Clownhouse

Starring:Gloria Belsky, Frank A. Damiani, Timothy Enos, David E. Gehringer, Kate Haefke, Brian McHugh (II), Tom Moffram, David C. Reinecker, Sam Rockwell, Gail Rouse-Haefke, Bobby Salem, Viletta Skillman, Karl-Heinz Teuber, Anne Tomin, Russell Jasper Watts, Bryan Weible, Michael Jerome West, Nathan Forrest Winters, Erika Young
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Craphouse
Yo man! Dis Movie Be Scary Yo!
Send In The Clowns!
Its Really Just A BAD Movie
The most horrifying film ever made. Yet why one star?

Clownhouse
Starring: Gloria Belsky , Frank A. Damiani , Timothy Enos , David E. Gehringer , and Kate Haefke
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00009PY3I
Release Date: 2003-07-07

Customer Reviews:

Craphouse.......2007-06-15

After reading the reviews for Clownhouse I decided that I had to add it to my horror collection. I bought it, sat through it, and found myself VERY disapointed. I have to admit one part made me jump,and I did enjoy the atmosphere but the idea was un-original, which wouldn't have bothered me but it wasn't done well. Three lunatics escape, dress as clowns and terrorize three brothers. I'm surprised I sat through this! If you're seriously considering buying this film, I strongly reccomend renting it first.

Yo man! Dis Movie Be Scary Yo! .......2006-03-01

Yo, I'm sittin' in my crib watchin' dis Clownhouse movie, right...next thing I know I start hearin' voices in my head. They saying mad scary things, like..."YO, LISTEN UP..CLOWNS IN YO ATTIC...CLOWNS IN YO BASEMENT...CLOWNS TAKIN' OVER YO MIND MAN! YOU BEST GET OUT DA HOUSE OR CLOWNS GONNA STRANGLE YO NECK!" So I grabbed all the 40's out my fridge and ran out da crib faster than a cheetah! I ran down da block passed all my homies and I didn't stop 'till I tripped over my own clumsy feet. Dat movie is mad scary man! Peace out dawg!

Send In The Clowns!.......2005-12-03

Plot: Three brothers -- Casey (Nathan Forrest Winters), Geoffrey (Brian McHugh), and Randy (Sam Rockwell) -- are left on their own when their parents leave town for the weekend. They decide to visit the local carnival/circus, even though Casey is terrified of clowns. And boy is this a bad night to choose! Three anonymous mental patients (Michael Jerome West, who is credited as "Tree", Bryan Weible, and David Reinecker) have escaped and run away...to the circus! After the show is over, the real clowns -- known as Cheezo (Timothy Enos), Bippo (Frank Damiani), and Dippo (Karl Heinz Deuber) -- are slaughtered by the inmates, who steal their clothes and makeup for a creepy disguise (then again, they do seem quite delightfully mad, so maybe they actually think they ARE clowns). They eventually find their way to the house of the three brothers. And, once they realize the residents are home, they decide to have a little fun. Of course, to the brothers, this will be nothing less than a night of terror! The inmates, for reasons unknown, seem to love a good kill, and tonight they're gonna give these boys a whole house full of horrific surprises!

Clowns have always been an interest of mine, and lately I've become even more interested. So, as a horror buff, I figured Clownhouse had to be the perfect flick for my evilly kooky taste. Well, while there are a few parts of the film that are certainly less than genius, I was quite impressed. Most B-movies have to take themselves lightly, or they will be a wreck. But there are a few of them that try to be full-on horror and suspense and accomplish their goal. Clownhouse wasn't particularly scary to me, but I thought -- for it's lack of comedic approach -- that it was executed very well. The acting isn't all that great, but it's not too distracting either. Once the psycho clowns start doing their business, you forget all about any underlying flaws. I think the atmosphere was what this was all about. Not to mention the fact that it was mostly believable. Almost every scene took a fairly realistic approach to the story. This sometimes causes a little boredom here and there, but for the most part makes the movie much more entertaining. The score (often an eerie big-top-ish tune, calliope style or with a music box) was definitely a pleasant surprise -- especially the theme, which can be heard in its entirety at the end credits. And, whether you're rooting for the clowns or the brothers, there are plenty of good scenes and a few creepy moments to satisfy the viewer. The concept alone is a good enough reason to see this, but I think Salva pushed it to the limit and came out with an enjoyable film for any horror fan to own. Overall, I don't really think I have any complaints. For a blockbuster hit, this would've been a bit of a disappointment. But for a rarely known B flick, I've got to give it two thumbs way up. There aren't any special features besides the theatrical trailer, but who needs 'em?

