Clown in a Cornfield: The Corniest Novel Hits the Big Screen

Clown in a Cornfield hits the big screen today. It’s the perfect teen slasher to kick off summer. Bringing equal parts mystery, teen drama, and comedy. In fact, it’s a bit of a shame that they went for the R rating, given that this would be a great horror movie for most teenagers who, because of that upgraded rating, might miss out. And given that the book it’s based on is YA. There is copious swearing and gore, but nothing too scary. The movie handles the exploration of youth chafing against the status quo refreshingly and differently. The teens of this movie don’t just rebel for rebellion’s sake. They have dreams and purpose. But also a need to break a few rules because they are teenagers, after all.

But…How true to its source material is the movie? Spoilers Incoming for both the book and the movie.

Overall, the movie is a faithful adaptation of the book. There are some parts where things happen in a different order and I won’t bother to mention all of those. For this plot summary, I’m going to follow the movie.

The book starts out with the story of how Cole’s sister tragically dies jumping into the reservoir at a party. She miscalculates her jump and hits her head on the concrete barrier, dying before she hits the water, a year before the rest of our story begins. This event happens in the movie, but we only hear about it from Cole later.

The movie starts at one of the local teen’s post-founder’s day parade parties in 1991. A teen girl leads her boyfriend into the corn for some sexy time. In my humble option, nothing could be less sexy than getting it on in a cornfield, but he’s into it. Frendo shows up to make clear that he has very strong feelings about this flagrant disrespect of the corn and murders them both.

Fast forward to the present day. Quinn Maybrook and her father move to Kettle Springs, where Dr. Maybrook has just taken a job running the town’s family practice. Quinn’s mother recently died from an overdose and he could no longer handle the stress of emergency room care. The town is underwhelming, to say the least, and Quinn is less than thrilled to be here. Her window overlooks a vast cornfield and a partially burnt barn, with Frendo’s giant face staring right toward her.

Quinn walks to school the first day and meets her neighbor Rust, who is an avid hunter and makes it clear he isn’t in with the in crowd. He seems cool but a little lonely. Also, in the movie he is 40 feet tall. Or Quinn is super short. To be seen.

On day one, Quinn gets thrown out of her first class and sent to detention for laughing at the teacher’s ridiculous rant in the book and defending herself for being late in the movie. Mr. Vern is quick to lose his shit and toss kids out. We find out the group is known for filming videos to upload to YouTube. Something this teacher does not approve of. It’s in this detention that Quinn becomes connected with this group of friends. Cole, the youngest of the town’s founding family, Tucker, Matt, Janet, and Ronnie. Also known around the town as troublemakers. They took the blame for the factory burning down because they were there filming a video, but claim they weren’t responsible for the fire in the movie. In the book, Cole takes responsibility but says it was an accident.

Quinn and her dad meet up at the town diner for dinner. The prices thrill him. I mean, he’s right. They are damn cheap. Sheriff Dunne introduces himself to the newcomers and gives Quinn a warning about the kids to avoid. Namely, the ones she’s already friends with.

Here the book and movie diverge significantly for the first time. Only in the book, the sheriff asks Dr. Maybrook to join the leaders of the town at an important meeting. He begs off saying he has too much unpacking to do, but the whole things seems odd. These meetings play out for us in the book, from now on, making the twist ending of the movie much more obvious. Additionally, Quinn and her dad remark on the conservative politics that the town seems very proud of. The movie leaves this out entirely. The underlying theme is there, but it’s never overtly mentioned.

Tucker is just chilling at home when he gets a notification from his doorbell camera. Looks like Frendo has showed up to pay him a visit. Assuming, reasonably, it’s Matt he opens the door to confront him about his stupid prank that will probably end up all over the internet. I’m glad my friends couldn’t use my over the top response to surprises as fodder for likes. Of course, it is totally not Matt. Tucker follows the mess of dirty footprints the clown stamped throughout the house, only to get murdered by the clown. It’s really all they’re good for.

Founder’s Day rolls around and, as is customary in small towns, it kicks off with a parade. Frendo the clown is there entertaining the children. (In the book it’s Tucker (His murder is right after Founder’s day there), in the movie it’s Matt) Clearly Janet and Ronnie are up to nonsense and Cole doesn’t seem aware of it. They are all ready to film. Frendo sets off some fireworks and accidentally lights aflame a float. Thankfully, no one is hurt, but there are some near misses. In the movie, the entire group gets arrested even though Quinn and Cole did not know what was even going on. Book Sheriff only blames Cole.

