Director: Aaron Mirtes
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Killer Clown
Plot:
Suffering from an intense fear of clowns, a woman finds herself suddenly stalked by a strange demonic clown that has already claimed several other victims in town, and after learning the true nature of the killer being, tries to fight it off before her crippling fear prevents her from saving herself.
Review:
This was nowhere near as bad as its reputation suggests. One of the biggest aspects of this one is the way in which this one manages to feature a great setup for the main killer clown. Adopting the exploits of a supernatural clown while the main character is shown to have a fear of clowns, this enables the scares here to be utilized far more into a realm of nightmare logic than usual. The opening half-hour features some solid lead-up to the particular clowns stalking tendencies, from the use of balloons as a form of warning to the dreams she has of the clown playing mind-games with her, ranging from the dog intestines left behind to the demonic possession of her friends.
These lead solidly into the attack scenes throughout here. The opening ambush in the house offers a creepy location and a solid shock-jump, while the later attack on the boyfriend features a great suspenseful setting for the stalking following another great jump. A fine series of car-gags, featuring them having balloons appear inside the car before being driven off leaving them at the scene to several times appearing inside the car suddenly or even just driving around which has the fun addition of setting up the frantic battle at the diner. The great battle tactics and energy present here are quite fun, the stylized lighting for the situation is really chilling and atmosphere and the big storyline additions to the fight add a lot to this one. Alongside the chilling lead clown's makeup, these here are what hold this one up over its flaws.
There are several big problems with this one. The main issue with the film is the absolutely moronic storyline that runs throughout here. There's very little here that makes sense as for how the main killer clown actually works as the supernatural tactics simply mean he pops up unexpectedly at surprise moments, and yet none of that offers up anything about what the clown's trying to prove or how he operates. The idea of setting up the balloons and the date of death on them is rather obvious yet that's wholly ignored as the various attacks before them don't have any kind of definite standing. That causes plenty of sloppiness within here as her being constantly convinced otherwise means the film runs through numerous sequences of her stupidly deciding plans of escape only to be confronted by the clown and then wondering why they've met up again. It gets annoying and frustrating when this easily could've been explained and cleaned up quite simply.
The other real problem here is the obvious and apparent low-budget throughout the film. The make-up for the clown is the biggest factor, which is quite creepy looking but still maintains a rather cheap aspect that pours out of the film.whenever he’s on-screen. The rest of the production values here features the same general tone, looking quite closed off and cramped which doesn’t really signal anything special about the film. That carries over into the kills here which are practically bloodless and aren’t really gory until you get to the aftermath which is what constitutes the graphic killings with this one. For the most part, these are what really holds this one back
Overview: **.5/5
Far better than it should be in most regards but still featuring several big and somewhat detrimental flaws, this is a fully enjoyable if not entirely mandatory watch. Give it a go if you're looking for a supernatural-themed killer clown film or are quite tolerant for these kinds of ripoff efforts, while those who aren't aficionados of this style should heed extreme caution if not outright avoid it.
Comments
Post a Comment