Creepy Clowns: The LUNATIC'ler

Director - Pete Jacelone (Chad's Dental Nightmare, Psycho Street)
Starring - Heather Drew (Witches Blood, Sickness), Edward X. Young (Camp Blood 666, Bite School), and Daylan Ludemann (The Pogo Film Project)
Release Date - 2016
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "They'll die laughing"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     There is a lot to be afraid of in this vast world of ours.  Some people are afraid of heights, giant bodies of water, driving in cars, spiders, dolls, germs, and so much more.  Hell, I'm a 300 pound man that stands over 6 feet tall and I have an irrational fear of being raped.  I know it doesn't make sense but everyone has a fear of something.  One fear that I never understood was the fear of clowns.  Sure, they can be creepy but actually fearing them is something I've never fully understood.  Most people could care less about clowns but the original mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's It changed that for everyone.  Now, people who didn't give two shits about clowns were now afraid of them.  This resulted hundreds if not thousands of horror films centered around clowns.  Recently I was sent the indie horror film Creepy Clowns: The LUNATIC'ler to check out.  I had no idea what the film was about other than clowns but that didn't stop me from diving right into it.
     The film follows a successful artist who lives alone and struggles with the traumatic childhood he endured at the hands of his step-father who worked as a clown.  Now, several decades later he finds himself enjoying the company of escorts and transforming into an evil clown and killing teenage boys.  He soon finds himself in love with the escort he frequents and learns that their lives are intertwined when she discovers that he was the one responsible for her brother's death.

    
     I always give a movie the benefit of the doubt but after siting through this in it's entirety I have to be honest.  This film was a difficult one to finish.  I've seen some stinkers in my short time of reviewing but this one was a tough one.  The story was all over the place and the pacing was way off.  The acting in this one isn't bad.  The cast was actually pretty great but the project they agreed to was not on the same level of quality.  I've seen countless films with similar budgets and this one is one of the better acted ones.  The cast has amazing chemistry and works very well on screen.  The film almost feels like a parody but the cast is able to knock it out of the park.  The story for this one just doesn't work.  The film tries to capture that mental illness serial killer vibe but is unable to do so because it adds in this clown angle where the killer "changes" into the clown off screen.  The film could have worked if it would have taken itself a little more seriously and abandoned the clown portion.  Also, some of the scenes are way too long with little or nothing to do with the story being told.  Heavy editing would help this out tremendously.  Finally, the film has several death that are very underwhelming.  The effects are minimal and the kills lack originality.  Overall, Creepy Clowns is an ambitious horror flick that fails to capture anything entertaining.  The amazing cast is sadly wasted against a story that fails to capture the viewer's attention.