Clown (film)

Last updated

Clown
Clown (2014 film) poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Jon Watts
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyMatthew Santo
Edited byRobert Ryang
Music byMatt Veligdan
Production
companies
Distributed by Dimension Films
Release dates
  • November 13, 2014 (2014-11-13)(Italy)
  • June 17, 2016 (2016-06-17)(United States)
Running time
100 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States [2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.5 million [3]
Box office$2.3 million [4]

Clown is a 2014 American supernatural horror film directed by Jon Watts in his feature directorial debut, produced by Mac Cappuccino, Eli Roth, and Cody Ryder, and written by Watts and Christopher Ford. It stars Eli Roth, Laura Allen, Andy Powers, and Peter Stormare. Visual effects for the clown monster were done by Jagdeep Khoza, Alterian, Inc., and Tony Gardner. Principal photography began in November 2012, in Ottawa. The film was released in Italy on November 13, 2014, [5] in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2015, and in the United States on June 17, 2016, by Dimension Films. [6] The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Contents

Plot

Kent McCoy, a real estate agent and his wife, Meg, host a birthday party for their young son, Jack. However, the hired clown cancels at the last minute. At the end of his shift, Kent finds an old clown costume in the basement of a house he is preparing to sell and tries it on. After the party, he falls asleep while wearing the outfit. The next day, Kent discovers he cannot take off the costume. He is forced to wear it to work and attempts to remove it again, injuring himself.

When Kent returns home, he complains about the problem to Meg. She removes the fake nose, accidentally wounding him. Meg also discovers that the wig has fused to his hair. Shadow, the family dog, eats the red clown nose. He starts exhibiting strange behavior and experiences a deep hunger, eating all the food in the house.

Kent decides to enlist the help of Herbert Karlsson, the previous owner. Karlsson begs him not to touch the costume. However, after learning that Kent is wearing the costume, Karlsson urges Kent to meet him at his old costume warehouse. At the warehouse, Kent discovers that the outfit is the hair and skin of an ancient Icelandic demon called the Clöyne. Karlsson drugs Kent, revealing that decapitation is the only way to prevent the metamorphosis and possession, but Kent fights back and subdues him. 

While Kent is driving Karlsson to the police station to report the drugging and assault, his fingers and toes start to grow excessively, causing him to crash their car. An injured Karlsson warns him to kill himself before it is too late. 

Kent flees into a forest and discovers a children's campsite. One boy discovers Kent in the woods, begging for food, but he accidentally bites off the boy's fingers. Taking Karlsson's advice, Kent tries to kill himself and goes to one of his properties. A little boy named Robbie tries to befriend Kent. but is told to go away. Kent later shoots himself in the mouth, spattering the wall with rainbow blood, but quickly regenerates and survives. Kent then attempts to decapitate himself with a pair of buzz saws. Robbie bursts in at the last second, causing the saw blades to shatter and kill Robbie instead. Kent suddenly feels the urge to eat the child after tasting his blood and does so before Meg finds him. 

Arriving home, Kent tells Meg to chain him up in the basement and not let him out as he is changing by the minute. Jack confides in his father about his school bully, Colton. After coaxing Jack into releasing him, Kent goes to Colton's house and eats him.

Meanwhile, Meg is attacked by Shadow, who has become possessed after eating the nose. Karlsson appears and saves her, decapitating the dog. He tells her Kent can remove the suit only after eating five children. She learns that Karlsson put on the costume to entertain the terminally ill children at a hospital where his brother, Martin, worked years ago. To free him from the costume, Martin smuggled five terminally ill children to feed the demon. The brothers then attempted to destroy the suit but failed.

Kent fully succumbs to the demon and sneaks inside a local Chuck E. Cheese, where he consumes one child in the ball pit and another in the slide, causing panic in the restaurant.

Meg finds Kent as Karlsson attempts to decapitate him with an axe. Before Kent can kill Karlsson, Meg tries to speak to the Clöyne to spare her husband. Instead, the demon urges her to find one more child for it to eat, telling her to bring the fifth child to "their special place". Otherwise, he will eat Jack. A lost child at the Chuck-E-Cheese recognizes Meg as a nurse, and begs Meg to take her home. Meg instead drives the child to the "special place" and locks her out of the car, but eventually panics when she thinks Kent is coming. When Kent is nowhere to be found, Meg realizes that the demon is going after Jack.

Meg rushes home and meets with her father, Walt, who has brought Jack home. After Walt tells Meg he is going to help her, the demon sneaks into the house and kills Walt by ripping off his jaw. Meg fights the demon off, but he attempts to devour their unborn child from her womb. She yells out for Jack to run, distracting the demon. The Clöyne leaves to search for him, but Meg slits its throat. Undeterred, the Clöyne throws her into a wall before he takes off again to search for Jack. Once the demon finds Jack, he attempts to devour him, but Meg chains his neck to a water heater. When Jack tells Meg that Kent is no longer there, the demon lunges again and Meg then knocks his head off with a hammer and apologizes for everything that happened. However, due to a muscle still attached to the body, the Clöyne revives and grabs Jack's leg. Meg ultimately rips off the head, killing both the monster and Kent. While embracing Jack, she watches in horror as its skin melts away, exposing Kent's severed head.

