Looking for a fresh start, Quinn and her father move to the quiet town of Kettle Springs. They soon learn the fractured community has fallen on hard times after losing a treasured factory to a fire. As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning clown emerges from the cornfields to cleanse the town of its burdens, one bloody victim at a time.
Based on the praised 2020 novel by Adam Cesare, CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is a hilarious, horrific new slasher flick that introduces a new iconic masked figure to the genre – Frendo the Clown.
Following its acclaim out of this year’s SXSW, Peter Gray spoke with director Eli Craig about balancing both the comedy and the carnage the story requires, the unlikely social commentary of the story, and if his relationship with fear has altered over the course of his career.
Based on the praised 2020 novel by Adam Cesare, CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is a hilarious, horrific new slasher flick that introduces a new iconic masked figure to the genre – Frendo the Clown.
Following its acclaim out of this year’s SXSW, Peter Gray spoke with director Eli Craig about balancing both the comedy and the carnage the story requires, the unlikely social commentary of the story, and if his relationship with fear has altered over the course of his career.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00i'll say obviously congratulations on the film first of all like when i heard all of the um
00:05all the reactions coming out of south by i was very very excited and then being able to see the
00:11film i was like this is very much up my alley i had like a lot of fun with it it brought me back
00:17to like the slashes of the 80s and the 90s nice but then it also like you know subverted expectation
00:23a little bit because like the reveal behind the clown was a nice surprise and like you've tackled
00:31obviously like comedy and horror before like with this i feel like fear and humor like so often
00:38provoke you know like a visceral reaction like do you approach them similarly when directing or do
00:44they require like completely different muscles from you um i i do believe that there is similar
00:51like there's a similar element of the human brain that deals with fear and laughter and you know
00:59it's it's sort of a uh surprise mixed with um mixed with uh uh you know some subversion is works for
01:11both the horror and then and then so i i see them as being oddly similar a lot of people are always
01:17like well especially in the studio system and i and i hope this is changing a little bit
01:21like with some great horror comedies that have come out lately um like heart eyes and companion i
01:27mean there's been some good horror comedies coming out lately um but studios have always wanted like
01:34really genre specific stuff and uh i feel blessed in a way it's been it's been more of a struggle
01:41uh to make these kind of movies but i feel blessed that i've had the opportunity to
01:46occasionally when i get the green light to make a movie but um but then the challenge is really to
01:52like to not lose the horror especially on this film is to not lose the suspense in the horror
01:58by being goofy or something but letting the comedy kind of come out of the situation and feel like
02:05very much like it lives in that context of the world yeah no no yeah like it was one of those movies
02:10where it was you know like we were i guess the characters were saying you know humorous things
02:18and we were laughing because of what they were kind of saying and reacting to but like the situations
02:23are like it's horrific you know like yes and maybe so i think was there a i guess a specific kill or a
02:31specific moment that made you go like yes this is the scene that'll make audiences scream or cheer
02:38uh yeah for sure i mean i'd say this is the first film where i've totally given into like
02:47the act structure where you're gonna end with the the biggest bang right you're gonna you're gonna
02:55um with tucker and dale i think i was so excited to just make a movie i was like i'm gonna go gangbusters
03:01with comedy the whole way through and and i'll have some really emotional moments i wanted to have
03:07a tender heart and then also like you know have action elements but um if i was could critique my
03:14own work i would say that like tucker and dale peaks in the in the second act and it's just it's as
03:19good as i could ever do for a film but like right in the second act and then it just kind of keeps
03:26cruising for fun for a while and uh little evil i really tried to make it peak in the third act but i
03:32think i was i was not balancing i like the movie i love both these movies but i i was not maybe
03:38balancing the comedy with enough horror vibe and so i've learned from those movies and i'm like
03:43i i'm gonna be patient and i'm gonna take my time to develop these characters and i'm not gonna be
03:50um too nervous if if i'm not making people laugh all the time through the character development but
