The Horror Show
Clown
by Eli Roth
Horror movies that feature evil clowns are naturally creepy and frankly nightmarish. There have been some quite memorable performances that have anchored the horror genre and it’s always tempting to see new versions of devilish clowns. Eli Roth’s Clown is one more attempt to showcase the bloody mayhem caused by such a hellish figure. And the million dollar question is – is it worth it in the end?
The movie first introduces us to Meg (Laura Allen), a caring mother who throws her clown-obsessed son, Jack (Christian Distefano), a birthday party. When the hired clown fails to show up, everything falls so conveniently into place, as her husband Kent (Andy Powers) – a hard working realtor – finds a simple clown-costume in one of the houses he’s showing and decides to step in.
Things get complicated on the very next day, when all his efforts to take the costume off fall apart. Apparently, there’s no handsaw strong enough to help him get rid of his suit, which has strangely fused with his skin.
Doomed to spend his days to come wearing a clown costume – wig and everything – Kent begins to realize that there is something unnatural about the suit.
On the bright side, we don’t have to sit there and watch several minutes of pointless time-killers, as the lead actor finds out pretty quickly how deeply wrong wearing this costume was. The dark soul of an ancient demon, which is awakened every time someone wears the suit, will eventually consume him and pure evil will be unleashed.
Even though Clown falls into the splatter-horror category, one can’t help but actually laugh at the protagonist’s rumbling stomach every time he sees a child; a quite cheesy indication of his evil hunger that no amount of regular food can satisfy.
When it comes to realistically describing the genre of the movie, we might say it’s more of a mystery thriller infused with drama rather than an original slasher. The main point of Clown is the protagonist’s struggle to control his violent instincts and fight his inner demon who’s starting to resurface. Luckily, after 70 rather monotonous minutes, the movie – just like Kent’s performance – improves.
Once the transformation is complete the outcome gets more pleasing. The demon has consumed all that remains of Kent’s humanity and what we see becomes surprisingly entertaining: fun gore enriched with the Clown’s absolutely creepy looks. If only it lasted more. Eli Roth’s fruit of imagination, the Clown, is frankly the best asset of the movie and it’s a big shame he didn’t use it more. The demon’s limited performance is a tremendous mistake and it deprived the movie of becoming a powerful slasher.
What happened is that the movie chose to focus on the intermediate levels of the transformation and showcase the rather dull defiance on behalf of the protagonist to eat children. It’s the kind of depth that you aren’t exactly looking for in such flicks.
The idea behind Clown is really interesting, but it’s certainly lacking execution. The quite disappointing acting didn’t help to make it a bit more enjoyable and eventually, Eli Roth took a very strong concept and turned into a rather bland movie.
Maria Kriva, HMS
The Horror Show Menu.