Movie Matt is working out at home. I guess he got away in his Frendo costume, when another Frendo comes to enact his revenge for the parade stunt. This Frendo puts a saw under the bar while he’s doing some presses on the bench and uses it to decapitate him. At first, he thought it was Tucker. These kids need a damn hobby that doesn’t involve skulking around dressed up like clowns. Book Matt is fine. He makes it to the after party.

All the alive teens go to a post Founder’s Day afterparty hosted in a barn. They actually put together a pretty nice party, with a DJ, lights, a ridiculous amount of alcohol. Especially when you consider they are fully trespassing on someone’s barn. I guess it’s like a mile from the house, so they figure they’re good. Everyone is there, including Rust. This is when I get a little suspicious of him. Did he kill those kids? I should mention I finished the movie before the book. (I know, I know, bad)

In the movie, Quinn takes Cole to a dirty barn after their dancing got a little intense. She’s putting the moves on him, but he tells her to slow down. I, for one, would be worried about the copious diseases that dirty barn sex would bring. He is just not into it. She feels rejected and runs out. Janet and Ronnie tell her that he does that to everyone. Thanks for the warning ladies. This doesn’t happen in the book.

But in both, we see Ginger stagger forward and fall to the ground. An arrow in her back. She falls down, very much dead. In the movie, this requires some convincing. Behind her, a Frendo emerges from the corn. With a crossbow. He fires at the group of teens and they run.

They try to reach the cars with Frendo in pursuit, but run into Rust. He tells them that their attacker has already slashed all the tires. They won’t be driving out of here. Thankfully, Rust engages in responsible gun ownership and had all of his weapons locked up. They couldn’t get to them, so he still has his shotgun. Coming in clutch dude.

At this point, the book and movie diverge again. The way each of our characters dies and how they work together to defeat the clowns, yes multiple, are different. The book kids find out it is the townspeople killing them early on. Rust heroically stays behind to set off the trap that lets most of the group escape in both. I really like his character and appreciate that we see so much more of it in the book.

One of the Frendos had their hand blown off during the fight. Dr. Maybrook is enlisted, well forced, blackmailed, into repairing the hand. He’s told that his daughter’s life is on the line if he doesn’t save the Fredno. In the book, they just full on kidnap the doctor and squirrel him away to a motel to get the job done. In the movie, he is out looking for Quinn, who snuck out to the party when he sees the window of his office smashed and goes in to check it out when they capture him.

The remaining group of teens finally make it out to the road. And what luck Sheriff Dunne is driving down the road. He pulls over. Everyone shouts about murderous clowns and dead kids and parties gone wrong. He does not believe one single thing they’ve said. Instead, he thinks Cole is responsible for something. I guess the party they’ve clearly been at and arrests him. Just him.

Here in the book, we find out that Ronnie and Matt have been working with the Frednos all along. Traitors. Quinn is forced to dispatch them. In the movie, the Frednos murdered them. And they are maybe not great friends but they also don’t set up anyone to be killed so, gold stars all around.

So why are all these adults killing the kids? It’s an odd way to deal with what really amounts to slightly over the top teen behavior. Cole’s dad Arthur Hill and Sheriff Dunne give us the rundown. Essentially, they want the town to function like it always did. With good old-fashioned values and none of this newfangled nonsense from the kids. It is generational fighting on steroids. They figure they can kill a bunch of the worst offenders, write a fake suicide note from Cole, and then kill him via hanging and solve all the problems. Cole’s dad is 100% in on this plan. See, he has blamed Cole for his sister’s tragic death. It wasn’t Cole’s fault, but his dad is insane. They’re going to set it up to look like Quinn rejected Cole and he just couldn’t handle it. Real Romeo and Juliet stuff.

We end up in Frendo’s Barn. Cole with a noose around his neck. Arthur and Dunne planning to hang him. Quinn attempting to save his life. A car drives under Cole to let him stand, preventing him from choking to death. (Dr. Maybrook is the driver in the movie and Rust is in the book) Rust gets Cole down from the noose and they kiss. (Hilariously book Quinn mistakes this for CPR at first) All that tension was a secret love connection. I love it when things work out. I’m glad my romance didn’t include any life-threatening situations, though.

We forward a few months. The crazy-ass clowns are mostly dead or arrested. Quinn’s dad is running for mayor! Rust and Cole are the it couple in town. Things are looking a lot brighter for the younger generation of Kettle Springs. This is where the movie leaves us.

But…

In the book, we see Arthur isn’t dead. He escaped and fled to Cuba. And he learned a little lesson during the events of the clown fueled murder night. Never delegate a murder you should do yourself.

What do you all think? The book was definitely better, but the movie was a great adaptation.