In the upcoming horror slasher film Clown in a Cornfield, the film’s antagonist, Frendo, is a creepy and unsettling new murderous clown, hellbent on righting the wrongs in the town of Kettle Springs, Missouri. While there have been many terrifyingly murderous villains in classic horror films, director Eli Craig and author of the novel Adam Cesare look to establish Frendo as a new player in the horror world.

Clown in a Cornfield follows Quinn (Katie Douglas, Ginny & Georgia), who has just moved to the quiet town of Kettle Springs with her father after her mother’s pᴀssing. The local Baypen Corn Syrup Factory has recently burned down, however, meaning the once welcoming community is full of tensions and grudges — which only worsen when ᴅᴇᴀᴅ bodies start piling up courtesy of Frendo the Clown.

During the New York City premiere of the film, Screen Rant interviews Craig, Cesare, and Douglas, as well as her costars Aaron Abrams and Kevin Durand (fresh off his fan-favorite turn in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes). The Clown in a Cornfield crew shared their vision for Frendo, the gore factor, and the dynamic of change that runs through the film.

Clown In A Cornfield’s Author Adam Cesare Just Really Likes Slashers

Frendo Isn’t Based On One Concept

Some of the best stories and characters in art are based on real-life circumstances or events that have been interpreted into a major theme. Former CKY lead singer Deron Miller spoke about the inspiration for their song, “The Boardwalk Body” off of their 2009 release Carver City, which illustrates the story of his discovery of a murder victim under the boardwalk when he was a teenager, and late WWE Superstar Bray Wyatt has discussed the inspiration for his horror-themed character Uncle Howdy that appeared in his segments on their programming.

When asked about the inspiration for Frendo, author of the novel series Adam Cesare said it was simply a matter of his love for slashers.

I just love slashers. Honestly, I really just wanted to do what would a clown slasher look like? Clown slashers are few and far between other than the obvious ones, but we don’t have any clown mᴀss slashers other than Michael [Myers] at the very beginning of Halloween. So it’s like, let’s see that, and what would that look like if it’s going to be a depressionary clown? What would that… It’s really working from more of an academic sense of wanting to do a clown slasher, right?

Director Eli Craig said that the creative decisions for Frendo were based not on any real phobias or traumas, but the visual representation it would give the viewer on screen.

Yeah, I just like the color palette. The color palette of a clown against a green cornfield is just meant. It’s perfect. And sometimes if you guys watch the film, you’ll see you have to stop and catch one frame of a clown that you don’t really know is there. And you could see a little red hair just sticking out from behind a stalk of corn. It’s very creepy.

Cesare complimented Craig on his vision for the characters and bringing the story to life on the screen.

I think it’s my favorite act of adaptation, my favorite adaptation, wherein I think the characters and the heart of the story, the themes are all there, but it’s all sH๏τ through with Eli’s sensibility and sense of humor. I don’t think you’d want… You don’t want a film that isn’t going to have a real filmmaker behind it who’s not going to have their authorial stamp, too. It’s really the best of both worlds as I see it. So I’m just very honored and pleased with it. And the cast is incredible. It’s still odd looking at them and talking to them and being like, ‘Oh, I’ve been writing about your characters for six or seven years.’ It’s a very surreal thing.

While Frendo may not have been based on or inspired by any real moments in either of their lives, the character is a very real personification of fear for many people who are coulrophobic, and Cesare and Craig elevated the fear level of his presence on screen to both a physical and psychological sense with graphic results.

With Gore, The Story Is In The Suddenness

Not Gratuitous For The Sake Of Violence

Classic horror films like Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Mᴀssacre will focus on the blood and gore aspect, films like Pet Semetary are psychologically terrifying, leaving the viewer as disturbed as they are grossed out. Clown in a Cornfield seamlessly blends both the psychological and the violent together without feeling too over the top.

Eli Craig says the violence level, while still giving as much gore as possible, is purposeful and sudden, rather than gratuity for the sake of gratuity, and that it provides a better experience for the viewer.

For me, I do want to push it to the point where I feel like it’s pretty gory, but in a fun way. I don’t want to just sit on a very gory moment and just milk it for all it’s worth, but I like the suddenness of it. I like just a trajectory of blood, usually hitting a girl in the face. I’ve done it twice with people. I think Cᴀssandra [Potenza] really just got a little covered at one point with a lot of blood. That was fun. As far as the gore goes, I think that you just have to have a touch of it to really get people excited.

Craig’s vision and interpretation of violence gives the viewer both a sense of shock and the psychological repercussions of the scene, and some of the more violent scenes in the movie stick with you even after the credits. Craig’s use of the shock factor gave the film an extra level of terror, while letting the violence advance the story without becoming too gratuitous.

Kevin Durand Says Eli Craig Made It Easy To Execute The Story

The Cast Tells The Story Of Change Perfectly

The driving theme of Clown in a Cornfield deals with change: a father and daughter escaping the pain of a life they lost, and moving to a town that is unable, and ultimately unwilling, to change and to adapt. Kevin Durand, who plays Mayor Arthur Hill, says that Craig and Cesare made it easy for him to navigate the subtleties of the story.

Kevin Durand: Honestly, Eli and Adam didn’t just lob me a friendly pitch. They literally put the ball on the T-ball thing, and they said, ‘Can you hit this?’ And I was like, ‘I think so.’

Screen Rant: Surprise, it’s a movie about T-ball as well.

Kevin Durand: And I said, ‘Where do you want it?’ And they said, ‘Can you put it over there?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m on a T-ball, probably. Let’s try it a couple of times.’ And then that’s all I had to do. Because they made it so easy for us to do our jobs, to execute our jobs the way that they needed to be executed. Everybody across the board. Everybody… It’s all because of the script and the execution from these guys. So lucky us.

Katie Douglas and Aaron Abrams, who play Quinn Maybrook and Dr. Glenn Maybrook, respectively, says that exploring the father-daughter dynamic was simple based on their chemistry together.

Aaron Abrams: I knew Katie’s work from before. I was extremely excited. I was excited to see what her final girl was going to be. I just thought I was such a fan of Katie’s before, so it was extremely exciting for me to come on board. It was everything… I mean, there was no… It was exactly as advertised. Yeah, she’s great. It’s not like some illusion, and then she actually is great… It’s very easy. It’s hard. I don’t have kids, so it’s very difficult sometimes to play dads, I would think, and have a camaraderie in that sense, but he was very easy. It was amazing chemistry with him.

Katie Douglas: Aaron made it very easy. I got a lot from him.

Eli Craig Wants You To Enjoy The Ride

Making Adam Cesare And His Fans Happy Was All That Mattered

Ahead of its nationwide release on May 9th, Clown in a Cornfield has received positive reviews, currently holding a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this publication. Fans and early reviewers are calling the film a fun, exciting ride full of suspense and great kills.

Eli Craig is aware of the high Rotten Tomatoes score, but he’s content knowing that he’s made Adam Cesare happy, and he just wants you to enjoy yourself watching it.

Look, I like the fans love. I’m really just so excited. The fans love Adam’s book, love it. And I love that Adam loves it. Honestly, I was just trying to make this guy happy, and I was really just trying to do my cast and everybody solid and make the best movie I could. I really do try not to focus too much on reviews because they can come and go, and I can get pretty bent out of shape when I read something that I just think is wrong. So I’m not obsessed I’m not messing about that guy that wrote that review. No, I just want the fans to love it, and I think it’s a fun ride.

Clown in a Cornfield will be released nationwide on May 9, 2025, and is distributed by RLJE Films and Shudder.