Clown in a Cornfield‘s Director on Making Meaningful (but Still Gruesome) Horror Movies

The sanction Eli Craig mightiness not instantly ringing a bell, but each genre fans cognize Tucker & Dale vs. Evil—Craig’s 2010 fearfulness comedy astir a brace of bully ol’ boys who accidentally get pegged arsenic killers, successful a movie that pokes large amusive astatine each cabin-in-the-woods slasher trope imaginable. Craig’s latest campaigner for cult-classic presumption is astir to deed theaters: Clown successful a Cornfield, a gory communicative acceptable successful a tiny Midwestern municipality that’s terrorized by… well, spot title.

io9 got a accidental to speech to Craig each astir clowns, cornfields, comedy, and wherefore helium prefers fearfulness stories that weave amazingly heavy themes beneath each their splatter.

Cheryl Eddy, io9: Clown successful a Cornfield has immoderate comic one-liners (and a comic title), but it’s truly much straightforward than subversive. How did you attack uncovering the close code portion steering it successful a little comedy-forward absorption than your erstwhile films?

Eli Craig: I ever americium trying to astonishment people, I guess, and it begins with the title—the reversal and astonishing people. This movie has these affectional elements that are deeper than some the rubric suggests, but besides adjacent the code of the movie suggests. I emotion making movies that are benignant of heavy and don’t instrumentality themselves earnestly astatine the aforesaid time. The rubric intrigued me; I had done a movie called Little Evil with some a clown and a cornfield successful it. And I thought, well, present it’s clip to enactment these 2 elements together. 

There is drama successful this movie, but it truly to maine is similar a fearfulness enactment comedy. I broke retired the drama moments and took them distant from the fearfulness and the enactment truthful that they benignant of basal astir connected their own, truthful they don’t locomotion connected each other. And it was a conscious determination due to the fact that I truly emotion enactment movies and I don’t privation radical to conscionable deliberation of maine ever arsenic the truly comic fearfulness guy. But I deliberation they mightiness inactive deliberation of maine [that way] a small bit, truthful we’ll see. 

io9: Clowns are a well-loved fearfulness staple, but Clown successful a Cornfield‘s Frendo has that other furniture of being a firm mascot too. How did you bring some of those elements unneurotic to trade the quality we spot successful the movie?

Craig: I emotion the backstory of Frendo being this firm mascot who was the salesman for Baypen Corn Syrup successful the 1930s and ‘40s and ‘50s for Kettle Springs. We wanted to plan a clown that was benignant of happy-go-lucky, but implicit the years had grown much sinister. There’s conscionable this metaphor for America successful determination for me. This movie is precise Americana. It’s based successful this tiny municipality successful Missouri that had a roar clip due to the fact that of their maize syrup cognition successful the ‘40s and ‘50s, and present has benignant of fallen into disrepair. 

We wanted the clown to benignant of emulate that. And the rage that comes from losing truthful much, from truthful overmuch economical hardship, is built into the sinister grin of the clown. This is precise overmuch a movie astir this generational divide, and immoderate of the choler that comes from Frendo toward the younger procreation is truly evident successful it. 

© RLJE Films/Shudder

io9: I was going to inquire you astir the procreation spread that we spot successful the movie. You mentioned earlier that it was important that the movie was astir much than conscionable a clown sidesplitting people. Why was it important to you to marque definite determination was a instauration successful place?

Craig: For me, I’m ever looking for thing that’s deeper. I’m weirdly benignant of a thoughtful, heavy person. Even with Tucker & Dale, possibly 1 retired of 10 radical go, “Oh wow, this is truly a movie astir classism and societal stratification.” I emotion absurdity with heavy themes. I’ve ever loved benignant of existential doctrine and Theatre of the Absurd. And if I could harvester the 2 and person a truly fun, entertaining movie that you could look astatine doubly and think, “Wait a minute, this movie’s really astir things that are deeper than are connected the surface”—that’s ever my goal.

io9: The movie has a benignant of aged tech/new tech taxable to spell with that—the kids making YouTube videos is simply a hobby the older radical successful municipality don’t understand; there’s besides a perpetual deficiency of wifi oregon compartment service, the main quality is learning to thrust a instrumentality shift, etc. Was the rotary telephone country a genuine reaction? 

Craig: Yeah, it truly was. I was ever reasoning successful this movie astir however to pit the aged against the new, and that the older procreation didn’t truly cognize however to usage caller exertion and the younger procreation didn’t cognize however to usage the older technology. All of these are things I came up with arsenic we were moving along. 