The film ends at Kent's autopsy later that evening where the costume, along with several of his belongings, is being packed away by the police as evidence.

Cast

Production

Eli Roth was the film's producer and had a brief cameo as Frowny the Clown Eli Roth 2007.jpg
Eli Roth was the film's producer and had a brief cameo as Frowny the Clown

In November 2010, Jon Watts and Christopher Ford uploaded a fake trailer to YouTube that announced Eli Roth would produce the film; Roth was not involved at the time. Roth spoke about the film, saying: "I loved how ballsy they were, issuing a trailer that said, 'From the Master of Horror, Eli Roth.' Some people thought I'd made the movie, or that it was another fake Grindhouse trailer... I really felt these guys deserved a shot, and that people are truly freaked out by evil clowns. It's new territory to make this a version of The Fly , where this guy can feel himself changing, blacking out only to find blood all over his clown suit. You're sympathetic toward a monster until the monster actually takes over." [7]

Principal photography began in November 2012 in Ottawa. Roth joined as a producer, and Watts directed the film based on a screenplay co-written with Ford. [8]

Music

Matt Veligdan composed the film's score, which also featured eight songs.

Clown
Soundtrack album by
Matt Veligdan
ReleasedDecember 27, 2014
RecordedDecember 27, 2014
Genre Movie soundtrack
Label Epic Records
Producer Matt Veligdan

Release

In September 2012, Dimension Films and FilmNation Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film. [9] The film was released on November 13, 2014 in Italy. [10] The UK premiere was February 27, 2015, in Scotland at FrightFest Glasgow 2015, followed by the DVD and Blu-ray release March 2, 2015. [11] The film was also released in the Philippines on March 25, 2015 and in Mexico on May 22, 2015. After being delayed, the film was released in the United States on June 17, 2016. [12]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Clown holds an approval rating of 46% based on 28 reviews, and an average rating of 4.8/10. The website's consensus reads, "Clown tries to bag a stylish, gory thrill, but good practical effects can't save this circus of mediocrity." [13]

Dominic Cuthbert of Starburst rated it 7/10 stars and wrote, "Clown may be formulaic and filled up to the guts with familiar tropes, but it is tremendous fun and an effective body horror." [14] Howard Gorman of Scream magazine rated it 5/5 stars and wrote, "With Clown the filmmakers have created an all-new monster of demonic proportions and it's a concept that certainly deserves to spawn a sequel or two as the sky really is the limit." [15] Jeremy Aspinall of the Radio Times rated it 2/5 stars and described it as "efficiently put together if a little sedate in pace". [16] Anton Bitel of Little White Lies wrote that the film doubles as an equally harrowing story of "a family man's losing struggle with his own paedophiliac impulses". [17] Brad Miska of Bloody Disgusting rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "Even though it's mostly a bore, there's still some really cool and fun stuff scattered throughout." [18] Keri O'Shea of Brutal as Hell wrote, "Neither frightening nor funny, here's another lesson to prove that fake trailers are often fine just as they are." [19] Joel Harley of HorrorTalk rated it 2/5 stars and wrote, "What could have been one of the few great killer clown movies winds up as yet another disappointment, being too uneven in tone and pace to be considered a success." [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evil clown</span> Pop culture trope and horror staple

The evil clown, also known as the creepy clown, scary clown or killer clown, is a subversion of the traditional comic clown character, in which the playful trope is instead depicted in a more disturbing nature through the use of horror elements and dark humor. The modern archetype of the evil clown was popularized by the DC Comics supervillain Joker starting in 1940, and again in 1980s by Pennywise from Stephen King's It. The character can be seen as playing on the sense of unease felt by sufferers of coulrophobia, the fear of clowns.

<i>Cabin Fever</i> (2002 film) Film by Eli Roth

Cabin Fever is a 2002 American comedy horror film co-written and directed by Eli Roth and the first installment in the Cabin Fever franchise. The film stars Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James DeBello, Cerina Vincent, Joey Kern, and Giuseppe Andrews. Inspired by a real-life experience where Roth developed a skin infection during a trip to Iceland, the story follows a group of college students who rent a cabin in the woods and fall victim to an unknown flesh-eating disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eli Roth</span> American filmmaker and actor (born 1972)

Eli Raphael Roth is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, namely splatter films, having directed the films Cabin Fever (2002) and Hostel (2005).

