Director: Eros D'Antona
Year: 2020
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: My Bloody Birthday
Genre: Clown
Plot:
Haunted by a traumatic past, a woman unwilling to celebrate her birthday is unwittingly thrown a surprise 21st birthday by her friend, starting a series of strange encounters with her visualizing the clowns that ruined her birthday party following her and killing off her friends.
Review:
This was a decent enough if somewhat problematic genre effort. When it works best is the somewhat solid setup that makes the main storyline seem somewhat logical and realistic for what’s going on. The whole avoidance of her birthday feel plausible with how it plays out with the mother leaving and the part with the clowns being turned into a crime scene before it comes back to tell why she hasn’t wanted to celebrate it since as well as the reluctance to meet with her father, as these actions are quite believable at setting up that kind of traumatic experience. With the series of scenes afterward, sharing that with her friend and how she starts to be terrorized by clowns pretty much everywhere she goes, from following her at school, appearing in public bathrooms, or disrupting the party to start attacking others around them in brutal, bloody fashion. These are enjoyable enough with the way the bizarre antics of the clowns are featured as their writhing, hypnotic movements and off-kilter interactions combine alongside the unhinged nature of their confrontations, it has a lot to like about it.
That also ends up highlighting the main issue here, in that there’s just not a whole lot of the film that makes sense overall. This is entirely made in the vein of allowing things to happen for no reason, especially when it comes to the clowns and their behavior, since there’s little about it that makes any sense for how they behave or interact with others. It seems to depend on the nature of the scene itself, where everything takes place, or what kind of focus the scene has, whether the clowns are menacing or playful, and it tends to produce scenes that take place with no rhyme or reason as to why they’re there. As well, the types of ethereal sequences here show the sequences playing out as if in a montage that leaves it looking artistic but lacking in concept that seems to be quite hard to come together with any impact. Combined with the obviously low-budget approach here, these are what hold this one down.
Overview: **.5/5
An intriguing if somewhat problematic genre effort, this one has enough to like about it that there are some likable factors that hold off just enough, even though the flaws do hold it down somewhat. Those with an appreciation for the style or approach will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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