The nameEli Craigmight not immediately ring a bell , but all genre fans knowTucker & Dale vs. Evil — Craig’s2010 repulsion comedyabout a twain of good ol’ boy who incidentally get pegged as killers , in a movie that poke great fun at every cabin - in - the - Sir Henry Wood slasher trope imaginable . Craig ’s late candidate for cult - classic status is about to hit theaters : Clown in a Cornfield , a slaughterous tale fructify in a little Midwestern Ithiel Town that ’s terrorize by … well , see title .
io9 pay back a probability to blab to Craig all about merry andrew , cornfields , comedy , and why he prefers repulsion stories that wind surprisingly deep theme beneath all their splatter .
Cheryl Eddy , io9 : Clown in a Cornfieldhas some funny one - liners ( and a suspect title ) , but it ’s really more straight than insurgent . How did you come on finding the correct shade while steering it in a less comedy - forward direction than your previous films ?
A clown, a cornfield, and a chainsaw!© RLJE Films/Shudder
Eli Craig : I always am try on to surprise people , I guess , and it begins with the title — the reversal and surprising people . This moving picture has these aroused factor that are deeper than both the title intimate , but also even the quality of the movie indicate . I love making pic that are kind of deep and do n’t take themselves seriously at the same clip . The claim intrigued me ; I had done a motion picture calledLittle Evilwith both a merry andrew and a corn field in it . And I thought , well , now it ’s sentence to put these two elements together .
There is comedy in this movie , but it really to me is like a repugnance natural action comedy . I broke out the comedy moments and accept them out from the horror and the action so that they kind of tolerate almost on their own , so they do n’t walk on each other . And it was a conscious determination because I really enjoy action movies and I do n’t want the great unwashed to just consider of me always as the really shady repugnance guy . But I think they might still opine of me [ that way ] a little bit , so we ’ll see .
io9 : Clowns are a well - loved horror staple , butClown in a Cornfield‘s Frendo has that extra bed of being a corporate mascot too . How did you bring both of those elements together to craft the character we see in the motion-picture show ?
© RLJE Films/Shudder
Craig : I roll in the hay the backstory of Frendo being this bodied mascot who was the salesman for Baypen Corn Syrup in the 1930s and ‘ 40s and ‘ 50 for Kettle Springs . We want to plan a clown that was sort of happy - go - golden , but over the years had grown more sinister . There ’s just this metaphor for America in there for me . This photographic film is very Americana . It ’s found in this diminished Ithiel Town in Missouri that had a bonanza time because of their corn sirup operation in the ‘ 40s and ‘ 50s , and now has kind of fallen into disrepair .
We wanted the buffoon to kind of emulate that . And the rage that come from losing so much , from so much economic hardship , is built into the sinister grin of the merry andrew . This is very much a flick about this generational divide , and some of the ira that comes from Frendo toward the young generation is really plain in it .
io9 : I was go to necessitate you about the generation gap that we see in the picture show . You cite in the beginning that it was important that the moving-picture show was about more than just a clown killing people . Why was it important to you to ensure there was a foundation in place ?
© © RLJE Films/Shudder
Craig : For me , I ’m always look for something that ’s deeper . I ’m weirdly kind of a thoughtful , recondite person . Even withTucker & Dale , maybe one out of 10 people go , “ Oh wow , this is really a movie about classism and societal social stratification . ” I love fatuousness with abstruse theme . I ’ve always roll in the hay sort of existential philosophy and Theatre of the Absurd . And if I could compound the two and have a really fun , entertaining movie that you could look at double and think , “ Wait a mo , this picture show ’s actually about things that are deeper than are on the surface”—that ’s always my finish .
io9 : The movie has a sort of old technical school / new technical school topic to go with that — the kid make YouTube videos is a hobby the onetime people in town do n’t understand ; there ’s also a perpetual lack of WLAN or cell service , the main character is learn to drive a stick shift , etc . Was the rotary earphone fit a real reaction ?