<i>Hostel</i> (2005 film) Film by Eli Roth

Hostel is a 2005 horror film written and directed by Eli Roth. It stars Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eyþór Guðjónsson, and Barbara Nedeljáková. It was produced by Mike Fleiss, Roth, and Chris Briggs, and executive produced by Boaz Yakin, Scott Spiegel, and Quentin Tarantino. The film follows a group of American tourists, as they end up in Slovakia where they are eventually taken one-by-one by an organization that allows people to torture and kill others.

<i>Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror</i> Science-fiction horror novel by Steve Alten

Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror is a 1997 science fiction horror novel by American author Steve Alten, and the first novel in the MEG series. The novel follows the underwater adventures of a Navy deep-sea diver named Jonas Taylor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treehouse of Horror XX</span> 4th episode of the 21st season of The Simpsons

"Treehouse of Horror XX" is the fourth episode of the twenty-first season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. The episode was directed by Mike B. Anderson and Matthew Schofield and was written by Daniel Chun. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 18, 2009.

<i>The Last Exorcism</i> 2010 American film

The Last Exorcism is a 2010 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Daniel Stamm. It stars Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Caleb Landry Jones, and Louis Herthum.

Slash-in-the-Box is a short horror film that was written and directed by Nick Everhart. The film was premiered at the KC Creepfest on October 28, 2011, and stars Tyler Hollinger and Elizabeth Masucci. It was selected by the director Eli Roth as a finalist in the 2011 Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights Short Film Competition and was also nominated for Best Editing in the 2011 Super Shorts International Film Festival.

<i>The Green Inferno</i> (film) 2013 American cannibal horror film by Eli Roth

The Green Inferno is a 2013 cannibal horror film directed by Eli Roth, with a screenplay by Roth and Guillermo Amoedo. It stars Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Daryl Sabara, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Sky Ferreira, Magda Apanowicz, Nicolás Martinez, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, Ramón Llao, and Richard Burgi. The film follows a young woman who joins an activist group that goes on an overseas trip, where they eventually run into a cannibalistic tribe.

<i>The Babadook</i> 2014 horror film written and directed by Jennifer Kent

The Babadook is a 2014 Australian psychological supernatural horror film written and directed by Jennifer Kent in her feature directorial debut, based on her 2005 short film Monster. Starring Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney, Barbara West, and Ben Winspear, the film follows a widowed single mother who with her son must confront a mysterious humanoid monster in their home.

<i>All Hallows Eve</i> (2013 film) 2013 film by Damien Leone

All Hallows' Eve is a 2013 American horror anthology film written, edited, and directed by Damien Leone. The film is presented as a series of shorts that two children and their babysitter discover on an unmarked videotape on Halloween night, all of which feature a homicidal clown named Art the Clown. The film stars Katie Maguire, Catherine Callahan, Marie Maser, and Kayla Lian, with Mike Giannelli as Art the Clown. It incorporates footage from the 2008 short film The 9th Circle, as well as the 2011 short film Terrifier, both of which were also directed by Leone and featured Art the Clown.

<i>31</i> (film) 2016 American film

31 is a 2016 American horror film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie, and starring an ensemble cast featuring Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Meg Foster, Richard Brake, Jane Carr, Judy Geeson, E.G. Daily, and Malcolm McDowell.

<i>The Meg</i> 2018 film by Jon Turteltaub

The Meg is a 2018 science fiction action film directed by Jon Turteltaub from a screenplay by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, loosely based on the 1997 novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. The film stars Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis. In the plot, a group of scientists encounters a 75-foot-long (23 m) megalodon while on a rescue mission on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

<i>Cabin Fever</i> (2016 film) Film by Travis Zariwny

Cabin Fever is a 2016 American horror film directed by Travis Zariwny and written by Eli Roth and Randy Pearlstein as a remake of Roth's 2002 film of the same name and the fourth and final installment in the Cabin Fever franchise. The film stars Samuel Davis, Gage Golightly, Matthew Daddario, Nadine Crocker, and Dustin Ingram. The film was released on February 12, 2016, by IFC Midnight. The film was universally panned by critics and underperformed at the box office.

<i>It</i> (2017 film) 2017 supernatural horror film by Andy Muschietti

It is a 2017 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti and written by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman. It is the first of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel of the same name by Stephen King, primarily covering the first chronological half of the book. It is the first film in the It film series as well as being the second adaptation following Tommy Lee Wallace's 1990 miniseries. Starring Jaeden Lieberher and Bill Skarsgård, the film was produced by New Line Cinema, KatzSmith Productions, Lin Pictures, and Vertigo Entertainment. The film, set in Derry, Maine, tells the story of The Losers' Club, a group of seven outcast children who are terrorized by the eponymous being which emerges from the sewer and appears in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Skarsgård), only to face their own personal demons in the process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crypt TV</span> Horror content site

