Kevin Durand Explains Why Clown in a Cornfield’s Frendo Is the Scariest Killer Clown Ever

Forget Pennywise, move over Art the Clown. There’s a new contender for the title of horror’s most terrifying painted menace, according to actor Kevin Durand. Speaking exclusively with ComicBook about the upcoming slasher film Clown in a Cornfield, Durand made a bold claim about the film’s antagonist, the menacing Frendo the Clown. The actor, known for roles in Locke & Key and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, confidently asserted that Friendo stands above the rest in the pantheon of killer clowns. Directed by Eli Craig and based on the popular young adult novel by Adam Cesare, Clown in a Cornfield generated significant buzz after its premiere at South by Southwest, promising a bloody mix of slasher thrills and sharp humor. Durand’s declaration only adds fuel to the fire, suggesting Frendo possesses a uniquely horrifying quality audiences won’t soon forget.

“I had received an offer from my manager, it was really funny,” Durand told us about how he joined the movie. “She was like, ‘I don’t know about the title, it’s called Clown in a Cornfield.’ I was like, ‘I have to read that. What is this?’ And I read it and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is so much more than I had thought it would be.’ It’s just so perfectly executed on the page. The humor was the thing that was probably the most attractive to me about it. Eli Craig just does this masterful job of relieving pressure every once in a while with a really great chuckle, and I just feel like, honestly, when I saw it at South by Southwest, I was like, ‘This is so far beyond what I hoped it would be.’ And people were just falling out of their chairs, terrified, and just slapping each other, laughing. It was fantastic.”

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“I did read the book,” Durand explained about his preparation for Clown in a Cornfield. “But I didn’t exactly let that influence my performance a whole lot. I just went off of what I had on the page, in the script, because the script was very clear for me. The books are fantastic, I’m into the second one now. It’s just so entertaining. But it’s cool how Eli brings his humor to this, to these stories, and I’m definitely more drawn to being able to unearth those moments of humor to relieve the pressure from time to time of the fear that we will put in people’s souls.”

For our interview, Durand was also asked to rank Frendo among other evil clowns, such as Pennywise and Art. “I’m obviously a little sided,” he stated. “I’ve gotta put Frendo climbing to the peak of the group. I can’t divulge why. People are going to have to go to the theater on May 9th and figure out why I think he’s at the peak. He’s the pinnacle. Bring it on.”

What Is Clown in a Cornfield About?

Adam Cesare’s Clown in a Cornfield novel, which won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel in 2020, tapped into contemporary anxieties while delivering classic slasher thrills. The story centers on Quinn Maybrook (played by Katie Douglas in the film), who moves with her father (Aaron Abrams) to the struggling Midwestern town of Kettle Springs. The town is deeply divided between adults clinging to a nostalgic past after the local corn syrup factory shut down and teens eager to escape what they see as a dead end. This generational conflict boils over when Frendo the Clown, the factory’s eerie former mascot, begins a murderous rampage targeting the town’s youth. Cesare’s novel and its sequels (Frendo Lives, The Church of Frendo) blend sharp social commentary on cultural divides with the gore and suspense expected from the genre.

While Frendo is a one-of-a-kind killer, Durand did detail that there is some commonality among all villainous characters he plays, which is largely that none of them actually think of themselves as villainous.

“I never see them as bad guys, they’re just human beings who have beliefs that are different than the beliefs of the narrative that’s being told. They’re on the opposite end of the narrative, so I find that if you just play the human being, what they’re passionate about and what they want and what they enjoy and whatnot, then the story does the work for you,” the performer detailed. “If you concern yourself with playing the bad guy, then the bad guy is not very interesting. I remember when I was doing this show on Broadway, the director was saying, ‘Wait a second, wait a second, you’re supposed to walk and talk like a bad guy.’ And I was like, ‘What does that even f-cking mean?’ Me and that director had very different views about that, but luckily, my view has garnered me this very — I’m very lucky to get to play all of these characters, because I I have a lot of people coming up to me and saying, ‘Hey, I wanted you to win in the end.’ And that’s what would happen on the Broadway show. People come out and say, ‘I wanted Joe to win.’”

He added, “I love that because it’s just another human being who has a different way of looking at things, thinking about things, and that’s all we are. We’re all good guys in the world, but we’re also all bad guys compared to how someone else perceives us, right? We’re all good and bad, baby.”

Director Eli Craig, known for the 2010 horror-comedy Tucker & Dale vs. Evil and Little Evil, teamed with co-writer Carter Blanchard to bring Cesare’s Clown in a Cornfield to the screen. Durand portrays Mayor Arthur Hill, representing the town’s adult authority. The film carries an R rating for bloody horror violence, language throughout, and teen drinking, signaling a direct translation of the novel’s intense slasher elements within the Kettle Springs setting.

Clown in a Cornfield is scheduled to hit theaters on May 9th.

Where do you think Frendo will ultimately rank among horror’s killer clowns? Let us know in the comments!