The Horror Show
Circus Kane
by Christopher Ray
The circus is a quality subject for horror. With all the clowns and bizarre images, it makes for perfect fear fodder. Another good subject is the idea of dangerous confinement. Another still is social media and how that plays into our world regarding terror, but what if we roll all of these concepts up into one film and try our best to keep it all contained? An example of what this would look like is the recent film Circus Kane. Allow me to tell you about it.
Circus Kane centers around fictional pop culture circus figure Balthazar Kane (Tim Abell). Kane's legacy takes a sinister turn when he is arrested after a fire he starts claims an intended victim. However, he manages to send out invitations to an array of people inviting them to compete for the chance to win $250,000. The group members don't know each other, but they all have some sort of tie to the horror community or social media. Each competitor takes the challenge, only knowing that it has something to do with them being scared. They are loaded into a van and taken to the area of the competition. And that is when things get bloody.
The film primarily focuses on the characters dealing with one another and trying their best to survive. It clearly takes inspiration from the likes of Cube and Saw but who doesn't love a good escape movie? It makes each scene its own and never feels like a copy and paste job. The characters are interesting, all standing apart from one another. It's nice to be thinking “no, not them!” at a death scene instead of “who was that again?” I genuinely found myself wondering what was going to happen to each one and was fully engaged the whole time.
The way that the game plays out is a little erratic. The early tasks are so easy to figure out, even I could pull it off and I'm pretty sure I could get lost in a revolving door. I like this though, as it allows the film to focus on what matters rather than the logistics of the game itself. The characters are the important part, as well as how they meet their demise. Admittedly, the game isn't much of a competition. A good deal of the time it's less about who's worthy and more about who Kane decides should get axed in the back in a given moment. But in the end, the whole event is about fear. And the idea of playing a game in which a player only has so much control over winning is certainly a terrifying one. Specifically, when losing means death.
I recognized a few faces throughout the film's running time. Richard Moll makes a small but important appearance and past “that kid” Jonathan Lipnicki also joins the cast. Whether I recognized them or not, everyone in Circus Kane did a commendable job with their respective parts. I was especially impressed by the performance of “Big Ed” actor Ted Monte. He stole every scene he was in and seemed to have a firm grasp of the character and how the dialogue was to be performed. I have no knowledge of this, but I wouldn't be surprised if some improvisation was utilized with the actor, if only in the writing process.
There isn't a ton of on-screen gore in the film, but it makes what’s there count. The blood and mayhem is perfectly in line with the type of film it is and there are a few noteworthy moments in regard to this category. You never quite know if the violent result of a kill is going to be off-screen or shown in full-light, brains and all. This adds a fun element of surprise whether it was done intentionally or not. It helps make the more visceral moments stand out more and I liked that.
All in all, Circus Kane isn't perfect but has plenty going for it. The writing can be uneven but I mean that as a partial compliment. For every stale line or spoon-fed moment there's clever dialogue or an interesting character interaction to make up for it. It doesn't sit in exclusively original waters, but it still feels fresh and is ultimately well done. So, I say give it a go. What could have been a paint by numbers effort turned out to be something pretty damn good. Not spectacular, but definitely well worth checking out.
P.J. Griffin, HMS
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