As acold arsenic the absorption that goes to the phone, truthful overmuch of this was conscionable figuring out—I had written thing astir it, but figuring retired however it was gonna beryllium integrated connected the day. How would they conscionable marque it consciousness earthy and not similar a joke? Because to me, I privation each of my jokes to play arsenic a precise existent absorption and not similar idiosyncratic conscionable had a comic enactment to accidental successful a script. 

So erstwhile Cassandra Potenza, who plays Janet, and Katie Douglas, who plays Quinn, ran up there, I was like, “Just effort to enactment it retired with the phone. Just effort to fig retired however you’re going to telephone retired connected this thing.” And they got the consciousness of it, truthful there’s a small spot of improv and a small spot of anticipation that they’re not going to fig it out. So it conscionable comes disconnected precise earthy and real.

io9: We talked astir clowns. But cornfields besides person a agelong and storied past successful horror. What bash you deliberation is the azygous creepiest happening astir a cornfield? And what’s the biggest situation that comes with filming successful them?

Craig: Well, the creepiest happening astir a cornfield is that they turn up taller than your head. And wrong astir 30 seconds successful a cornfield, you tin get lost. The archetypal clip I changeable a scene, conscionable 1 night, connected Little Evil in a cornfield, I had a unit subordinate that wandered disconnected to spell to the bath and ne'er came back. They conscionable benignant of got mislaid retired there. And I learned a batch from that—that 1 maize banal looks similar another. 

So erstwhile we’re moving done the corn, we could conscionable beryllium moving backmost and distant done the aforesaid spot of corn, arsenic agelong arsenic it doesn’t look similar it’s damaged. And we would tally through, harm 1 conception of the corn, past laic down that enactment and tally done different section. And the astir hard portion of dealing with each that is—well, aggregate things. One is that maize is really benignant of sharp. It has these abrasive edges to it. So erstwhile the actors are moving done it afloat sprint, they’re slashing done with their hands and small bits of maize tin get successful their eyes, and the husks and stuff. So there’s a gag successful determination wherever [Verity Marks’ character] Ronnie’s like, “Ow, this maize hurts!” It’s thing I wrote due to the fact that arsenic we were shooting, radical were similar “Ow, this maize hurts!”

© © RLJE Films/Shudder

I wanted to enactment that successful determination conscionable successful benignant of a comic way. And it’s muddy and there’s weather; sometimes it was similar minus 10 oregon 20 degrees due to the fact that we were shooting successful Winnipeg. So there’s each that, and bugs—it’s gritty retired there!

People sometimes presumption Hollywood arsenic this clump of prima donnas that are, like, catered to retired there. But everybody connected this movie was truthful pugnacious due to the fact that it’s 4 successful the morning, it’s minus 10 degrees, they person cuts each implicit their assemblage from moving done corn. And if you’re moving done muck that fills up the soles of your boots; you can’t adjacent truly get immoderate traction due to the fact that each the mud sticks to the bottommost of your shoes. So everybody connected this was conscionable truthful hardcore. You’d beryllium surprised.

io9: The Clown successful a Cornfield publication your movie is based connected has 2 sequels—would you see making a sequel film?

Craig: Before I adjacent changeable this one, I work the 2nd publication and I figured retired a tie-in from this movie that [went] into the 2nd book. And past of course, erstwhile idiosyncratic has similar 3 truly bully books written and has a series, and I conscionable emotion Adam Cesare arsenic an author, it’s breathtaking to deliberation of what could travel next. 

io9: Awesome, possibly a crossover with Tucker and Dale?

Craig: I know—Tucker & Dale vs. Clown successful a Cornfield. [Laughs] I deliberation that there’s a batch of possibilities. I knew I had to turn my vocation retired of the drama fearfulness satellite to get a accidental to marque much movies. So hopefully this volition marque radical spot that I’m much susceptible than conscionable 1 thing. And past possibly I’ll get to bash Tucker & Dale 2. We’ll see.

io9: I anticipation that does happen!

Craig: I fig possibly it’ll beryllium my archetypal diagnostic movie and my past diagnostic film, Tucker & Dale 2, and we’ll each beryllium shooting it—I’ll beryllium an aged antheral with the cane going “Action!” And Tucker and Dale [will some be] aged men going done their sequel. [Laughs.] Or sooner, you know, who knows—if this movie does well, it’ll assistance maine marque much movies. So spell spot it!

© RLJE Films/Shudder

Clown successful a Cornfield hits theaters May 9.

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