For It Is Man's Number: katie douglas

Showing posts with label katie douglas. Show all posts

Thursday, 2 October 2025

Clown In A Cornfield (2025)

When it comes to movie titles, Clown In A Cornfield is probably up there with Snakes On A Plane when it comes to something that succinctly explains the film, yet also sounds a bit ridiculous. That's pretty much where the similarity ends. Despite how you might feel about the title, Clown In A Cornfield is a surprisingly straightforward slasher movie that makes use of well-known genre trappings and, of course, the pervasiveness of coulrophobia that has only been exacerbated by horror icons such as Pennywise, the Killer Klowns (from outer space), and Art.

Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) is the new girl in town, having been forcibly relocated with her father, Dr. Glenn Maybrook (Aaron Abrams), after the death of her mother. It isn't long until Quinn makes some friends, but they may not be the best people to hang around with. They seem okay to Quinn though, and are able to give her the background on the town, and the background on a mascot named Frendo the Clown, before everything starts getting quite bloody.

Based upon the novel by Adam Cesare (and there are also a few sequels that may end up being adapted after this delivered a decent return on such a relatively small budget), this was written by Carter Blanchard and director Eli Craig, who both do well enough to make the most of the imagery conjured up by the title, as well as the expected slasher movie deaths. There's a sense of fun throughout most of the film, although the ending eventually grinds to a halt for viewers to sit through the big reveal that gives us a sadly grounded explanation for all of the mayhem.

Douglas is a decent lead, but the rest of the younger cast members alongside her - Carson MacCormac, Vincent Muller, Cassandra Potenza, Verity Marks, Ayo Solanke, etc - don't make much of an impression. In fact, I wish we'd had more screentime for the grown-ups, including Abrams, Kevin Durand, and Will Sasso. That divide between the old and the young is where the best stuff lies, in between the set-pieces that have clowns murdering their victims anyway.

It's all good fun without ever being great, but I could easily rewatch this and not be too bored. I'd also check out any sequels we may get. It's just a shame that Craig didn't decide to lean even further into the horror. This keeps things light and fun, which makes sense considering Craig's filmography, but also holds back on the gags. That ultimately gives viewers something too tame to be a great slasher and too restrained to be a great comedic horror.

I AM tempted to read the book series now though, and I'm sure that's a good result for Cesare.

6/10

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Sunday, 17 January 2021

Netflix And Chill: Level 16 (2018)

Written and directed by Danishka Esterhazy (who more recently gave us the enjoyable and strange The Banana Splits Movie), Level 16 is a bit of a disappointment, mainly because it hints at a bigger picture that it never shows, leaving viewers with too many familiar ideas and moments in the midst of the intriguing central premise.

Katie Douglas plays Vivien, a young woman trying her best to do well at an exclusive school for girls. The aim of the school is to educate them on how to best behave, preparing them for their eventual adoption into well-to-do families who will keep them safe (because they're also told that the air outside the school is toxic). But Vivien is told by Sophia (Celina Martin) that there's something else going on. Something much darker. The headmistress (Miss Brixil, played by Sara Canning) and school doctor (Dr. Miro, played by Peter Outerbridge) know a lot more than they would ever tell the girls, which means it's time to plan an escape.

With Esterhazy able to gain access to a decommissioned police station in Toronto and do whatever she wanted to it, Level 16 certainly feels like a movie made . . . in one building that allowed someone creative to work with an idea that wouldn't necessarily warrant a full feature without more to flesh it out. It's not that Esterhazy does anything particularly wrong in her writing or directing duties. It's just that she doesn't seem to do enough.

Douglas and Martin are both very good in the main roles, with the latter being the typical sci-fi character who suspects a twisted truth while everyone else acts oblivious and happy as they go on about their lives. Outerbridge and Canning, as the main adults, are an interesting mix. One is written much better than the other, with Outerbridge getting to layer his scenes with some interesting hints of danger lurking just beneath his carefully-maintained professional demeanour. Canning doesn't get to do much beyond the stern headmistress thing, and a change in the status quo towards the end doesn't feel right, simply due to viewers being so used to her one-note turn throughout (more to do with how she is written than the actual acting).

If you're after something that will give you The Handmaid's Tale vibes, and check the boxes of sterile, dystopian, sci-fi tropes, you could do a lot worse than this. It's made with a certain level of polish, and helped by the performances from the younger cast members. But you could also do a lot better. If you're going to base your movie around one main idea then that idea should be a great one. This isn't. It's just okay. And sci-fi that is just okay is, well, ultimately disappointing.

4/10