“Oh god it’s bad – it’s so bad girl.”

Gist: In rural Kettle Springs, Missouri, Quinn and her physician dad come to town, looking to start fresh after Quinn’s mother died. The town seems to be a bit too into their yearly Founder’s Day celebration, and when Quinn’s newfound friends decide to liven things up? Well, apparently the town/old corn syrup factory’s mascot Frendo doesn’t take kindly to ridicule. At. All.

Genre: Small Town Tradition Killers
Release Date: 2025
Where I Watched: Shudder/AMC+

Gotta say: Oh man do I love Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. I watch it a few times a year. I’ve got the poster hanging in my house. Seriously, it’s a fave. So when I heard that Eli Craig – the director of Tucker – was helming this film? I could not wait. And, well, it’s okay. It’ll do when you want something new to watch.

Why? Because while I’m always up for the same ol’ slasher, Cornfield is just too pedantic to enjoy. Way too much time is spent on how “this generation” is simply horrible, and how they need to be whipped (er, slashed) into shape. Hell, it’s the major motivation for Frendo (not a surprise, it’s obvious), and that’s not a spin on tropes to pull in Gen-Z viewers. It’s lazy writing. I didn’t read the YA novel by Adam Cesare this film is based on, so I don’t know if this spin is simply an echo of his story. But instead of feeling fresh, it feels it’s slammed into the narration like so many pickaxes to the temple.

Speaking of pickaxes? The FX is pretty darn good, when it’s around. At around one million dollars, every single freakin’ cent feels like it’s onscreen. Maybe because the cast is filled with relative newcomers, with a couple of better known character actors thrown in. Mad TV’s Will Sasso is the local Sheriff, and Abigail‘s Kevin Durand is the town’s Mayor. Both are all but wasted in trite, boring roles that make boilerplate sound interesting. While it’s often fun to know exactly what’s coming as the story plays out (see: Tucker), here it’s a plodding mess.

But damn if this film doesn’t have it’s moments. The teenage prank-killings that makes folks think that the real kills are fake at first? Fun, and the cast really sells both the silly and the spooky. Casandra Potenza and Verity Marks as Quinn’s friends Janet and Ronnie do a lot of heavy lifting in this regard. Not only do these two sell the horror, but give excellent deadpan. Special shout-out to Ayo Solanke as Tucker [I KNOW], who gets knocked off early on (because trope), but makes the most of his Scary Movie-esque death scene, and is absolutely incredible in his death throes.

Carson MacCormac’s Cole and Vincent Muller’s Rust are two students Quinn meets early on, and who become her Possible Love Interest and Token Weird Guy respectively. These two get a riff that could have made this story unique, but the reason for the disillusionment of these fella’s friendship feels tacked on. This subplot could have been cut out entirely and the film would lose nothing. It’s not the only missed opportunity, but it is the one that sticks out the most due to sheer screenwriting incompetence.

Cornfield is a puzzling one for me. There are moments where it could have been just as good as Craig’s Tucker, but ends up pulling punches, not quite sticking the landing during moments, or simply becomes too heavy-handed with it’s generational messaging.* To hark back to the film’s dialogue I quoted at the start of this review? Yeah, it’s bad. But it also doesn’t completely suck. When all is said and done, it’s simply unfortunate.

Come for: A heavily buzzed-about horror.
Stay for: The most adorable (albeit rushed) Final Couple I’ve seen in a good while.

*While I understand that there has been way too much discourse on inter-generational in-fighting? This film takes that idea and gets way too heavy-handed with it. It could have been an interesting idea, but instead it’s trotted out as if it’s the only idea they could come up with on short notice. Which feels like a cheap bit of pandering to Gen-Z, and like it’s trying to pander to elder generation’s inner Grandpa Simpson. Sigh.