Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) and her father discover that everything is not well in Clown in a Cornfield, the big screen adaptation of author Adam Cesare‘s young adult slasher novel. While audience reception will determine whether sequels to the movie are inevitable, Cesare’s novel has grown into an ongoing slasher saga of its own.
Up next? The fourth installment in the novel franchise.
Clown in a Cornfield, initially published in 2020 by HarperCollins, married contemporary themes to a retro styled slasher without sanitizing the horror for its younger target demographic. Its sequel, Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives shifted gears slightly as Quinn was forced to deal with the shocking fallout from the Kettle Springs massacre. Last year brought the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo, a huge departure from the simple slasher setup Cesare introduced in the first novel.
In horror terms, that makes Cesare’s trio of slasher novels seem like a classic horror trilogy in book form. It’s an easy mistake to make with the Clown in a Cornfield series, but the Bram Stoker Award-winning author and massive horror fan points out that while the third novel may have provided closure on a few fronts, it was never intended as the end of Quinn’s story.
“Clown in a Cornfield 3 ends with an epilogue,” Cesare tells Bloody Disgusting. “It gives you a pretty firm idea of where things are going. A lot of people who read the book call it the end of a trilogy, and the whole epilogue is an advertisement for another book. So, I get a little touchy when people call it a trilogy. I’m like, ‘No, I’m planning on writing four.’”
What can the horror author tease about the planned fourth installment?
Cesare takes a moment to ponder what he can reveal without stumbling into spoilers. “Will my editor get pissed at me for saying the title? Let’s do it. It’ll make me write it faster. I’m taking time away from writing book four to write right now. Though writing hasn’t begun on the novel, planning clearly has. Cesare teases, “It’s the one where things get meta; I’ll just say that it’s called Clown of the Cornfield 4: Lights, Camera, Frendo! I’m going to look really silly if they make me change that title, but that’s the title I really like.”
“I can’t really say much more than that,” Cesare notes.
A catchy working title and the meta approach is enough to hold us over for now, especially with the movie adaptation arriving next week, but it also presents new insight into Cesare’s process for his books’ titles. That’s keeping savvy readers on their toes.
“I like naming things in an almost counterintuitive way,” he explains. “Clown in a Cornfield makes you think it’s going to be this joke book, it’s going to be a parody, and then it’s not. And then it takes things very seriously. Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives. Clearly alluding to Jason Lives. Maybe like, ‘Oh, going to be supernatural things.’ Doesn’t really do that. Church of Frendo makes you think you’re getting a cult story. You kind of get that, but you also get a ’70s road revenge novel. So, take that with a grain of salt.
“I’m calling it Lights, Camera, Frendo! There’s going to be a whole lot of other shit in there that is the secret… whatever the secret real story is.”
Eli Craig (Tucker & Dale vs. Evil) directed the upcoming Clown in a Cornfield movie adaptation, which will slash its way into theaters on May 9, 2025. Stay tuned for more from our chat with Adam Cesare about the upcoming big screen adaptation.
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