"Clown" is a 2008 live action short film directed by Tate Steinsiek and he is also one of the two writers here. well.. the title says pretty much what this one is about: clowns. Younger ones, older ones, but pretty much always scary ones. Clowns do have their place in (film) history and if you see them, you understand why it totally makes sense that so many horror movies are linked to them, last but not least the pretty recent (fairly overrated in my opinion) new version of "It". But here it is more clowns versus clowns you could say. The recent rise inpopularity this film has gotten has mostly to do with the fact that Oscar nominee (maybe soon Oscar winner?) Timothée Chalamet is in it playing one of the major characters. And Walking dead fans will see a familiar face too. If they recognize it, that is. I must say I struggled with recognizing both Chalamet and Reedus under the heavy make-up. But yeah you cannot really say anything negative about them, their forgettable portrayals also have a whole lot to do with how they were written. Still I am a bit surprised that the most memorable performance here did not come from either of the two, but from the pretty unknown actor mentioned by the other reviewer as well. Then again, his part was also the showiest. How Chalamet's character turns out at the end is really the epitome of bloody and shocking for the sake of it, but completely lacking good (let alone great) story-telling. A bit of a disappointment I must say and I hoped this would be better, so I am not too thrilled either seeing Steinsiek returned to filmmaking recently again as the man in charge after a long career where he delivered in the special effects department. His movie here gets a big thumbs-down from me. Not even worth seeing for the biggest Chalamet and Reedus fans. Watch something else instead.
Review of Clown
