Rlje and Shudder's hotly anticipated Clown in a Cornfield adaptation is good old-fashioned teen slasher entertainment. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil director Eli Craig introduces audiences to the circusy meanie Frendo, born from novelist Adam Cesare's beloved young adult horror series (currently three entries strong). It's gateway horror targeting up-and-coming genre fans that'll be a lot of teens' first violent slasher romp, and that rules. The youths deserve rad entry-point horror titles, and Craig delivers.

Watch your back, Art. A new killer clown is in town, and he's here to slay.

According to trusted sources (since I have not read the books), Craig and co-writer Carter Blanchard stay faithful enough to Cesare's first release. Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) and her doctor father (Aaron Abrams) move from the East Coast to Kettle Springs, Missouri, after their mother and wife's sudden death. The town's right out of Stephen King's...