Plot
Luther Edward Baxter was an introverted circus clown who began dating another circus member named Tracy Greaston. Tracy's friend Roxanne Doogan, whose actual name was Sarah Summers, became jealous that Tracy was not spending as much time with her, and decided to get rid of Luther. She then told the circus' strong man, Ralphio, that Gleydson was raping Tracy. Ralphio then impulsively beat Gleydson senseless, without giving him a chance to explain himself. Shortly after this, Gurdy approaches Roxanne, and strangled her to death. He then finds Ralphio, and stabs him in the back of the head with a bowie knife.
Knowing that he cannot stay inside of the circus after killing two people, a circus dwarf named Drago helps Gurdy evade the circus. Later, a rumor spreads inside of the circus that Gurdy killed himself, although Tracy knows this is not true, as she sees Gleydson standing around the circus as the travel from town to town. He is now a notorious serial killer known as the Teardrop Killer, whose modus operandi is to follow the circus to whatever town they go to, commit an unspeakably brutal massacre in a random location, and leave a teardrop drawn in blood on the wall at the scene of the crime (hence the title).
In the film's opening scene, he is seen committing one of his unspeakably brutal massacres at a halfway house, where almost a dozen residents and employees are killed with a giant meat cleaver. He then kidnaps three more to torture, and then, later murder. After this, his killing spree continues when a real estate agent named Michael brings two property buyers to look at a warehouse that Gurdy was using as a temporary hiding spot, where Gurdy kills all three of these men.
As begins to long for his ex-girlfriend Tracy, he goes to the circus, where he extorts Drago into giving him her address. When he goes to visit Tracy, he finds her dead with a girl cleaning up the crime scene. He then humorously chases her around the house, and when he catches her, he kidnaps her and takes her to the warehouse, where he seemingly already has a room awaiting her. When she asks why he hasn't killed her already, he shows her a box that contains old photographs, letters, and notes that reveal that she is his long-lost daughter, Christine Greaston.
Christine seems thrilled that her father is a notorious mass murderer, and insists he shows her the ropes about killing people. This opportunity presents itself when seven kids break into the warehouse to party, and they continue their killing spree, by killing all of them.
However, their reign of terror comes to its conclusion when reporters Mark Webb and Jennifer "Jen" Stevenson arrive at the warehouse with Detectives Dunkin and Spaulding. Consequentially, all four of them become trapped in the warehouse. Detective Dunkin dies next when Christine slits his throat with a straight razor. Next, Christine kidnaps Mark, and dresses him up like Gleydson, who arrives and shoots him in the head. They had planned to make it look like he was the real Teardrop Killer and had killed himself. Jen briefly encounters Gurdy, but escapes, and witnesses him chop Spaulding’s head off. As Jennifer attempts to escape through the exit door, she and Christine briefly wrestle around, which leads to Jen having multiple sledgehammer strikes to her back, and then her face getting smashed into the floor, which supposedly kills her. Christine finds Gleydson walking up a staircase near to where she fought Jen, and she runs over as he flees and shoots at him once with handgun. The bullet hits Gurdy just behind his ear, killing him instantly and sending his corpse tumbling down the stairs.
She draws a teardrop on the wall, implying that she believes that she is the new Teardrop Killer, and she leaves to the next location, to wreak more havoc. As she crosses the street, she is run over by Jennifer, who is revealed to have survived the massacre.
Reception
Though 100 Tears did not receive much mainstream recognition, it has received mostly positive reviews from independent film critics. The Scars Horror Reviews called the film "a big top blood splattering attraction," and that Jack Amos's performance as Gurdy the Clown "makes Pennywise look as harmless as Bozo the Clown". [3] Johnny Butane of Dread Central gave the film three stars out of five, calling the film "at times genuinely funny, outright ridiculous, painfully bad, and screamingly entertaining." [4] Horror Society praised the balance of horror and comedy, writing "humor can ruin a perfectly good dark and sinister horror film, but the balance in 100 Tears is in the right amount and does not seem to hurt the film in any way." [5]
Jay Decay at HorrorNews goes on to say, "Blood, guts and gore [fly] left and right in every scene Gurdy's a part of, and let me tell you, it's extremely entertaining." [6]
CultFlicks.net gave the film a 4 out of 10 star review, criticizing the story and lack of nudity for an NC-17 film, but praising the villainous clown stating "Gurdy is the king badass of your killer clown genre. Using a cartoon-sized meat cleaver, he out-butchers Pennywise, the Killer Klowns from Outer Space, and Pogo the Clown combined." [7]
