Well, actually, I can say a bit. Ok, we all know this is direct-to-video, but it is actually pretty good considering. Actually, the late 90s produced a few direct-to-video flicks worth viewing. At times I even think that the direct-to-video flicks are better than some horror films that manage to go to theaters. I mean, at least these know they're bad and don't pull us in with good marketing.
But that's enough about horror movies in general. "The Clown At Midnight" is a slasher film that brings you back to the 80s, when horror movies were trying to be fun, and occasionally scary. That is what this movie is like.
First off, unlike some direct-to-video slasher films, this movie has some potential. The cast is surprisingly pretty talented. We are actually given actors that we might have heard of somewhere out of the horror realm: Margot Kidder (well...), Christopher Plummer, Tatyana Ali, James Duvall, etc.
Second, the story is reasonably good. Maybe it's just my general paranoia of clowns, but I actually found the movie creepy. At times, the movie actually delivers some pretty good scares. Wow! Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you.
Finally, this movie tries to give it's body count some depth. Yeah, most of the teenagers in this film are just there to get killed off, but they have personalities. Back in the eighties, around the time we got to "Friday the 13th part... 30," characters in horror movies were just meant to show up, have sex, and get killed. The characters here, though a couple do follow this pattern, still have... something to them. We are given bitchy characters, smart-ass characters, sweet characters, wimpy characters, and, of course, horny characters. You know, the kind that figure: "hmmm... we're in a creepy old theater house where people were murdered before and, as far as we know, the killer was never found. Let's have sex!"
Ok, so we have a bunch of teenagers in a place they should never have gone to and die off one by one. We've all seen it before, but who cares. Some of us actually appreciate cheese... and this cheese tries to be scary... and delivers at times. It's direct-to-video, it's not classic, it's fun, and it's creepy!
But that's enough about horror movies in general. "The Clown At Midnight" is a slasher film that brings you back to the 80s, when horror movies were trying to be fun, and occasionally scary. That is what this movie is like.
First off, unlike some direct-to-video slasher films, this movie has some potential. The cast is surprisingly pretty talented. We are actually given actors that we might have heard of somewhere out of the horror realm: Margot Kidder (well...), Christopher Plummer, Tatyana Ali, James Duvall, etc.
Second, the story is reasonably good. Maybe it's just my general paranoia of clowns, but I actually found the movie creepy. At times, the movie actually delivers some pretty good scares. Wow! Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you.
Finally, this movie tries to give it's body count some depth. Yeah, most of the teenagers in this film are just there to get killed off, but they have personalities. Back in the eighties, around the time we got to "Friday the 13th part... 30," characters in horror movies were just meant to show up, have sex, and get killed. The characters here, though a couple do follow this pattern, still have... something to them. We are given bitchy characters, smart-ass characters, sweet characters, wimpy characters, and, of course, horny characters. You know, the kind that figure: "hmmm... we're in a creepy old theater house where people were murdered before and, as far as we know, the killer was never found. Let's have sex!"
Ok, so we have a bunch of teenagers in a place they should never have gone to and die off one by one. We've all seen it before, but who cares. Some of us actually appreciate cheese... and this cheese tries to be scary... and delivers at times. It's direct-to-video, it's not classic, it's fun, and it's creepy!