Clownhouse

Clownhouse is a 1989 American slasher film written and directed by Victor Salva, and starring Nathan Forrest Winters, Brian McHugh, and Sam Rockwell in his film debut. Its plot concerns three young brothers who are stalked and pursued by three escaped mental patients disguised as clowns.

Clownhouse
Original trade advertisement
Directed byVictor Salva
Produced by
  • Michael Danty
  • Robin Mortarotti
  • Victor Salva
Written byVictor Salva
Starring
Music by
  • Michael Becker
  • Thomas Richardson
CinematographyRobin Mortarotti
Edited by
  • Roy Anthony Cox
  • Sabrina Plisco-Morris
Production
company
Commercial Pictures
Distributed by
Release date
  • July 20, 1990 (1990-07-20)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$200,000 (estimated)

Filmed in 1987, it premiered at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic category, and received theatrical distribution in the United States in July 1990. Its release was controversial, as writer-director Salva pleaded guilty in 1988 to child sexual abuse of the film's star, Winters, as well as procuring child pornography of the sexual assault. Its release was protested by Winters and his family upon its theatrical release, and again in 2003 when it was released on DVD by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment, who pulled the title from shelves under public pressure. As a result, the DVD is now long out of print and extremely hard to find.

Clownhouse is one of the final slasher movies released in the 1980s.

Plot

Casey is an adolescent boy whose life is constantly influenced by his intense fear of clowns. His two older brothers, Geoffrey and Randy, are mostly disobliging. One night, the three boys are left alone so they decide to visit a local circus, despite Casey's uncontrollable coulrophobia. While at the circus, Casey innocently visits a fortune teller and she reveals to him that his life line has been cut short. Meanwhile, three psychotic mental patients, who have escaped an insane asylum, murder three clowns and take their makeup and costumes.

As the boys return home from the circus, the clowns target their home. Casey and his brothers are locked inside their isolated farmhouse and the power is turned off. Casey attempts to call the police, but the police officer assumes that Casey's fear of clowns caused him to have a realistic nightmare.

Randy, disbelieving that clowns are after them, plans to jump out at Geoffrey and Casey dressed as a clown but he is stabbed by one of the "real" clowns. Geoffrey manages to kill the first clown by hitting him with a wooden plank, knocking him down a flight of stairs and breaking his neck.

Casey and Geoffrey push the second clown out a window to his death. The boys find Randy unconscious in a closet and drag him into another room. Geoffrey is then attacked by the final clown, who chases Casey into the upstairs game room. Casey manages to hide but after the clown leaves, Casey accidentally steps on a noise-making toy, alerting Cheezo of his location. The enraged clown attempts to break Casey's neck, but then Geoffrey slams a hatchet into the killer's back, finally killing him.

Cast
  • Nathan Forrest Winters as Casey
  • Brian McHugh as Geoffrey
  • Sam Rockwell as Randy
  • Tree as Lunatic Cheezo
  • Bryan Weible as Lunatic Bippo
  • David C. Reinecker as Lunatic Dippo
  • Timothy Enos as Real Cheezo
  • Frank Diamanti as Real Bippo
  • Karl Heinz Teuber as Real Dippo
  • Viletta Skillman as Mother
  • Gloria Belsky as Fortune teller
  • Tom Mottram as Ringmaster

Production

Impressed by Salva's 1986 short film Something in the Basement, Francis Ford Coppola gave him $250,000 to make Clownhouse.[1] To shoot the film, Coppola gave Salva the same cameras George Lucas had used to make American Graffiti (1973).[2] The film was made, in part, at Coppola's home in Napa Valley.[3]

Release

The film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1989,[4][2] and released theatrically on July 20, 1990.[lower-alpha 1]

Controversy

In 1988, director Victor Salva was convicted of the sexual abuse of Nathan Forrest Winters, the 12-year-old lead actor who played Casey, during production—including videotaping one of the encounters.[7] Commercial videotapes and magazines containing child pornography were also found at his home.[8] After serving 15 months of a three-year prison term, Salva was released on parole.[9]

Winters came forward again in 1995, when Salva's film Powder was released.[10][11][12] Winters picketed a screening in Westwood.[8]

