Clownface, NR, 92 minutes
Written and directed by Alex Bourne
Clownface stars Philip John Bailey, Hannah Douglas, Richard Buck, Thomas Loone, Dani Tonks, Leah Solmaz, Abigail Wisdom, Chloe Rose Fisher, and Matt Allen.
Clownface is a British production, with Cyfuno Ventrues and Great Escape Films, and is distributed by Wild Eye Releasing.
Synopsis:
A deranged young man, donned in a clown mask made of human flesh, terrorizes a small town with a series of abductions and murders. Neighbors Jenna and Owen search for their missing friend Zoe, who may be the latest victim of this local urban legend known as Clownface.
Well, you guys should know by now that I usually like British movies, especially their science fiction…
Unfortunately, this is a horror film. It is a slasher film, to be precise.
And it’s not really that good a one.
As you read in the synopsis above, there is a killer who wears a clown mask made of human flesh. He does, in fact, giggle a lot, much like a clown would, but any further resemblance to a clown ends there. It’s ClownFACE for a reason, I suppose.
But the movie itself is nothing spectacular. There’s no deep, dark secret forcing the killer to kill, so there’s nothing to discover. It’s a straight up “try to survive” film, but even then, everyone is so stupid in here that it’s nearly impossible for them NOT to die.
The missing girl escapes her cell after a year of captivity by finally slipping the rope around her wrists and striking Clownface when he comes in to check on her, but, in addition to stopping to look sloooowwwwlllyyyyy at the table of torture instruments in his workshop as she passes through, allowing him to recapture her, but she couldn’t even be bothered to close the door–not lock it, mind you: close it–when she ran from her cell.
The ending feels like it was supposed to be some sort of deep statement about… something.
But in the end, Clownface is pretty shallow… spring shower on your sidewalk shallow.
Meh.
My Grade: D-
Clownface hit DVD and Digital on August 18, 2020.