Warning: This article contains spoilers for the 2025 movie Clown in a Cornfield and mild spoilers for the 2022 novel Clown in a Cornfield 2.
Clown in a Cornfield 2 has plenty more story to bring to the screen. 2025’s Clown in a Cornfield is a new slasher movie from Tucker & Dale vs. Evil director Eli Craig, who co-wrote the screenplay with Independence Day: Resurgence‘s Carter Blanchard. It follows Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) moving to the town of Kettle Springs, Missouri, where teenagers begin to be stalked and killed by someone dressed as Frendo, the clown mascot of the closed Baypen corn syrup factory, which was formerly the center of the Kettle Springs economy but has since burned down.
A follow-up to the 2025 movie has not yet been greenlit. However, if the Clown in a Cornfield release performs well and a sequel does come to fruition, there is plenty of narrative track left for it to travel down. The movie was based on the 2020 novel by Adam Cesare, who has since penned two sequels. 2022’s Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives and 2024’s Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo prove that the slasher could spawn a robust franchise on the screen in the same manner that the book already has on the page.
How Clown In A Cornfield’s Ending Sets Up A Sequel
Not Every Frendo Is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ
The Clown in a Cornfield ending contains many huge twists both on the page and the screen, and the movie was relatively faithful in its adaptation of the source material, especially when it came to the broad strokes. Thus, in both stories, it is revealed that Frendo is not just one killer but many, as a great number of the adults in Kettle Springs have banded together to strike down disobedient teenagers, leaving only Quinn, her father Dr. Glenn Maybrook (Aaron Abrams), and her friends Cole (Carson MacCormac) and Rust (Vincent Muller) alive.
Cole and Rust seemingly begin the movie as romantic rivals for Quinn, but end up kissing one another instead after surviving Frendo’s rampage.
The ringleader of the group of Frendo killers is Cole’s father, Mayor Arthur Hill (Kevin Durand), who manages to escape with his life, though he is wounded in his final confrontation with Quinn. Thus, this leaves room for him to reappear in the sequel, as teased by the scene before the credits where Quinn finds a jack-in-the-box in her car.
However, there are many threads of the story of Clown in a Cornfield that tease potential sequel storylines. This includes the fact that not just one person wears the mantle of Frendo, meaning that anyone could step into the killer clown’s shoes at any point. Additionally, the story reveals that this incident is not the first time that the adults of Kettle Springs have gone on a murder spree, so the town has a history of similar violence that could easily continue.
Quinn & Her Father’s Story In Clown In A Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives Explained
Both Characters Appear In Frendo Lives
While the possible Clown in a Cornfield 2 may not directly adapt the second novel, should the filmmakers choose to do so, the story will continue to revolve around Quinn Maybrook. Although many more characters are added around the periphery of her story in Frendo Lives, she is still the protagonist of the sequel. The book picks up just over a year later with her at college in Philadelphia, facing down rumors that she orchestrated the Frendo attacks with Rust and Cole.
People dressed as Frendo begin to be spotted around town…
Meanwhile, Dr. Maybrook is now the mayor of Kettle Springs, where local entertainment magnate Eli Duvall has transformed the cornfield into a clown-themed horror hayride. As conspiracy theorists and people dressed as Frendo begin to be spotted around town, Rust and Cole’s visit to Quinn’s dorm is interrupted by a Frendo with a gun. While this Frendo is quickly dispatched by Quinn, she receives a call informing her that her father has been slashed by another Frendo, which forces her to return to Kettle Springs and plunges her into a brand-new nightmare.
What Else Happens In The Clown In A Cornfield 2 Book
Rust & Cole’s Relationship Is On The Rocks
The other key surviving characters from Clown in a Cornfield also return in Frendo Lives. For Cole and Rust, their blossoming romance has not automatically turned into a happily ever after. The two characters’ personalities remain very different, so they experience friction between Cole’s more extravagant lifestyle and Rust’s small-town worldview. This is compounded by the fact that Clay has begun texting with Eli’s son Hunter Duvall, which ignites a major spark of jealousy in Rust.
Meanwhile, Arthur Hill has secretly arrived back in town after working to recruit a new army of Frendos from across the world using the internet. By stoking the conspiracy theories about Quinn and her friends, he has been able to rebuild his following, and he is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ set on finishing the job he started last year.
There are a number of other main characters who either join the cast or rise to prominence in the second novel. In addition to Hunter and his father Eli, this includes Jerri, a survivor of the cornfield mᴀssacre who works at the movie theater and is still traumatized by witnessing the murder of his sister Dorothy. Also on hand are the new sheriff, Marta Lee, who works closely with Mayor Maybrook, and Hunter’s mother Jane Duvall, who has essentially retreated from the world.
Clown In A Cornfield 2’s Social Satire Gets Even Darker
It Directly Tackles Very Sensitive Topics
Both the new movie and the original book have overtones of dark social satire, showcasing how the economic downturn in Kettle Springs has led to a war between the generations due to the scapegoating of the local teenagers. This powerful storytelling sensibility may be one reason that Clown in a Cornfield reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, earning the horror movie a Certified Fresh 76% score on Rotten Tomatoes. This was aggregated from 88 reviews, including one from ScreenRant‘s own Graeme Guttman, who gave it a score of 7 out of 10. Read an excerpt below:
Clown in a Cornfield can be gut-churning and gnarly. It can play into teen horror tropes with the awareness that they are tropes, using that confidence to make it feel just right. It’s also quite hilarious, playing many moments for laughs with just the right timing. Humor and horror can often be a hard balance to hit just right and though not all of Clown in a Cornfield lands, the cast is game enough.
Clown in a Cornfield 2 doubles down on that approach, drawing upon current events to drive its horror. On top of the online radicalization stoked by Arthur Hill, modern social issues are evoked by the new Frendo cult’s similarities to the attempted coup that took place in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. While the first draft of Frendo Lives was likely completed before this took place, it seems likely that later drafts were inspired by the event, or at least by the sociopolitical environment that spurred it into existence.
Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives was published on August 23, 2022, just over a year and a half after the January 6 attack.
Because of the intensity of the themes of Frendo Lives, which touch upon H๏τ-ʙuттon issues, the filmmakers behind the possible Clown in a Cornfield 2 may choose to go in an entirely different direction from the novel and present a more standard slasher sequel that tells its own standalone story. However, if it embraces the content of the sequel novel, it could become just as successful as the original from a critical standpoint, or perhaps even more so.
