A generic teens-in-peril slasher, ‘Clown in a Cornfield’ can’t cut the crop

Is there anything as dependable as the slasher formula? It waxes, wanes and winks its way through cultural cycles but it endures; malleable yet sturdy, high or lowbrow (usually low), requiring just a few key elements: some teenagers and a masked killer. A small town would be nice. Change up the costumes and the weapons and it practically writes itself. Enter “Clown in a Cornfield” from “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” filmmaker Eli Craig.

This slasher does exactly what it says on the tin: A murderous clown emerges from the cornfields of Kettle Springs, Mo. and mauls misbehaving teens to shreds. In an opening prologue set in 1991, Craig signals the silliness with which we should enjoy the film: A future victim marvels at the size of a footprint in the damp soil and the clown’s shoes give him away with a squeak as he impales our unfortunate soul.

What sets this particular movie apart is its provenance, adapted from a 2020 horror novel by Adam Cesare. That literary origin does give this otherwise light, disposable genre romp a bit more heft, though the backstory and generational history that’s alluded to isn’t entirely explored onscreen. Craig and Carter Blanchard collaborated on the screenplay adaptation, and the film relies on the kind of quickie reveals and twists that audiences would expect from this kind of thing.

Craig is self-reflective while being appropriately reverent to the tropes of the genre. The closest recent comparison would be Eli Roth’s “Thanksgiving,” another outrageously costumed killer movie, and while Craig doesn’t have Roth’s gleefully sadistic creativity when it comes to kills, his teens are a bit more fun to be around, especially the snarky Quinn (Katie Douglas), who moves to Kettle Springs with her doctor dad (Aaron Abrams) and immediately falls in with a group of popular YouTube-obsessed classmates who make horror films on their phones about their town mascot, Frendo, of the corn syrup factory.

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Quinn starts crushing on Cole (Carson MacCormac), the scion of the town’s founders. Every year, they celebrate tradition with the Founder’s Day parade, foregrounding Frendo’s iconic visage. But it seems as soon as Quinn shows up, things start to go wrong. Teens start turning up dead, evil clowns start revving their chainsaws. It’s initially challenging to tell what’s real and what’s an elaborate prank.

There’s a theme that drifts through “Clown in a Cornfield” about teens and their phones and how we live our lives through screens and ever-present cameras, but Craig never fully threads that needle. At a time when it’s increasingly difficult to discern what’s real and what’s not, especially on our phones, that more sophisticated story never gets told, in favor of more throwback-style bloodbaths and showboating bad-guy speeches.

“Clown in a Cornfield” is fun, to be sure, but feels about as substantial as a corn puff. Douglas is beguiling enough with her humorous, spunky performance, and MacCormac capably keeps up with her. Will Sasso and Kevin Durand are welcome supporting players as a few of the oddly aggressive town elders. While things get a little too “Scooby-Doo” at times, Craig smartly keeps it moving: This is a light and breezy affair with a few unexpected twists, some social commentary that doesn’t entirely land and not enough staying power to be truly memorable. Ah, well: Cesare already has two sequel novels published, so there’s already plenty more Frendo the Clown ready to be harvested.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.