Director: Eli Craig
Year: 2025
Country: USA/Luxembourg/United Kingdom/Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Moving to a small town, a man and his daughter try to get involved in the few exploits to do around town, which soon brings them into contact with a masked clown killer known as Friendo, who forces them to uncover the reason why the figure has returned and stop his rampage.
Review:
This was a fairly solid and somewhat enjoyable modern slasher. Among the better aspects of this one comes from the straightforward slasher antics that set this one up as the kind of throwback genre fare. The whole starting point is handled rather well, where the backstory of the town’s history is connected with the presence of the clown, and the entire series of interactions that come about with the patrons of the town trying to keep hold of their traditions, to the exploits of the modern generation, makes for a solid starting point. As we get the big rundown at the end where everything comes together and gets revealed with who’s behind everything and why, this starts to go together incredibly well, featuring a few solid reveals and motivation for everything that ties into tradition purging the new generation that has a solid, simplistic storyline.
As well, there’s also a series of intriguing and sometimes graphic kill scenes throughout here. The idea of the clown-masked killer going around killing off the group is given a lot to like where the opening attack on the couple in the cornfield gets this started nicely, while the first few encounters in the town make for a strong continuation as there’s fun encounters at the high school, in one of the guys’ houses, or the stellar party sequence at the barn. These provide some great chases, full-on suspenseful moments with the clown coming up behind them unsuspectingly, and great kills that lead into the over-the-top finale, where all the secrets come out, leading to the interactions with the culprit and some fine deaths added alongside the other fun action-packed kills during this section. These all bring about a lot to like.
There are some big issues holding this down. The biggest drawback with this one is the absolutely lame characterizations that take place in the first half, which takes a while to get used to. Getting a solid look into the different teens around town, their more modern sensibilities conflicting with the more traditional values, and the more overt generational humor that takes place here with everyone going out of their way to poke fun at the different generations, it set up the kind of troubling starting point that tries to provide conflict yet never does that effectively. The idea of the teens being presented as the righteous ones despite their unlikable quips and remarks means this feels far longer than it needs to be, especially once it becomes quite obvious that this type of material constitutes the majority of the comedic relief in this one. Combined with some nonsensical moments designed to set up the obvious sequel for no reason, these all manage to bring this down slightly.
Overview: ****/5
A solid and immensely enjoyable modern slasher effort, this one manages to be quite a lot of fun with the main parts necessary for such a genre effort holding this up over some minor, if still present, flaws. Give it a shot if you’re a fan of the style presented here, appreciate slashers in general, or enjoy mainstream quality genre fare, while most others might want to heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment