The WonderCon room was buzzing for the panel for the upcoming slasher film, Clown in a Cornfield. Senior Collider producer, Perri Nemiroff excitedly introduced the secret guests which included, director Eli Craig and stars Katie Douglas, Will Sasso, and Aaron Abrams.

With a large slate of topics, one of the major discussion points was the tone. Craig, the Tucker & Dale vs. Evil director, started out by addressing the dual nature of the film. He said, “It’s a movie that embraces comedy and horror,” and then quickly added, “Horror first, with comedy beats… and a love story.” Canadian actress, Douglas (Ginny & Georgia) described the film as “fun and campy.” When discussing her role, Douglas mentioned having Shelley Duvall as a horror actor inspiration.

Craig highlighted the immense talent of industry veteran, Sasso. The Canadian actor with credits like Mad TV and Mom certainly has more comedic credits than horror. That doesn’t matter though, at least to Craig, who gloated about casting Sasso. He described it as “a strike of gold”. Craig provided a fun anecdote of a scene where Sasso was required to vape to create the imagery of smoke.

As with any independent film, Craig talked about the difficulty of getting to principal photography. He said he didn’t believe it was actually happening until they were on the ground in Winnipeg where it was shot. The panel later discussed how cold it was in the Canadian city.

What excited Craig most about the project were the themes. Early in the panel, he mentioned how he enjoyed playing with the themes. When asked about the IP, a novel of the same name by Adam Cesare, Craig explained that it was easy to stay true to the spirit of the book because the themes are clear.

When an audience member asked Craig to elaborate, he mentioned how the book had all the elements of suspense he was looking for. He commented that it could seem like there isn’t a lot of depth, but it has to do with many things including: what the U.S. is going through, generational trauma, cataclysmic change, and people holding onto past and move towards the future.

Despite all that seriousness though, Craig described it as “a fun ass movie.” A horror fan herself, Douglas wants to properly contribute to the “insatiable appetite” of the horror community.

A trailer for the film was recently dropped. It has a theatrical release date of May 9, 2025.