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Clowntown review by Bobby Blakey

One of the best aspects of horror is the ability to take something that isn’t meant to be scary and make it so. Clowns are one of the best things to do that with as there are so many that have actual fears of them despite them being meant to bring smiles to children. The latest film, Clowntown looks to amp up the horror of the clown persona in a different way, but does it have the bloody laughs to deliver or will it be a performance not worth smiling at?

Clowntown follows a group of friends get stranded in a seemingly deserted small town and find themselves stalked by a violent gang of psychopaths dressed as clowns. This film struggled a little bit to get going mostly due to the usual hit and miss performances from the cast, but once they get to the craziness of the clowns things pick up. This film isn’t offering up anything we haven’t seen in the slasher style genre before, but add to that multiple clowns and it always take it to the next level. Once the bloody chaos begins the film manages to offer up some crazed fun thanks to the always great visuals of insane clowns wreaking havoc on the innocent teens stuck in their path. Where the film struggles is some pacing early on and as mentioned previously some of the performances, but no one really watches a horror film for the acting anyway. Where the film is fun watching the insane clowns do their thing the film falls into a clichéd generic format that keeps it from ever really standing out in a genre that offers up more than fans care about.

In the end this film fails to fully make its mark on the horror genre as something that stands out, but does offer up just enough fun that it will no doubt find its audience in those that just love to see clowns do bad. Like most horror films decide for yourself and check out Clowntown in theaters September 30th and then on DVD and VOD on October 4th.   

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