meddlecore Clownhouse is absolutely terrible in virtually every conceivable facet.The writing and direction are horrible. The acting sucks. The action is pathetic. The special effects are non-existent. And the soundtrack is unbearable.The whole thing is clearly meant to be a children's film- and goes out of it's way to retain it's PG rating.The film tells the story of 3 brothers- Casey, Geoffrey & Randy- who have been left home alone shortly before Halloween. To kill some time, they decide to go to the local circus/carnival. This culminates with Casey's coulrophobia kicking in- rendering him the laughing stock of the tent.Shortly after their performance, the circus clowns get murdered by a gang of what one can only assume are escaped convicts or mental patients. And- for some odd reason- the escapees dawn clown make-up and attire...and decide to on a killing spree...ironically enough, happening upon the boys' house.The film is constructed as to lead you to believe that it may all be in Casey's head. But it's not. They are really being chased around by a bunch of killer clowns.And that's about all that happens. Clowns chasing kids with a bunch of coincidental near misses (sorry if I ruined it for you....but you aren't missing much).Anyways...the moral of the story is that you should be careful who you pick on, because when sh*t hits the fan you might be needing to rely upon said person's bravery to survive.This film simply failed to successfully execute the killer clown trope. It was really quite the chore to sit through, and wasn't very entertaining at all. Rather, quite boring. Can't say I recommend it, as there are better clown horrors floating around for you to waste your time with. Choose them instead. Sam Rockwell (who doled out the best performance of the bunch) sure does look like Gary Oldman though...holy.2 out 10.

Michael_Elliott Clownhouse (1989) * 1/2 (out of 4) Three brothers are left home alone when their mother must go out of town. That night they go to the circus even though the youngest brother has a major fear of clowns. Later that night the three brothers and especially the youngest must face their fears when three mental patients escape from a local hospital, put on clown make-up and come after them.Written and directed by Victor Salva, I'm pretty sure everyone knows the incident that happened behind the cameras so I'm not going to go into any other details about that. Outside of that, I had always heard terrific things about CLOWNHOUSE but I've obviously missed something because I found the film to be a real chore to sit through. I've heard people call this movie terrifying but perhaps that will depend on whether or not you're afraid of clowns? This movie has a good cult following to it but I will gladly admit that I'm confused as to why because I didn't find too much entertaining here.I guess the best thing that could be said about the film is that Salva manages to build up an atmosphere and make the film look quite professional when you consider the budget. I'd also say that the three young actors were good in their roles. Outside of that, as I said, I obviously missed something as I didn't find a single scare anywhere in the picture. There were some mildly effective scenes of the clowns chasing the boy down a dark road but not once did I ever feel that he was really in trouble.

Mr_Ectoplasma "Clownhouse" is a film whose reputation will forever outlive whatever cinematic merit it may actually have. Its reputation is so tarnished that it never made it to theaters; so tarnished that MGM pulled the DVD release from shelves in 2003, and will probably never release it again; so tarnished that I had to pay a ludicrous amount of money to be able to own and watch it. Since we all know what unfortunately happened on the set of the film, I see no point in going into it. The plot is really straightforward here: it follows three brothers (the youngest of whom is mortified by clowns) who wind up being terrorized while home alone by three escaped psychiatric patients dressed up as the clowns from the local circus. The film operates as an exercise and study case in phobias and childhood fears, and expands into a full-fledged horror film in the last half, although the gratuitous violence you may expect is absent— it's a fairly cerebral horror film in that regard.As many others have noted, it is extremely atmospheric, and that may be Victor Salva's greatest achievement here. The house in which the film takes place and its surrounding settings are reminiscent of an "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" episode, but there's something irresistibly fun about that. As somebody who is not afraid of clowns, the clown aspect in and of itself did not bother me while watching this film, though I can see how mortifying it would be for someone who is afraid of them. There is some great photography of the clowns that is actually quite frightening, as well as some playful orchestration of "stalking" scenes that are as amusing as they are wasted potential for legitimate frights.The acting in the film is actually really awful overall— even Sam Rockwell is bad here, but hey, it was his debut, right? As I alluded to before though, the film has an early-'90s TV horror vibe, so the poor acting is permissible here just for the sake of enjoyment. Underneath it all though, "Clownhouse" has truly been overblown into the status of legend because of what occurred onset during its making, and the real truth is that the mythology behind the film perhaps flatters it a bit too much. It's extremely rare and MGM will probably never give it the light of day again, ever, so there's the obscurity factor that draws people to it— it definitely did me— but, when you really shake it down, "Clownhouse" is little more than a moderately fun horror film with some nice concepts and atmosphere, but a plot that is paper-thin, and ultimately a film that is far less spooky than it seems it should be. Or maybe that's just because I'm not scared of clowns. 6/10.

chow913 As soon as I heard there was a film about escaped serial killers dressed as clowns preying on an innocent family, I just had to see it.Well the whole film is about as boring and predictable as it gets.Three young brothers are predictably left alone in their big Gothic house after a trip to the circus where the clowns are slaughtered by escaped serial killers.The three brothers are extremely predictable. The oldest is a bully, the middle boy a nerd, and the youngest a scaredy cat who becomes the hero.If the clowns' goals are to scare the boys or hurt them, they fail miserably at both. The clowns aren't scary since only we the audience see them. They remain hidden from the boys. And when the clowns do attack, the last 15 minutes of the film, we get the standard silliness of a 10 old boy being able to throw a grown man through a wooden window to his death 10 feet off the ground.There is not a single redeeming fact about this film. Avoid it at all costs!