Movie Review: Clowntergeist (2017)

The movie stars Brittany Belland, Monica Baker, Sean Patrick Murray, Burt Culver and Eric Corbin.

My daughter had a figure skating test session on Saturday (she passed) and, between that and my required volunteer hours at the rink, it ended up being a very long day. As a result, we wound up picking up frozen pizza for dinner and crashing on the couch once we got home.

I ended up picking out this movie to watch because, at least from the previews, it looked like it would produce at least a few scares. That being said, I also had lowered expectations for what was obviously a low-budget film. As it turns out, even my lowered expectations did very little to prepare me for what was a pretty terrible film.

Ribcage the Clown (Corbin) did prove to be somewhat creepy, even to someone who isn't normally afraid of clowns, so I'll give the movie a couple points for that. However, the film just never seemed to fully capitalize on that.

Part of the reason, in my opinion, is there was just too much downtime, consisting mostly of people talking, between and during the clown attacks. The best horror films don't allow you to catch your breath. This film gave you time to use the bathroom and make yourself a sandwich, even when Ribcage was already in the room.

Also, for a demonic clown, Ribcage proved to be somewhat wimpy, at least when compared to other horror movie villains. It's really hard to be scared of a killer clown when all you need to do to stop it is shoot or stab it. This, in turn, made the ending a bit dull and the biggest sin a horror movie can commit is being dull to the point I'm dozing off watching it.

Good concept, but the movie fails to capitalize on a potentially awesome horror movie villain. It's just not worth taking the time to watch it.

My Grade: F