"No man can hide from his fears; as they are a part of him, they will always know where he is hiding."
The travelling circus is intended to be an outlet for families to escape from the monotony of every day life, providing them with games and amazing shows that they can't see anywhere else. Amidst the prizes, the animals, the music, the human oddities, and the smell of cotton candy is the clown. Perhaps the oddest oddity of them all, the clown wears an irreversibly happy mask. Some think clowns are funny, while others liken them to the oversized stuffed figure children keep in the darkest corner of the closet for fear of its watchful marble eyes and vaguely human grin.
"Their faces are fake. Big happy eyes. Big painted smiles. It's not real. You never know what they really are," says Casey (Nathan Forrest Winters), the main protagonist of Victor Salva's Clownhouse. Moments earlier, he bolted from a circus tent because a clown tried to pull him on stage. The film's plot revolves around Casey, an acute coulrophobe, and his two older brothers. Randy (Sam Rockwell, Charlie's Angels), the eldest, has been put in charge of Geoffrey (Brian McHugh) and Casey while their parents are away. After Casey's mishap at the circus, the three head home to spend the night. Meanwhile, three mental patients (naturally) escape from a nearby institution and head to the circus themselves, where they then snag some clown costumes and make a beeline to Casey's house.
The simple story becomes frightening through the cinematic eye of Victor Salva, who makes the low budget made-for-cable film visually polished and generally well-paced. One of Salva's best techniques revolves around his use of suspense; the clowns are initially treated as figments of a child's overactive imagination rather than run-of-the-mill serial killers. In one of my favorite scenes, Casey struggles to keep up with Randy as they take a late night jog to the store. Casey pleads with his brother to slow down, positive that there is someone behind him. There is. Interestingly, Casey never actually sees the clown chasing him, which makes the scene unconventionally effective. I have been there myself, walking down a long corridor or a stretch of road in the night, feeling a constant presence that is just slightly out of view. Salva captures that intense feeling brilliantly and makes it obvious early on that Clownhouse owes much more to Halloween than Friday the 13th.
The acting in the film is pretty standard for what one would expect from a group of kids in a low-budget thriller. The only actor who really stands out is Sam Rockwell ("Randy"), who has since gone on to have a pretty successful career, with roles in films like The Green Mile and George Clooney's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. The characters do have a nice dynamic, though, and often share relatively believable dialogue (even if their conversations are a bit too centered on Casey's fear of clowns).
Clownhouse's faults lie mainly in its simplicity. The basic plot couldn't get much weaker, and Salva's script leaves him with about forty minutes to kill with suspense before a rather unsatisfactory climax. When the boys discover that the clowns are real, Salva loses his grip on the viewer; the clowns change from symbols of terror to guys in funny suits. Still, Salva brings us some memorable images in the interim and makes the film better than it has any right to be.
A review of Clownhouse can never be complete without mention of the behind-the-scenes horror that went on during filming. In 1995, when Victor Salva released his next film, Powder, it was revealed that he had spent fifteen months in prison for five counts of sexual molestation of a minor. The child in question turned out to be Clownhouse star Nathan Forrest Winters (he was twelve at the time of filming), who naturally went on to lead protests against the release of Powder. It's painful at times to watch Clownhouse with the knowledge of what happened, especially in early scenes where the boys walk around in their underwear or when there is a gratuitous shot of rear nudity by Winters. However, no matter what one may think of Salva as a human being, it's important to view the film objectively. With that said, I recommend Clownhouse to slasher fans. It's a well-executed thriller that suffers only from a simple, rather silly premise and a formulaic finish.
THE BOZO COUNT
There are around eight kills in all, but most of them take place off screen with the results shown soon after.
THE NUDITY (A little something for the perverts in the house!)
Nothing anyone in their right mind should care about.
YOU CAN LEARN A LOT FROM A MOVIE (Facts to help you deal
with your turbulent life.)
1. Arnold Schwarzenegger moonlights as a circus clown.
2. Mental institutions really need to start beefing up their security.
OKAY, I WATCHED THE MOVIE...NOW WHAT, FANCYPANTS?
(Plugs for other flicks.)
Well, if you enjoyed Clownhouse I'd recommend:
* It
* Halloween
* Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Clownhouse is rated R. It contains violence, language (mostly English), brief nudity, and one of the weirdest ghost story scenes I've ever witnessed. Viewer discretion is advised.
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