By Katie Walsh

Is there anything as dependable as the slasher movie formula?

It waxes, wanes and winks its way through cultural cycles, but it is enduring; malleable yet sturdy, high or lowbrow (usually low), and requires just a few key elements: some teenagers and a masked killer, a small town would be nice.

Change up the masks and the weapons, and it practically writes itself. Enter “Clown in a Cornfield,” from “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” filmmaker Eli Craig.

This slasher does exactly what it says on the tin: a murderous clown emerges from the cornfields of Kettle Springs, Missouri, and mauls misbehaving teens to shreds. In an opening prologue, set in 1991, Craig signals the silliness with which we should enjoy the film: a victim marvels at the size of a footprint in the damp soil, and the clown’s shoes give him away with a squeak as he impales our unfortunate soul.

What sets this particular movie apart is its provenance, adapted from a 2020 horror novel by Adam Cesare.

That literary origin does give this otherwise light, disposable genre romp a bit more heft, though the backstory and generational history that’s alluded to isn’t entirely explored on screen.

Craig and Carter Blanchard collaborated on the screenplay adaptation and the film relies on the kind of quickie reveals and twists that audiences would expect from this kind of thing.

Craig is self-reflective while being appropriately reverent to the tropes of the genre.

The closest recent comparison would be Eli Roth’s “Thanksgiving,” another teens + small town + outrageously costumed killer movie, and while Craig doesn’t have Roth’s gleefully sadistic creativity when it comes to kills, his teens are a bit more fun to be around, especially the snarky Quinn (Katie Douglas), who moves to Kettle Springs with her doctor dad (Aaron Abrams), and immediately falls in with a group of popular YouTube-obsessed classmates, who make horror films on their phones about their town mascot, Frendo, of the corn syrup factory.

Quinn starts crushing on Cole (Carson MacCormac) who is the scion of the town’s founders.

Every year they celebrate tradition with the Founder’s Day parade, foregrounding Frendo’s iconic visage.

But it seems as soon as Quinn shows up, things start to go wrong. Teens start turning up dead, evil clowns start revving their chainsaws.

But for Quinn and company, it’s initially challenging to tell what’s real and what’s not an elaborate prank.

There’s a theme that drifts through “Clown in a Cornfield” about teens and their phones and how we live our lives through screens and ever-present cameras, but Craig never fully pulls that thread.

In a time where it’s increasingly difficult to discern what’s real and what’s not, especially on our phones, that more sophisticated story rock never gets unturned, in favor of more throwback-style ’80s/’90s bloodbaths, and showboating bad guy speeches.

“Clown in a Cornfield” is fun, to be sure, but feels about as substantial as a corn puff.

Douglas is beguiling enough with her humorous, spunky performance, and MacCormac capably keeps up with her; Will Sasso and Kevin Durand are welcome supporting players as a few of the oddly aggressive town elders.

While things get a little too “Scooby Doo” at times, Craig smartly keeps it moving: this is a light and breezy affair with a few unexpected twists, some social commentary that doesn’t entirely land, and it might not have enough staying power for it to be truly memorable.

Ah well, Cesare already has two sequel novels published, so there’s already plenty more Frendo the Clown frights ready to be harvested.

Tribune News Service

“Clown in a Cornfield” contains bloody horror violence, language throughout and teen drinking