I've scarcely seen many other slashers in my time that have displayed such a masterfully effective use of shadows and suspense as this one does. The picture is basically a series of various set-ups of suspenseful situations and that, coupled with the eerie ambiance is what I think it does the best and is what I love the most about it. I don't think they could get away with making movies this visually dark these days, you just don't see them anymore. This film does a lot of stuff dead right. It's scary without relying on jump scares or gory effects, with hardly a drop of blood being spilt throughout. And maybe for some people that hurts the movie but I'd personally enjoy it just as much either way. I think it brilliantly demonstrates that horror doesn't need blood in order to be effectively frightening. The theme music is very memorable, and instantly sets a distinctly strange and unsettling tone. I really believe this is as perfect a killer clown movie as there could ever possibly be, there's only so much you can do with that. Although it excellently plays off the fear of clowns, you sure as heck don't need it to be freaked out by these ones! Alright, to be fair it's only really the leader, a stony-faced fiend with a ghastly piercing expression, who has any strong sense of unnatural menace to him - which is perfectly fine, as he packs more than enough threat for all three! He's no Pennywise, but I think the man's performance makes this movie, and imbues it with the most primal fear. The other two weren't all that much at all really. The one with the pointy hat behaved as if he were a retarded person, his death brings a laugh, and the one with the purple hair was plain pathetic, looking like nothing more than a bored, spaced-out man in a clown suit whom the kids manage to defeat by bonking him over the head with a plank of wood! But that said, I did like the way the clowns never came off as silly despite being the flamboyantly colourful rainbow-haired variety. I like how, save for one maniacal laugh at the beginning, they never say a word or barely a sound, almost being like ghosts at points. And that's something really interesting that the film somewhat delves into and like what Casey says is that, it's not necessarily about clowns as such, but the idea of something twisted and evil hiding behind a false happy mask of makeup. Of course it doesn't help that these particular harlequins do have pretty scary faces! And when it's actually kids in a horror movie that are being terrorised, that's a whole different brand of terror. ::: What I liked the best about the combined performances of Winters Mchugh and Rockwell, was that although their acting wasn't perfect, I actually believed them as brothers, the brother dynamic between them was very well captured and established, as were their individual characters and places in the brotherly hierarchy. I thought the relationship between Geoffrey and Casey seemed really sweet and genuine. And Randy, while just seeming to be a threatening bully to Geoffrey, occasionally showed a softer more concerned side when it came to Casey, so he wasn't really a complete jackass. And I must say, the only thing I did dislike about this film was Nathan Forest Winters, He was way too whiny, and so mumbly with his lines that most of the time I couldn't tell a word he was saying, and to me he just made for one very poor lead. ::: I love the numerous excellent little moments throughout where a clown will dart past in the background or something, and just as someone will turn to look they'll be gone. All that stuff just greatly enriched and heightened the fearful atmosphere of dread and creepy claustrophobic feel of this classic. Like in the early scene where the maniacs have just killed the real clowns and first put on their spooky makeup. The only real colour in the shadowy room is the brilliant white of the face paint as one of them ominously smears it across his face, and it's like the donning of the warpaint! And thus truly begins the madness... And in another moment that occurs at the end of a skillfully done sequence where the boys take turns telling a scary story and get a little carried away and inadvertently attract the clowns' attention. The way the lead clown slowly turns and stares straight at Casey just as he happens to look out the window at the wrong moment is so incredibly chilling. Marked for death... And I don't know about you, but if I were to look out my window and see that in the dead of night? I dare say that would be scary as hell! The whole film is like a dream, or a nightmare. It starts slow and progresses deeper and deeper into this, almost surreal kind of madness, culminating in the surprisingly brutal axe-in-the-back grim ending. Great to watch around Halloween or just whenever you may feel like some tried and trusted, sweet old '80's frights and fun! Bye!
Review of Clownhouse