Craig : Yeah , it really was . I was always thinking in this film about how to pit the old against the Modern , and that the honest-to-god generation did n’t really know how to utilize new technology and the untried generation did n’t know how to use the older technology . All of these are things I came up with as we were strike along .
© RLJE Films/Shudder
As far as the reaction that go to the phone , so much of this was just figuring out — I had written something about it , but cipher out how it was gon na be constitutional on the day . How would they just make it find natural and not like a joke ? Because to me , I desire all of my jest to wreak as a very real reaction and not like somebody just had a comic melody to say in a script .
So when Cassandra Potenza , who plays Janet , and Katie Douglas , who plays Quinn , ran up there , I was like , “ Just endeavor to function it out with the phone . Just essay to figure out how you ’re run to call out on this thing . ” And they got the sense of it , so there ’s a little snatch of improv and a little spot of expectation that they ’re not give-up the ghost to figure it out . So it just add up off very natural and real .
io9 : We talked about buffoon . But cornfields also have a long and storied story in horror . What do you think is the single creepiest thing about a corn field ? And what ’s the biggest challenge that comes with film in them ?
Craig : Well , the creepiest thing about a cornfield is that they develop up tall than your head . And within about 30 seconds in a cornfield , you’re able to get lose . The first clip I shoot a scene , just one nighttime , onLittle Evilin a cornfield , I had a crew member that stray off to go to the john and never came back . They just kind of got lose out there . And I learn a lot from that — that one corn stock looks like another .
So when we ’re run through the corn , we could just be running back and forth through the same chip of corn , as long as it does n’t front like it ’s damaged . And we would endure through , damage one section of the corn , then lay down that row and run through another section . And the most unmanageable part of dealing with all that is — well , multiple things . One is that clavus is actually kind of acute . It has these abrasive edge to it . So when the actors are run away through it full dash , they ’re slash through with their hands and little bits of corn can get in their eyes , and the chaff and clobber . So there ’s a joke in there where [ Verity Marks ’ part ] Ronnie ’s like , “ Ow , this maize hurt ! ” It ’s something I write because as we were shooting , masses were like “ Ow , this corn hurts ! ”
I need to put that in there just in kind of a suspect agency . And it ’s muddy and there ’s weather ; sometimes it was like minus 10 or 20 degrees because we were shooting in Winnipeg . So there ’s all that , and bugs — it ’s gritty out there !
People sometimes see Hollywood as this bunch of prima donnas that are , like , supply to out there . But everybody on this picture was so tough because it ’s four in the morning , it ’s minus 10 degrees , they have cut all over their soundbox from running through Indian corn . And if you ’re run through muck that replete up the soles of your boots ; you ca n’t even really get any traction because all the mud sticks to the bottom of your shoes . So everybody on this was just so hardcore . You ’d be surprised .
io9 : TheClown in a Cornfieldbook your movie is based on has two sequels — would you see making a subsequence film ?
Craig : Before I even shoot this one , I read the second book and I cypher out a tie - in from this movie that [ went ] into the second book . And then of course , when somebody has like three really estimable books write and has a series , and I just love Adam Cesare as an author , it ’s exciting to consider of what could come next .
io9 : awful , possibly a crossover with Tucker and Dale ?
Craig : I acknowledge — Tucker & Dale vs. Clown in a Cornfield . [ Laughs ] I think that there ’s a lot of possibility . I knew I had to grow my career out of the drollery revulsion world to get a opportunity to make more movies . So hopefully this will make people see that I ’m more capable than just one matter . And then maybe I ’ll get to doTucker & Dale 2 . We ’ll see .
io9 : I go for that does bump !
Craig : I cypher maybe it ’ll be my first feature film and my last feature picture show , Tucker & Dale 2 , and we ’ll all be shooting it — I’ll be an old world with the cane going “ Action ! ” And Tucker and Dale [ will both be ] erstwhile men going through their subsequence . [ Laughs . ] Or rather , you recognise , who knows — if this movie does well , it ’ll help me make more pic . So go see it !
clown around in a Cornfieldhits theater May 9 .
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clown around in a CornfieldEli CraigHorror
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