In a YouTube interview conducted by Blastzone Mike with Winters on April 5, 2017, Winters revealed that when Salva was arrested, everything but the dubbing had been completed, and that all of the dialogue was added in post-production due to the extremely loud noise of the cameras. It is unclear whether or not Winters did his own dubbing.[13]

Critical response

Arlene Calkins of the Daily Utah Chronicle wrote that "This movie, for me, rivals anything I've seen done by Stephen King at his best...  Salva's direction is crisp and right on the mark."[14] TV Guide gave the film two out of four stars, writing that the film "plays cleverly on the visceral dislike many people feel for clowns and the result is often truly creepy."[15] Joan Bunke of The Des Moines Register noted that the film "looks like a family-and-friends project...  Salva...  has cobbled together the usual outrageously phony horror flick plot," adding: "The fright-making shadows of Mortarotti's photography and the moody music underscoring the kids' horror of what is overtaking them helps blank out the irrationality of the plot."[6]

The film was included in a 2017 list of the "creepiest clowns in movies" compiled by Variety, in which it was noted: "The film’s claustrophobic setting and eerie atmosphere makes it one of the scariest thrillers on this list."[16]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 40% approval score based on 5 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10.[17]

Home media

Mainly due to the controversy during its production, Clownhouse became a sleeper hit, but soon fell into obscurity.[18] The film was released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1990. On August 26, 2003, the film was released on DVD by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,[18] but was pulled from shelves due to protest surrounding the sex abuse incident that occurred during production. The DVD has long since been out of print and any copies that are actually Factory Pressed and not bootleg are near impossible to find. Scream Factory, the spin-off label of Shout Factory, declined to release this film on Blu-ray due to the controversy.[19]

Notes
  1. Advertisements in The Burlington Free Press from Friday, July 20, 1990 list the film as a new release,[5] while a July 25, 1990 review in The Des Moines Register notes the film was the "only new movie in town" from the previous weekend.[6]

References
  1. Goldstein 2006, p. 3.
  2. Goldstein 2006, p. 1.
  3. Goldstein 2006, p. 2.
  4. Weinstein, Max (September 12, 2015). "'Jeepers Creepers 3': An Offer We Can Refuse". Diabolique Magazine. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
  5. "Clownhouse: Now Showing". The Burlington Free Press. Burlington, Vermont. July 20, 1990. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Bunke, Joan (July 25, 1990). "'Clownhouse' needs more than white face to hide flaws". The Des Moines Register. Des Moines, Iowa. p. 40 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "A testimony to Hollywood's values". Chicago Tribune. Charleston, West Virginia Daily Mail. November 4, 1995. p. 19 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Welkos, Robert (October 19, 1995). "Disney Movie's Director a Convicted Child Molester: Hollywood: He says, 'I paid for my mistakes dearly', but victim of incident several years ago urges boycott of 'Powder'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  9. Gannett, Jack (October 27, 1995). "'Powder' is a bit lightweight". The News Journal. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 19 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Zamora, Jim Herron (October 25, 1995). "Molest Victim Protests at Disney Film Release". The San Francisco Examiner. p. A-1. Retrieved December 21, 2012 – via Vacchs.com.
  11. Welkos, Robert W.; Brennan, Judy (October 31, 1995). "Dust Hasn't Settled on 'Powder'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 21, 2012 – via Vachss.com.
  12. Wells, Jeffrey (November 10, 1995). "A Question Disney Ducked; Should 'Powder' Have Been Desexed?". Entertainment Weekly. p. 37. Retrieved December 21, 2012 – via Vachss.com.
  13. Blastzone Mike - Nathan Forrest Winters he was molested by Victor Salva at the age of 6; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJgXSxXkj28
  14. Calkins, Arlene (January 19, 1989). "Park City festival offers variety of flicks". The Daily Utah Chronicle. Salt Lake City, Utah. pp. 8–9 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. "Clownhouse Review". TV Guide. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
  16. "The 20 Creepiest Clowns in Movies and TV". Variety. 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  17. "Clownhouse (1989)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  18. Wallis, J. Doyle (August 7, 2003). "Clownhouse: DVD Talk Review". DVD Talk. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  19. Staff; Jason (October 5, 2015). "10 Underrated Horror Films That Probably Aren't on Your Watch List This Halloween But Totally Should Be". The Blood Shed. Retrieved July 9, 2016.

Works cited
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