Movie Review – Clowntergeist

A teen wakes up with a bloody mouth and a dozen red balloons in the living room. One red balloon has a date and time written on it. The teen leaves the house and drives off in a car, her father pleading with her to return home. When she arrives at her destination, she is concerned and calls her father, asking her father if she can cover the clown statue in the living room…her father says they do not own a clown statue…  Dramatic music score, credits roll and Clowntergeist (2017) begins.

The father, Mr.Randal (Burt Culver) now dealing with the  death of his daughter (Caitlin Rigney), and armed with a crossbow, sets out to find and kill the clown.

Enter Emma (Brittany Belland) and Heather (Monica Baker). They are best friends, who also work together at a diner that specializes in ice cream. Emma is Coulrophobic (fear of clowns) – even clown popsicles make her nervous. Jonah (Sean Patrick Murray) is their young supervisor, and it is obvious that he and Emma share a mutual attraction for one another. The three of them live in a middle to upper class suburb, where Pops (Tom Seidman) drives around an ice cream vending van, and there resides an overly-dramatic town sheriff with an accent (Johnjay Fitih) who’s purpose is to warn the kids of impending danger and to urge them to leave town.

The clown, named Ribcage (Eric Corbin), decides to stalk, pester, and kill the town residents. Ribcage continues to communicate by leaving red balloons with the date and time of a victim’s death, then proceeds to carry it out. Ribcage is typically hunched over, and either crouches or crabwalks when stalking his victims. Even though Mr. Randal claims Ribcage is a demon, it appears apparent that he is more of an annoying than threatening individual. He may stab you, or vomit black ooze while choking you, but he has no characteristics of a demonic beast. Despite the 3-to-1 odds, it never occurs to the kids to team up on the clown, they simply run and hide from him. In typical generic horror film fashion, Ribcage has a purpose, although a pointless one, which is not fully revealed until near the end of the film.

Director Aaron Mirtes is relatively new to the genre and film industry. Clowntergeist is his second feature film, while he has previously completed a variety of short films and has six television episodes to date. The acting in this film is subpar, mainly due to poor decision-making while being pursued, and from a series of unnatural reactions from the characters.

This weekend, why not catch IT (2017) instead? A troubled clown stars in that one as well, and the film comes highly recommended by Montilee.