03:57once i really get into it and i get into like my jam and my stuff i'm gonna build build build build
04:03build until the very end where i'm gonna wrap it up quick and so that was my goal on this yeah i know
04:09because one of the things i love is like there's always humanity in like the absurd the absurdity of
04:14of these films like do you see horror comedy as like a way of making sense of like you know life's
04:21contradictions or is it more i see i see comedy comedy as a sense of making sense of life yeah um
04:30i think life is horror and if humans didn't have comedy you know this is why chat gpt can't write a
04:37joke because humans have a sense of the absurd inside of us and when things get too horrific we have to
04:46laugh and that to me is why this is the perfect movie for right now because we live in a really dark
04:51horrific time and it feels out of our control it feels out of my control i wish i had more control
04:58i just don't and so it feels like you're inside of a horror movie just trying to survive but the only
05:03thing the thing we have to do is remember our humanity and remember how to laugh because that
05:09gets us through and so i i really do i think this movie is a metaphor for america in a lot of ways
05:16um but this is also a metaphor for just surviving horror because um the best way to do it is to keep
05:24a sense of humor well i was gonna ask like like you know the film how it's like there's generational
05:29divide there's like small town values like do you like what do you think it is about horror that
05:35i guess it feels like it's the best genre to sneak in social commentary like do you do you feel like
05:41there's a special source to that at all well i i think it is because it's about sneaking it in
05:46right and it's just about layers of the onion and if somebody cares to dissect it to its deepest part
05:54there's a lot there but you don't have to and and maybe you don't even you're not in the mental
06:01place to yet in your life um and and that's fine i think the best art has a lot to say that maybe even
06:08the artist doesn't know it's saying um and so i think that you know i also think of things like
06:15um dostoevsky and sartre and stuff but especially like the russian authors that had to hide their
06:24their stories from the censors and they had to be smart enough that the censors wouldn't know that
06:30they were actually criticizing the powers that be inside their their work because they they couldn't
06:37dissect that deep into the layer of the onion they would just see the outside so i think to me
06:42there's always something i i try to you know hide within my movie um but it's not a message at all
06:50it's just these themes that i think our culture is dealing with right now um and and i while i say
06:57it's american i mean it's really worldwide i think it works all over the world but i am definitely
07:01satirizing a part of america um you know and even the title for me satirizes it because
07:07cornfields are america like that's an american crop and if you drive through the midwest it's
07:14corn as far as the eye could see but it was also a very hopeful crop in the 30s and 40s and farmers
07:20you know coming out of the third out of the great profession but the 40s they started making corn syrup
07:26and it was this sugary sweet substance that was also supposed to be good for you and there's just
07:31something so metaphorically wonderful about this like forward-looking optimistic america that thought
07:36corn syrup was good for you and now your teeth are rotted and you have diabetes
07:40and america is is decaying in front of our eyes and the american dream is is on life support so um
07:48you know that's and because we have clowns running everywhere a clown we have a clown running around
07:54causing a lot of problems in the cornfield yeah i mean like gives a gives a whole new whole new level
08:02to to everything that happens on screen but like but talking about like the the censor side of
08:07things and it made me sort of think of i remember like when wes craven was making scream and he was
08:11like he lied basically to the censor saying like oh the shot of drew barrymore getting stabbed was
08:17like it's the only time we filmed it we can't possibly edit it and it made me think like was there
08:23ever a moment where you went oh we've gone too far with like the kills or the blood or the gore or
08:28anything like were you ever like you know or we should tiptoe around things or you should have
08:32given free reign so to speak well i was i unfortunately this was an independent film and
08:36i didn't have a studio leaning over me and giving me notes about that stuff um i would say the producers
08:42never asked me to tone down my cut of it um i will say that i am not a gore hound like i if i watch
08:52like art the clown lives in his own gore level to me and i will watch it as a student and i admire
09:01what i admire what damien does like prosthetically and i admire just his in-camera work and the the
09:10physical the special effects totally admirer of it but it's not my jam like i have kind of a
09:18uh repulsion to gore and so when i'm also i'm also kind of grossed out what i'm doing in my film
09:25and that's where i try to find my balance i want to get myself right to that level of like oh god i
09:29can't i can't look and and then kind of give the audience a break because yeah i don't want to dwell
09:36in it yeah no i mean there were moments that i was like yeah it was it hit it was gory enough
09:43without you know excessive you know blood spurts and that sort of stuff like it like it was like
09:49we'll do the kill we'll do the gore and then we'll move on to the next one and with like with with
09:53working in the genre like has your like has your relationship with like fear changed as a
10:00storyteller over the years at all because you know a lot of people clowns are already
10:04off limits for a lot of people but like it hasn't changed anything for you
10:08yeah i can watch a lot more horror movies now that i wouldn't be able to watch before
10:13and because i i i begin to go into like oh how are they doing that how how do they do that my brain
10:19just goes to seeing what's going on behind the camera all the physical effects and so i can kind
10:27of disassociate and i don't have to like experience what that character is experiencing but i was
10:33terrified i mean i was terrified of horror as a kid and i think it affected me um very deeply and
10:40those those moments are moments that i i remember seeing like i saw the exorcist i think when i was
10:45like seven or eight or something and i just i couldn't believe it when reagan is freaking out on the on
10:52spinning her head around and using foul language all these amazing things and i um you know that and
11:01uh there were there were some other movies that just just destroyed me but but they those visuals
11:08stay with you kind of for life and that's the part about horror that i also love because um it imprints
11:16a little bit in your brain and so that's why to me i want to do that but i also make like hopeful
11:22films like i have like hopeful horror because uh i i like my i like someone surviving and going
11:30through all the awful terrible things they go through it kind of makes them a stronger person
11:36uh which is what i believe about struggle in general so i mean yeah it was it was great to
11:42sort of see with the film like there were there were certain characters that i was sort of convinced
11:46were going to be either like the first to go or die early and they made it quite far there were
11:52other survivors that i was not expecting i'm like as a gay man i love that there was that part of it
11:58as well like that was just a really nice thing to have into it um yeah and like we're seeing you
12:03know like we're seeing horror just completely thrive but it's so it's so awesome to see a film
12:09like this that you know lives within a genre we kind of think we know where it's going to go and
12:16it completely makes us by surprise so i'm yeah i'm i'm just so grateful that we have big screen horror
12:23still still still out there in the world and um yeah i'm just excited for everyone to see this so
12:28thank you so much for taking the time and before you wrap up i'll give you one other thing because
12:33the um just um my my brother my youngest brother he's very openly out very openly gay and i think that
12:42um to be honest with you i think sort of the best um uh versions of of movies for for like gay rights
12:51were were like the ones that were not seen as trying to make a point but like the will and
12:57the will and grace a kind of thing where you fall in love with these characters or you just
13:01you know um those kind of things broke through and i feel like things that are just so
13:07there to make a message or or make a point of it um kind of don't break through to people and it's
13:14good for people that are not going to see an lgbtq movie at all to just have gay characters that
13:22gay characters are in the world man they're everywhere you know so let's let's embrace
13:28everybody's sexuality and not um not just make it have to be the theme of the movie it's just an
13:36element of it yeah and i think the fact that it was just they were like they were both
13:40like you know quote-unquote masculine characters as well like they weren't like it wasn't pandering
13:45to anything like yeah it was it's like it's i i feel like you know we're seeing queer characters
13:52and gay characters just like they're being treated in media a lot differently now which is really great
13:57to see that we're no longer just like the punchline or this sassy sidekick or like that's like it's not
14:03that yeah yeah that's and that's the opposite of will and grace too so maybe will and grace wasn't the
14:08best but will and grace like did did things like it embraced things that went against at the same
14:14time but no like yeah like i i love horror movies so much and this was just the biggest joy to watch
14:20on the big screen and i just want to watch it again with like a massive crowd because i know that yeah
14:26it's the kind of movie that needs that so thank you so much yes thank you thank you so much