Warning: Spoilers ahead for Clown in a Cornfield

Kevin Durand portrays Arthur Hill, the mayor of Kettle Springs, in Clown in a Cornfield, which is based on the young adult novel of the same name by Adam Cesare. Also starring Katie Douglas, Will Sᴀsso, and Aaron Abrams, Eli Craig’s highly-anticipated slasher adaptation stays relatively close to the source material, albeit with a few liberties taken for the sake of cinema. The movie follows Quinn Maybrook (Douglas), a teenager from Philadelphia who is forced to move to the rural Midwestern town of Kettle Springs, where Durand’s Arthur Hill labors to keep traditions in place and progress out.

Arthur Hill’s desire to preserve tradition goes far deeper than Quinn and her friends (including Arthur’s son, Cole) could have ever imagined. He turns out to be the mastermind behind a small army of the town’s adults who set out to murder the town’s teens one-by-one while dressed as Frendo the Clown, the town’s mascot. Clown in a Cornfield‘s climax features Arthur attempting to hang his own disowned son and kill Quinn, but he is thwarted by the resourceful teens and a major ᴀssist from Quinn’s father, leaving Arthur Hill’s fate uncertain.

Arthur Hill Escapes In Clown In A Cornfield’s Ending

The Diabolical Killer Survives The Final Bloodbath

As Quinn, Rust, and Dr. Maybrook attempt to rescue the precariously-dangling Cole and eliminate the remaining Frendos, Arthur Hill takes Dr. Maybrook’s car and escapes from the factory in the confusion. The survivors eventually leave the factory in an old Frendo-themed Volkswagen with Arthur Hill having taken their only method of transportation (the Maybrooks’ car), and there is no mind paid to the fate of Arthur Hill by anyone. He is neither seen nor heard from again in the movie, not even in a post-credits scene.

What Clown In A Cornfield’s Sequel Books Reveal About Arthur Hill’s Fate

He Returns After Recruiting More Frendo Acolytes

Arthur Hill’s role in the original Clown in a Cornfield novel is relatively similar to what is seen in the movie. He acts as the mastermind behind the Frendo killings, originally only aiming to kill his son (who he blamed for the death of his daughter) before he and the other involved adults arrived at the conclusion that the entire generation of teenagers needed to die. In the novel, Hill is sH๏τ but survives and escapes and flees the country, although he is declared ᴅᴇᴀᴅ given how much blood he leaves on the floor of the factory.

Hill returns in the second novel, having recruited more Frendos online and making his way back to Kettle Springs. He actually sends someone else to find and kill his son when he visits Quinn in Philadelphia, an effort that proves unsuccessful, leading to another confrontation between the father and son in Kettle Springs. Hill is ultimately killed by one of the adults who was involved with the original mᴀssacre, who shoots him in the neck with a crossbolt after blaming him for ruining her life.

What Arthur Hill’s Fate Means For Quinn, Cole & Rust’s Futures

The Survivors Still Aren’t Totally Safe

With Arthur Hill still out in the world after the events of Clown in a Cornfield, all three of the surviving teenagers are still in very real danger. They all know about Arthur Hill’s involvement in the Frendo mᴀssacre, and therefore he can’t possibly live a normal life in America. It’s why he flees the country in the novels, and it stands to reason that the movie version would have done the same. However, someone so deeply twisted and convicted enough to mastermind a town-wide killing spree and murder his own son is unlikely to let sleeping dogs lie.

A cinematic sequel to Clown in a Cornfield will likely depend on the movie’s financial success, but it seems likely given the movie’s excellent reviews and the relatively low amount of money that the movie needs to recoup from production and marketing costs. A sequel would almost certainly bring Durand’s Arthur Hill back as the villain, and could follow pretty close to the plot of the second novel, Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives. Especially with a star with the villainous pedigree of Kevin Durand in the role, bringing back Arthur Hill seems like a no-brainer.