Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Mar 13, 2006 14:15:22 GMT -5
Plot:An artist with coulrophobia ("fear of clowns") is stalked by a murderous clown resembling one of the ones she paints.
Cast:
Jacky Reres
Mark Lassise
Rick Ganz
Darla Albornoz
John Patrick Barry
Steve Carson
Jed Duvall
Judith Furlow
Steven Gleich
Rich Henn
Paul C. Kangas
Frank Lama
Patrick T. McGowan
Lauren Pellegrino
My Thoughts:Pretty cool low budget slasher.
Review:"Fear of Clowns" plays on the phobia more than a few people have, which is coulrophobia. A scientific term for an intense fear of clowns. What the film lacks in quality and good acting due to it's low budget, it makes up for with mystery, suspense, and a whole helluva lot of blood and gore. The movie centers on a painter named Lynn Bludgett who is currently embroiled in nasty divorce proceedings with her ex husband. Her life begins to take an upswing when she's offered 8 grand for one of her paintings and then 20 grand to paint a commision portrait. But just as things begin to look up for her, she's continuously stalked by a man sporting a clown outfit. The clown killer is really the best part about this movie. We don't get much background info on him. Just that the dude is creepy, has black eyes, and loves to butcher people in savage ways. The only little sliver of backstory we get on the killer known as "The Clown", is that he takes orders from a number of voices in his head which constantly tell him that killing Lynn will "cure" him. He also sports a shirtless look, with just the face paint, neck ruffles, pants, and shoes part of the clown outfit, and weilds a sharp battle axe like weapon which he uses to kill practically every one of his victims. "Fear of Clowns" also throws us a great deal of mystery by inserting various red herrings in different parts of the movie such as a mysterious new love interest for Lynn named Tuck, a detective who always seems to be hiding something, and her sleazeball ex who has someone following Lynn with unknown intentions which are revealed later on in the movie. I don't know whether the object of all of this was to confuse the viewer as to who the clown might be, or to just set up a pretty hefty body count. Either way, it worked in the films favor on both ends. "Fear of Clowns" does suffer a bit from it's budget however, you can tell by the sets and acting and the way some of the scenes were shot, that this definitely is an indie horror pic. Some indie horrors are done so well you sort of wonder but this film is blatant with it's indie style. That's not necessarily a bad thing seeing as how the indie look and feel really heightens the films exciting climax which takes place inside a dark, and massive multiplex. But it does hurt the movie in some of the kill scenes. Speaking of the kills, the deaths aren't very creative but they certainly are efective and won't leave the viewer scratching his or her head about what happened to any of the clowns victims. We even get one bloody but cool scene near the end where one unlucky guy is picked off by the clown while visting the mens room. It's a messy scene to say the least. "Fear of Clowns" overcomes it's few obsticles by keeping the killer on screen more often than usual, and making him an interesting character study. On those rare occasions where he does speak, his voice is really gruff yet intimidating, and the face paint he's sporting looks awesome and very menacing.
That coupled with his slow yet methodical walk when he's approaching a would be victim, and you've got yourself quite a cool little indie villain here in this movie.
I wish we could've found out more about the clown but I hear the movies director Kevin Kangas is already hard at work on "Fear of Clowns 2". So hopefully that will shed more light on what this guys backstory is. "Fear of Clowns" is one of the best indie horror movies I've seen in awhile, and if you can deal with the movie moving a bit slow in a few areas (mainly the first 25 or so minutes or so), then you're surely in for a treat the rest of the way.
Pros:Great villain in "The Clown". Very manacing, and vicious. Kudos to Kangas for not skimping on the blood and gore in this movie. The final encounter between Lynn, Tuck, and The Clown at the theater was alos pretty intense with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. Nice gripping ending as well.
Cons: Like I said in the Review, sometimes the films very low budget nature shows a bit too much, and most of the acting was a smidge below average.
Overall:Fun slasher movie with an interesting villain and some really brutal kills. In other words, a slasher film for slasher film lovers.