Film Review: CLOWN KILL (2016)

CLOWN KILL ** U.K. 2016 Dir: Mark J. Howard 79 mins

Those with a fear of clowns stay clear as this British indie horror has a clown that will give you more then a smile to your face. Opening with a party at a pub where our lead character Jenny gets drugged and raped by a clown we are soon back with her at her workplace, presumably many weeks later. With her boss dropping a huge task on her hands to help promote a circus in less then 14 hours! Her heartless boss clearly doesn't see what is wrong with giving her this project but Jenny gets on with her job. Now left in the office with only the 2 incompetent security guards downstairs, she must fight between getting the job done and staying alive as a killer clown is roaming the building.
With an opening containing rape this film starts off leaving many uncomfortable, but doesn't seem to hit its stride until around halfway through the film when our killer clown starts off on his rampage. Its weak moments are mainly down to the dialogue which at times feels out of place, but a strong point is the comedic value in the dialogue between the night security guards. As a slasher film it works but if your expecting high blood levels you will be sadly disappointed but some of the kills are unique. There is a very catchy song by the band 'Dead Kestrels' that plays over the credits so even if you don't enjoy the film you got that to look forward to. As far as killer clown movies go it is hard to surpass the Tim Curry starring mini-series IT from the 1990's or even the Ross Noble starrer STITCHES (2012), but CLOWN KILL is worthy of a watch.

Review by Peter 'Witchfinder' Hopkins