INTERVIEW: What you should know before seeing "Clown in a Cornfield", from director Eli Craig
Any guesses as to what “Clown in a Cornfield” is about? Hint: it has something to do with Clowns, Cornfields, and director Eli Craig’s (of Dale & Tucker vs. Evil, Little Evil) unique talent for the horror-comedy cocktail.
The film follows Quinn (Katie Douglass) and her father, Dr Maybrook (Aaron Abrams) as they try to make a new start in the ailing midwestern town of Kettle Springs, Missouri. Unfortunately, the Doctor and his daughter run into a little trouble settling in, as the town’s industry mascot and urban legend Frendo the Clown begins to kill again. Craig intentionally plays on convention and cliché to misdirect audiences all throughout this satisfyingly fun slasher flick.
To get to the bloody, pulsing heart of Clown in a Cornfield, we sat down with director Eli Craig for a revealing chat.
You can watch the full interview at the end of this article. But first, here are 4 key things we learned from our conversation, just in time for Clown in a Cornfield to slash its way onto the big screen on May 1st.
4 things you need to know about “Clown in a Cornfield”
1. What you see isn’t what you get
On the surface, Craig’s newest flick seems as straight-cut as a pair of 501s, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. As he puts it: “If you just want to look at that one outside layer of a fun, awesome, maybe scary, little gory, suspenseful horror movie (with comedy)”, that’s all there, “but then inside you can go a little deeper thematically, and it’s about a lot more as you get to the heart of it.”
2. It’s timely and classic
Craig’s newest film wields its nostalgia with class. There are classic ideas baked into the storytelling of Clown — about a daughter’s struggle to fit in, about her relationship to her father, and about sexuality. Thew town of Kettle Springs is also something of a time capsule connecting the stable past to the less-than-stable present. To Craig, it represents the current state of America in general: “…this generational divide, where the young people, because of the internet and because of cell phones, are not much different in a small town than they are in New York City.”
It’s clear that the third-time filmmaker has something to say about where his nation is at today.
3. You’re going to have a good time
Clown in a Cornfield will scare you, but it’ll also make you smile, and the dance between these extremes is one of the most invigorating elements of the work. “I love horror movies,” says Craig. “But I don’t like it when I finish a movie and I feel totally grim about life. Especially nowadays, I just want to feel like there’s some hope…I like to think I make hopeful films with a lot of people dying in the middle.”
4. It knows where it comes from
Eli Craig is driven by his passion for the classics: “I was really trying to go back to the 80s, the gritty, all in-camera, no real-CGI, practical effects-driven, low-budget horror movies that I grew up watching. Halloween, Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street there are elements of each of those in here – even Scream! I started by looking at all these classics, and then I let them all go; just tried to make a movie that I’d want to see.”
With heritage like that, Clown in a Cornfield is a movie that it’s easy to love and hard to forget. Practical effects are the quickest way to my heart, and I’m sure many horror fans out there share the same sentiment. Craig’s newest film is full to the brim with weighty choreography and gloriously bloody kills (keep an eye out for the cow-prod kill!).
Ultimately, it’s clear that so much love went into the craft: “The highlights were working with the team. My DP Brian Pearson was game for anything. The cast was also so excited to rise to the occasion and sometimes excited to just be covered in blood every day they showed up to work.”
This energy is so palpable throughout Clown in a Cornfield, it’s hard not to get around the carnage.
As Craig concluded, “If this is my last film, and the film gods let me make three cool films, I’ll take it. But I’d love to make another.”
We hope you do, Eli.
Eli Craig's "Clown in a Cornfield" is a pitchfork-sharp and hilariously mad critique of the generational divide. Out in Australian Cinemas on May 1st.