Crypt TV is an American entertainment company founded by Jack Davis and filmmaker Eli Roth in April 2015, focused on the creation and distribution of horror-themed digital content with an emphasis on recurring monsters and characters in linked universes. Its creation was backed by producer Jason Blum and Blumhouse Productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art the Clown</span> Fictional character in the Terrifier franchise

Art the Clown is a fictional character and the primary antagonist in the Terrifier franchise and related media. Created by Damien Leone, the character first appeared in the short films The 9th Circle (2008) and Terrifier (2011). Both shorts were included in the anthology film All Hallows' Eve (2013), which marked the character's feature film debut. In these early appearances, he was portrayed by Mike Giannelli before his retirement from acting. He was replaced by David Howard Thornton, who portrayed Art in Terrifier (2016), Terrifier 2 (2022), and Terrifier 3 (2024).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sienna Shaw</span> Character in the Terrifier film series

Sienna Shaw is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Terrifier franchise. Sienna first appears in Terrifier 2 (2022) as a teenager interested in cosplay who battles the enigmatic villain Art the Clown. She is portrayed by Lauren LaVera, who will reprise the role in further installments. Sienna's creator, Damien Leone, invested a lot of time into fully developing her as a character as he regretted leaving the first film's heroine Victoria Heyes underdeveloped. The character originates from an abandoned film Leone was developing in the late 2000s, featuring the concept of a Valkyrie-angel warrior attired heroine battling Art.

Christopher D. Ford is an American film screenwriter, producer, and actor best known for his collaborations with director Jon Watts, including Clown (2014), Cop Car (2015), and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).

<i>Thanksgiving</i> (2023 film) Film by Eli Roth

Thanksgiving is a 2023 American slasher film directed by Eli Roth and written by Jeff Rendell, based on a story by the pair, who produced with Roger Birnbaum. Based on Roth's fictitious trailer of the same name from Grindhouse (2007), it is the third feature-length adaptation of a fictitious Grindhouse trailer after Robert Rodriguez's Machete (2010) and Jason Eisener's Hobo with a Shotgun (2011). The film stars Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon, and follows a small Massachusetts town that is terrorized by a killer in a John Carver mask around the Thanksgiving holiday one year after a Black Friday riot ended in tragedy.

References

  1. ↑ "CLOWN (18)". British Board of Film Classification . January 12, 2015. Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Clown (2014)". AllMovie . Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Eli Roth Talks 'Clown', Piracy And The Comic Book Movie He Wants To Make". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 21, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Clown (2015)". The-Numbers. Archived from the original on September 17, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
  5. ↑ Riggi, Erika (November 13, 2014). "Al cinema Clown, horror psicologico prodotto da Eli Roth. Clip in esclusiva". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian). Archived from the original on April 12, 2016. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  6. ↑ Alessandro, Anthony D' (March 22, 2016). "Weinstein Co./Dimension's 'Clown' Set To Haunt This June". Deadline Hollywood . Archived from the original on March 23, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Eli Roth Producing 'Clown,' Based on Fake Eli Roth Movie Trailer - /Film". Slashfilm. November 18, 2010. Archived from the original on November 8, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  8. ↑ Kit, Borys (November 16, 2012). "Shooting Underway for Eli Roth's Horror Movie 'Clown' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 13, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Toronto: Dimension Scores Big Deal For Eli Roth Pics 'Aftershock' And 'Clown'". Deadline Hollywood. September 7, 2012. Archived from the original on November 13, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  10. ↑ "This Poster For Eli Roth's New Movie Was Just Banned In Italy". November 5, 2014. Archived from the original on November 13, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Eli Roth's 'Clown' Gets Massive Image Gallery!". Archived from the original on November 13, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  12. ↑ Miska, Brad (March 22, 2016). "Eli Roth's 'Clown' Hitting Theaters This June!". BloodyDisgusting.com. Archived from the original on March 22, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Clown". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media. June 17, 2016. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  14. ↑ Cuthbert, Dominic. "Clown". Starburst . Archived from the original on August 31, 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  15. ↑ Gorman, Howard (January 22, 2015). "CLOWN: Film Review". Scream. Archived from the original on April 22, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  16. ↑ Aspinall, Jeremy. "Clown". Radio Times . Archived from the original on March 31, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  17. ↑ Bitel, Anton (February 3, 2015). "Glasgow FrightFest 2015: New Horror Round-up". Little White Lies . Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  18. ↑ Miska, Brad (March 4, 2015). "[Review] 'Clown' Delivers All Sorts of Juicy Surprises". Bloody Disgusting . Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  19. ↑ O'Shea, Keri (February 28, 2015). "DVD Review: Clown (2014)". Brutal as Hell. Archived from the original on March 24, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  20. ↑ Harley, Joel (March 6, 2015). "Clown Movie Review". HorrorTalk. Archived from the original on May 9, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.