With the hotter months approaching, one thing feels proper a few comedic horror slasher brimming with blood, chainsaws, and defiant youngsters. With a title that is inconceivable to disregard, co-writer and director Eli Craig’s SXSW Movie & TV Pageant 2025 entry, Clown in a Cornfield, hits U.S. theaters on Could 9, 2025. Whereas chatting with Craig about his newest horror film, we requested him to mirror on his short-lived performing profession – specifically, his position in 1999’s The Rage: Carrie 2, the forgotten sequel to the Stephen King basic Carrie.
Primarily based on the Bram Stoker Award-winning 2020 novel of the identical title by Adam Cesare, Clown in a Cornfield follows Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) and her father, Dr. Maybrook (Aaron Abrams), as they embark on a brand new chapter within the tiny, stereotypically midwestern city of Kettle Springs after a household tragedy. After studying that the Baypen Corn Syrup manufacturing unit — an financial pillar of the neighborhood — mysteriously burned down, generational divides and sophistication tensions turn into evident, and Kettle Springs quickly reveals itself to be a middle-of-nowhere nightmare as a masked determine dressed as Baypen’s mascot, Frendo the clown, begins concentrating on the city’s youngsters.
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Identified for beloved horror indies like Tucker & Dale vs. Evil and Little Evil, Eli Craig has made a reputation for himself as a contemporary horror director, gravitating towards tales that mix humor with scares. Nevertheless, you might not know that he started his profession as an actor, starring within the extensively panned Carrie sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2. Throughout a joint interview with Craig, writer Adam Cesare, and stars Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Kevin Durand, and Carson MacCormac on the New York premiere of Clown in a Cornfield, the director advised MovieWeb all about his gory expertise as a Hollywood beginner within the late ’90s.
A Plaster Solid of Director Eli Craig’s Head Is “Floating Round Someplace” To This Day
Naturally, Craig, Cesare, and the co-stars of the R-rated slasher have been amused by MovieWeb’s query in regards to the director’s early profession. “Been ready for somebody to ask this,” Aaron Abrams exclaimed earlier than Craig confirmed that his position as highschool bully and soccer participant Chuck Potter within the 1999 Carrie sequel was his very first performing job:
“I used to be satisfied by an actor good friend, form of girlfriend, that stated, ‘You possibly can do that. This must be straightforward. Go get some performing jobs.’ And I went in and out brief order, I ended up on the set of The Rage: Carrie 2. I used to be 23 I feel, and I obtained my head chopped off within the film. I had a plaster solid made from my head that is floating round someplace, my 23-year-old head. It was actually enjoyable to pay it ahead [when] Alex Deakin’s head will get chopped off.”
Earlier than anybody screams “spoiler,” Alexandre Martin Deakin’s disturbing bench press scene is within the Clown in a Cornfield trailer, hinting at his violent demise.
Eli Craig, Adam Cesare, and the Solid Talk about Sensible Results in ‘Clown in a Cornfield’
Simply as Craig’s decapitated head showcased the artwork of sensible results in The Rage: Carrie 2, Deakin’s head and a slew of different severed components and bodily fluids have been completed the identical method in Clown in a Cornfield.
“I feel quite a lot of the kills have been so enjoyable simply because there’s quite a lot of sensible results on this film,” Katie Douglas, recognized for Ginny & Georgia, advised MovieWeb. “I like sensible results. It made it a lot extra hands-on and artistic and visceral.”
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Craig was visibly excited to discuss the “blood cannon” that was used for a selected scene.
“We have been setting somebody as much as get hit by the blood cannon. The particular results man was like, ‘Come, I am going to present you the way a lot blood goes to be thrown out of this cannon at you.’ And I stated, ‘No, no, no! She can’t see it. It’s going to mess up the shock.’ … So she did not get to see, and when she did get that blood cannon form of splattered in her face, the response is so actual. It is so real,” Craig defined, happening to specific his emotions on the genuine magic of sensible SFX.
“Generally, with visible results, you do it 20 occasions to get the proper angle. With particular results, you get one take. And that is the very actual response, and that is what’s on movie.”
It is all so harking back to the well-known chestburster scene from Ridley Scott’s Alien, which additionally featured blood-soaked sensible results that genuinely startled the actors.
Gore-hounds can catch Clown in a Cornfield in U.S. theaters on Could 9.
Clown in a Cornfield
- Launch Date
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Could 9, 2025
- Runtime
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96 Minutes
- Director
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Eli Craig
- Writers
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Eli Craig, Adam Cesare, Carter Blanchard
- Producers
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Georges Bermann, Wyck Godfrey
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Katie Douglas
Dr. Glenn Maybrook
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Katie Douglas
Quinn Maybrook
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Carson MacCormac
Cole Hill
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Cassandra Potenza
Janet Murray
