Clown in 200 Words or Less

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Maybe if I hadn't already seen and loved the endless-scarf-stuffing out of Stitches, the Irish Coulrophobia horror-comedy from 2012, I'd have had more patience for the Eli Roth produced Clown - I mean it's not like there can only be one movie about scary clowns in the world! From Pennywise to those Killer Klowns From Outer Space to that time Finn Wittrock wore nothing but a clown mask and some tighty-whities (swoon), the territory is as ripe and roomy as a clown car in July. And yet Clown pratfalls a little flat. I'm entirely willing to admit this could be because I have seen the short film (actually a fake trailer, which you can still see here) on which this one's based - the full length version strings together the gags (meaning sometimes literally as in gagging) you're expecting with some characters that you never get to know before they're doing terribly dumb things and then bleeding all over their big floppy shoes. That said, the kid's play-land scene is a funny nasty self-contained little hoot worth watching the whole thing for - what Psycho did for showers and Jaws did for the ocean Clown does for ball-pits.

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