By Lindsey Schibelhut, Staff Reporter.
Coulrophobia describes people with an overwhelming fear of clowns. And if you had a fear of clowns before, then the movie “Clown” isn’t going to make you want to honk that big red nose anytime soon.
The film was directed by Jon Watts and produced by Mac Cappuccino, Eli Roth and Cody Ryder. It was written by Christopher D. Ford and Watts was released in 2014.
The movie starts out innocently enough, with a family trying to put on a birthday party for their son Jack (Christian Distefano). They soon find out, however, that the clown they hired for entertainment at the party isn’t able to make it. With no other alternative, Jack’s father, real estate agent Kent McCoy (Andy Powers), decides to don a clown costume he found. The costume was discovered in a house he is helping to sell. Little does Kent know, the clown costume he is wearing isn’t really a costume, it’s the skin of a demon. Putting the suit on will be the easy part, getting it off? Well…that’s going to require some child sacrifices.
Some of the exceptional parts of this film were not only the visual shooting styles, but also the special effects makeup. You see Kent’s character go through all of the stages of disintegration. The longer he can’t get the suit off, the further into madness he goes and the demon starts taking over, making him almost unrecognizable; as for that the makeup department did well.
There were some negatives aspects, though. Mainly it was acting done by Laura Allen who plays Kent’s wife Meg. Meg is on this wild ride of saving her husband from this suit and in some parts I felt the acting didn’t match the severity of the situation. Andy Powers as Kent was the strongest actor. As a virtual unknown he brought his “A” game when it came to playing creepy and evil.
The movie’s plot while in the beginning seemed unique in it’s own way, started to remind me a little of the 1986 film “The Fly” starring Jeff Goldblum. Goldblum’s character starts to disintegrate, having body parts falling off because of an experiment gone wrong – ultimately turning him into a fly. “Clown” has some of those similar elements. The movie may not be as gross as “The Fly” but it definitely has some cringe worthy moments that make you question whether you should even like it.
If you are searching for a “B” style horror flick to give you some chills, I’d recommend seeing “Clown.” When I first checked out the trailer for the movie, I wasn’t sure it would be any good. After viewing the film, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t half as bad as I expected (and for a film that was produced by Eli Roth that’s saying a lot). The movie will definitely have you wanting to lock away your children and give people with a fear of clowns the reason behind why they fear them in the first place.