstalks. You can’t quite see the clown, but you know he’s there. We shot a lot at night, so it has this eerie blend of cyan moonlight, greenish corn, and a red barn.”
The design of the killer clown, Frendo, holds surprising depth. “Frendo is a 1930s mascot for a corn syrup company,” Craig explains. “He started as this optimistic symbol, just like Krinkles the Clown selling cereal to kids. But over time, that optimism turned. Now he’s darker and more menacing. It became a metaphor for the American Dream gone wrong.”
“I think that horror has always been such an important genre in cinema, and sometimes it gets talked down to—like it’s just for the masses, not the critics,” Craig says. “But it’s kind of amazing to see it breaking through in such a big way lately. Part of that is because there are just unbelievable filmmakers entering the genre. When someone like Ryan Coogler says, ‘I’m going to do a horror film,’ it’s next level. He’s a hero. And I think horror has always had this vibe of saying something beneath the surface—it can be pure amusement and intensity, or it can be something more intellectual if you want to look at it that way.”
Craig’s cast is a testament to that same thoughtful approach. He opted for an all-Canadian ensemble, including Ginny & Georgia star Katie Douglas, whom Craig describes as “my final girl from the start.” Veterans like Will Sasso and Kevin Durand round out the blood-soaked ensemble.
From a technical perspective, the film leaned heavily into practical effects—a rarity in a CGI-happy age. “All of the blood is practical,” Craig says. “You get a very authentic performance out of actors when they’re actually in the moment, reacting to something real.”
One particularly gory moment, which featured a chainsaw and a windshield, was the result of a “happy accident.” “We had all these storyboards, and we were planning the scene meticulously,” Craig explains. “But when we did it practically, this huge blood splatter hit the windshield. It looked so fun on camera that I just told Katie, ‘Turn on the windshield wipers.’ That wasn’t even in the script, but it worked. It was perfect.”
So, what’s next for Craig?
“I love making horror,” he says. “But I don’t think I’ll go full bleak. I like finding the levity in the darkness. That’s what Clown in a Cornfield was for me—a way to create something fun and scary that still says something.”
And as for Tucker and Dale vs. Evil 2?
“Tucker and Dale 2 died more deaths than teenagers in the original,” he laughs. “We’ve tried. Maybe we’ll all come back in our 70s and make it. I haven’t given up.”
And neither have we.
Clown in a Cornfield is now playing in theatres.
Photo Credits: Elevation Pictures
