Clownhouse
Our Price: $89.92
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $49.98 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: David E. Gehringer, Frank A. Damiani, Gloria Belsky, Kate Haefke, Timothy EnosDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 81 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-07
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Clownhouse
Movie Review: "A Circus of the Mind"
Summary: 5 Stars
Young Casey (Nathan Forrest Winters) has an acute case of coulrophobia (fear of clowns), so when his two older brothers suggest a trip to the visiting circus, Casey is understandably reluctant. Being aware of the young boy's fears, his brothers--especially the oldest, Randy (a young Sam Rockwell in one of his earliest film roles)--tease him a bit, and Casey eventually relents to prove to his bros that he's not a wimp.
But at the circus, one of the clowns singles out Casey and tries to get him to come into the center ring to participate in a skit. Casey freaks, of course, and bolts out the nearest opening in the Big Top. "Their faces are fake," he later tells his brothers, trying to justify his behavior. "Big happy eyes; big painted smiles. They're not real. You never know what they really are." As the boys walk home, Randy, who has been put in charge of his brothers Geoffrey (Brian McHugh) and Casey while their parents are away, is hardly sympathetic and harasses Casey relentlessly about such "sissy" fears.
After the circus closes for the day, three patients who recently escaped from a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane--what other kind is there in a horror flick?--murder the clowns and assume the harlequins' identities by donning the makeup and costumes themselves. Then they demonically frolic into the night and wind up at the home of--you guessed it!--Casey and his brothers, and the young coulrophobic is forced to not only face his fears, but to defeat them.
Thus runs the plot of 1989's CLOWNHOUSE. And while it takes a wee bit of effort to suspend disbelief and accept the coincidence of the evil clowns winding up at the home of young Casey, the skills of auteur Victor Salva turn this simple story with its somewhat cliche setup into a polished, well-paced horror flick that is actually quite scary. As a screenwriter, Salva has a knack for creating frightening situations and making them believable, and as a director, he is very adept at milking all the emotion he can get from a scenario without pushing it too far over the top and into parody.
With the exception of the performance from a young Sam Rockwell--genre fans have seen Rockwell most recently in SF hits like GALAXY QUEST (1999) and the remake of THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (2005)--the acting in the film is pretty average fare for a 1980's low-budget thriller. But the characters do have a comfortable family dynamic, mainly due to Salva's masterfully realistic, believable dialogue. (Indeed, Salva seems to have a genuine talent for writing dialogue for youngsters, as is evidenced again in his later films like 1995's critically acclaimed POWDER and 2001's boxoffice megahit JEEPERS CREEPERS.)
Overall, CLOWNHOUSE is a well-done horror movie basted in slasher overtones, one of the few of the post-HALLOWEEN (1978) horror flicks of the 1980s that is able to generate scares via the threat of violence rather than through the relentless depiction of gory murders. (There is, in fact, very little by way of graphic violence or blood-and-guts gore in this flick.) And CLOWNHOUSE is actually more than just a spook show. It is also a rather interesting comment on childhood fears, the psychological legitimacy of some of those fears, and how a child's life can be negatively affected by such fears if they're not dealt with effectively.
Ironically, the public perception of CLOWNHOUSE has been the victim of real-life childhood horror that took place behind the scenes during the film's production. This horror came out of the darkness and into the light in 1995, soon after the release of Salva's film POWDER, when it was revealed that the writer/director had served time for the molestation of Nathan Forrest Winters, the young star of CLOWNHOUSE. Not only did this hinder the boxoffice success of the critically revered POWDER, but it understandably placed a stigma on CLOWNHOUSE that has caused some critics and viewers to read into the film's plot and visual imagery innuendo that really isn't there.
Fortunately for Salva (and for filmgoers), he was able to remove the dark cloud from over himself--if not from over his previous films--with the release of his very successful (both critically and commercially) non-genre drama RITES OF PASSAGE (1999), and he later redeemed his reputation in the horror genre with the very financially successful JEEPERS CREEPERS in 2001.
But reviews should be impartial and examine the merit of the film in question ONLY, not taking into account any personal problems that the filmmakers may be struggling with. With that in mind, CLOWNHOUSE is an excellent little '80s horror flick that transcends much of the HALLOWEEN rip-offs that deluged the theaters during the decade. The DVD from MGM is a no-frills disc that contains only the theatrical trailer as an extra, but it does offer a good digital transfer of the flick at its original aspect ratio. And while the disc may be hard to get these days, it is well worth the search. Fans of horror or 1980s slasher flicks will certainly want to add this disc to their collections.
Summary of Clownhouse
DVD, featuring Gloria Belsky (Actor), Frank A. Damiani (Actor).Similar DVD Movies
The RoommateSON; Release date: 2011-05-17; DVD
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Dark Night Of The ScarecrowVCI; Release date: 2010-09-28; DVD
Best price: $7.06
Price in other shops:
Madman 30th Anniversary EditionBrentwood Home Video; Release date: 2010-09-28; DVD
Best price: $16.97
Price in other shops:
Nightmare: 30th Anniversary EditionCODE RED ENT.; Release date: 2011-07-26; DVD
Best price: $14.49
Price in other shops:
The NestingE1E; Release date: 2011-06-28; DVD
Best price: $10.61
Price in other shops:
Halloween III - Season Of The WitchUniversal Studios; Release date: 2003-10-07; DVD
Best price: $3.62
Price in other shops:
The ProwlerWEA DES Moines Video; Release date: 2003-09-30; DVD
Best price: $9.59
Price in other shops:
HumongousRelease date: 2011-11-15; DVD
Best price: $10.25
Price in other shops:
INTRUDERMusic Video Dist; Release date: 2005-08-09; DVD
Best price: $6.67
Price in other shops:
Night of the CometBELTRAN,ROBERT; Release date: 2007-03-06; DVD
Best price: $7.23
Price in other shops: