Just as Pennywise from Stephen King's IT has many faces, the terrifying monster clown is
too big an idea for just one franchise.
Creepy clowns have appeared in a wide variety of movies over the years, and they're just
as terrifying now as they ever were.
Here are some movies featuring deadly clowns you might not have met—and who may haunt
your nightmares once you do.
"See you in your dreams."
Clown
Brought to you by future Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts, Clown was shot in 2012,
but it took until 2016 to find distribution in the U.S.
It's a genuinely disturbing film, featuring one of the most terrifyingly inhuman clowns
ever to appear onscreen.
Kent's just a regular guy, but when his son's birthday party is almost ruined after the
clown cancels, Kent puts on an old suit and plays the role himself.
Unfortunately, the suit is cursed, and he starts transforming into a demonic clown with
an insatiable need to eat the flesh of children.
So… have fun with that.
Stitches
Stitches wasn't a very good clown to begin with, but his career—and his life—ended
when some kids tied his shoelaces together and he fell onto an upturned knife and died.
Six years later, those kids are teenagers having a party in the same house, and Stitches
rises again to take his revenge, complete with Go Go Gadget clown murder arms.
All Hallows' Eve
In the three part anthology All Hallows' Eve, a babysitter working on Halloween finds a
videotape of a murdering clown in a kid's Trick or Treat bag.
Soon, the clown on the tape begins to appear in the real world.
All Hallows' Eve director Damien Leone created Art the Clown years before the movie's 2013
release for his short films Terrifier and The 9th Circle, both of which were incorporated
into All Hallow's Eve.
The killer clown is set to return in Leone's next film, a feature-length version of Terrifier.
Amusement
This 2008 film is split into sections focusing on three girls attempting to escape from a
maniac in clown makeup.
Before he became the masked clown, this movie's main character was a psychologically unbalanced
child who was picked on by those same three girls.
Now that they're all grown, he's hunting them down and taking revenge.
Clownhouse
It's basically the perfect setup for a low-budget 1989 horror movie: three escaped mental patients
kill some clowns at the circus and steal their costumes, then follow three teenage brothers
home to their big, isolated house.
Creepy music and murder ensue.
Unfortunately, the real-life circumstances of Clownhouse's production turned out to be
far more disturbing than its story.
Director Victor Salva was convicted of molesting the actor who played the youngest brother,
and the story resurfaced when Salva, after a brief prison stay, was hired by Disney to
direct Powder in 1995.
Anyone who knows the story is understandably going to find Clownhouse hard to watch.
Blood Harvest
Mervo the Marvelous is unique among the clowns on this list—he's not necessarily the killer
in Blood Harvest, he's just hanging around, being creepy, in the town where the killings
are happening.
Played by Tiny Tim, the falsetto-singing ukulele player, Mervo is the older brother of the
ex-boyfriend of Jill, the film's protagonist.
"I brought you some flowers, Jill."
When everyone who Jill cares about starts dying, Mervo is one of the possible suspects,
obviously - when people are mysteriously dropping dead, that guy in town who likes to wear clown
makeup is going to look pretty suspicious.
Blood Harvest turned out to be little more than a footnote in Tiny Tim's unusual career,
but it's certainly weird enough to be worth a look for enthusiasts of the clown horror
subgenre.
Vulgar
Have you ever wanted to watch Jay and Silent Bob fight a killer clown?
Well, Vulgar's your chance.
Kevin Smith produced and acted in this ultra low budget 2000 horror comedy about a murderous
clown named Vulgar who wants revenge on the men who assaulted him.
Vulgar was directed by Bryan Johnson, and stars Brian O'Halloran, best known as Dante
from Clerks, in the title role.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
After its 1988 release, Killer Klowns from Outer Space became a minor cult classic, but
it's not as widely remembered or beloved as it once was.
It tells the story of clownlike aliens who arrive on Earth in flying saucers that look
like circus tents and begin massacring and eating all the humans they find, often in
ridiculous ways that resemble circus performances.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space was the only film written and directed by the Chiodo Brothers,
special effects artists who also created the titular monsters for the Critters movies.
Gacy
John Wayne Gacy might be the scariest killer clown of all, for the simple reason that he
actually existed.
A family man and respected community member, Gacy turned out to have the bodies of more
than 30 people buried underneath his house.
The bio-pic Gacy came out in 2003, and while it's not a widely remembered or popular film,
it's a must-see if you're interested in true crime or killer clowns.
"Now we aren't strangers, are we?"
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