Its Really Just A BAD Movie.......2005-11-01

Leaving aside the painful and horrific real life incident that taints the movie for a moment, lets just look at the movie as it is. First off, I love horror movies, some of my faveorites even include ones that are considered "Bad" by tons of movie critics, like the first 4 'Friday the 13th' movies. I love most of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, and the first 2 Halloween movies, and tons others, inlcuding, yes, Victor Salva's own 'Jeepers Creepers', whcih I think is the best horror movie to have come out in the last 5 years.
But Clownhouse is just laughable and annoying and terribly acted. The bickering among the 3 brothers was driving me nuts for one. The characters do so many amazingly stupid things that are cliches in horror movies, and they do them often, more so than in even the dumbest horror movies. Peple here have already noted the very cheesy music that takes away from whatever creepiness there is. The movie is just plain Boring.

The killings are all dull and lifeless. There just didnt seem to be any reason for this movie to exist, I mean its barely 80 minutes long! That is incredibly short for any movie, even a horror movie, which are usually around 90 minutes-plus or minus a few.
The movie is very lazy at explaining who the killers are, we get very little info about them, why they are mental patients, for one-What did they do? I mean what is their method of killing or why are they dangerous. Now that they are loose, what do they want? Money? Do they just wanna kill? Isn't it strange that they don't talk at all? SOme people have actually compared this to the greatest horror movie of them all, John Carpenter's Halloween, now thats a truley scary thought.
The movie was also incredibly predictable and took an incredibly long time to finally have the kids realize the killer clowns were in the house and gonna kill them, and even when the action finally starts, its all too unbeleivable and silly to beleive.
Unfortuneatley, I had a rather disturbing and sinister thought about why this "horror" movie, which almost doesnt even feel like a real horror movie to me, anyway, might have been made. Apparently, Victor Salva , the director had been molesting the young child star of the film, Nathan Forrest Winters, for years since he was age 7, they had previously worked on Victor Salva first film, a short film, some years earlier. Perhaps this whole movie making enterprise was endeavered just so Victor could have even more close proximity with the boy so he could molest him even more. Perhaps that is why Victor made the film. Its ironic that this movie is about evil clowns, because a clown is someone that usually makes kids happy, the kid actually has a line about why clowns are fake and shouldnt be trusted. Its all so weird, like was Victor trying to get himself caught? There is so much incriminating visuals and dialogue in this film that just doesnt belong in a horror movie, but well brings to mind kiddie porn. Apparently Victor was also a friend of the kids family for years. This movie is almost like Victor was bragging about his molestation of the boy, using his camera and storytelling skills to shove in everyone's faces his relationship with the boy. \
There is some strange back story in the film that is never really explained that alludes to mental illness, that the boy may have been suicidal and tried to off himself by cutting his hand or perhaps wrist. Its said he has "scars" there. Also that the boy may have been committed, just like the escaped killer clowns? Is Salva drawing a parallel there? Why does the child wet the bed at such an advanced age, Whats his problem anyway? Its never said, but perhaps Salva is hinting that hes gay, who knows. Its interesting that the killers dont just escape out of jail, they excape from a mental facility perhaps they are really just sick individuals, just like the boy ? Is Victor Salva trying to say he and the boy actor in the film both share something that others may say is sick but that they belong together? They say that child molestors search out young boys who they think are homosexual, who are one of them. The clowns are drawn to the boy, yet its also always the boy who see them, almost like hes looking for them like they are both drawn to each other.
I dont know why this film was made, so if my theories rub some here the wrong way, I am sorry, I just cant figure out why someone who would show talent in later horror movies like Jeepers Creepers, would make such a pointless awful and strange horror movie, if not for his own perverted pleasure. Definitely miss this flick, and dont be fooled by all the surprisingly positive reviews here. This movie sucks!

The most horrifying film ever made. Yet why one star?.......2005-09-27

The most horrifying film ever made. Clown House does the impossible, simultaneously pedestrian and brilliant, classic and clichéd, innovative and banal, dull and horrifying, with depressively wooden performances that upon Platonic examination are agonizingly electrifying. It is as trite as an Olsen Twins montage, and as grave as a snuff film. This movie is an abomination.

And yet it must be viewed twice. Once with the innocent eyes of an esthete video aficionado, beer and popcorn at hand, watching a horror movie with its usual familiar devices. This is the first level of text, for which critical engagement is not uncalled for. And yet, the more compelling text is beneath this surface, and points to the final aporia. For this is not fictive horror, this is documentary horror.

The script takes its inspiration from Lon Chaney's assertion that "There is nothing scarier than a clown after midnight," and follows Casey, an eleven-year-old boy with an unexplained fear of clowns. Against his conscience, he joins his two unsympathetic brothers on an excursion to the circus with a partial agenda to confront his fears. That same night three psychopathic killers escape a local mental hospital and appropriate the accoutrements and twisted guise of the circus's clowns, and proceed to the boys' house to "unhinge a jack-in-the-box of nightmares for Casey and his brothers!" This formula is not without charm.

And now for the subtext. In the horror genre, there is a visual device of using "the killer's point of view." This cliché is absent from Clown House, but the predator is indeed behind the camera, for director Victor Salva's degenerate weltanschauung is the true iniquity that has been recorded. For during the entire filming of Clown House Salva was raping the child star Nathan Forrest Winters, scarring him forever, smothering his spirit, and debasing him as a piece of meat. Winters' leaden acting is a direct result, for he could no longer invoke his art through the depression. This film, therefore, is not even child pornography, for it is far worse, it is the coded diary of a monster who disguises himself and his art in the innocent thrills of a horror movie. Almost like a clown, yes? Superficially innocent fun, yet underneath a monster, unknown and disguised. John Wayne Salva: Victor Gacy.

And this is the horror from which we cannot turn away. This is the "fascination of the abomination," this is Ricoeur's archetypes of sin, defilement, and guilt all incarnate in digital images, for this is evil. All engraved in a 1:33.1 aspect ratio for your convenient viewing pleasure.

Yet there is another text at work here: Salva recorded the whole thing. It is almost as if he wanted to be caught, wanted a parent to burst in and chase the monsters away. "Look at me! See what horrible thing I am doing! I'm getting away with it!" the twisted child cries into the night, and grows to complete the circle himself.

On first viewing there is a pointlessly long shot of Winters undressing to his underwear, which only marginally contributes to the tension of vulnerability. But on second viewing, when we know that we are watching the film through the eyes of Winter's rapist, it becomes the most horrifying shot in the film, and is in fact the probably method of Salva's seduction. Is that Salva's voice calling to Winters "Let's rehearse this scene [and then I'll rape you]?"

Only Paolo Pasolini's "Salo: One Hundred Days of Sodom" approaches the debasement of this film, yet Pasolini's painful sadomasochistic abuse of children was all faked. In "Clown House," Salva's off-camera rape of Nathan Forrest Winters is real, and as the narrative unfolds we witness the light extinguished from his eyes and his depression set in. For Winters, the film's "jack-in-the-box of nightmares" was in Salva's pants. How happy Winters must originally have been to think he was going to be a movie star when Salva cast him. How abandoned Winters must of felt when Salva returned that happy trust with daily rape and depraved self-gratification at Winters expense. All this psychological horror for this young actor is captured here on film.

Dante Alighieri lacked the vision to construct an appropriate circle of Hell for director Salva. But for this film and his abuse of Winters, he is surely going there. That should give us some comfort.

[10 TERROR MOVIES] Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, House By the Cemetery, Fangs of the Living Dead, I Eat Your Skin, Last Man on Earth, King of the Zombies, Might of the Living Dead, Thirsty Dead, Messiah of Evil, Clownhouse

Average customer rating:

[10 TERROR MOVIES] Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, House By the Cemetery, Fangs of the Living Dead, I Eat Your Skin, Last Man on Earth, King of the Zombies, Might of the Living Dead, Thirsty Dead, Messiah of Evil, Clownhouse

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

Digitally Remastered For Superior Picture Quality
Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound
Chapter Stops
scene selections
Interactive Menus

ASIN: B000H7KV7S

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