Clownado (2019) Review
Cursed demonic circus clowns set out on a vengeful massacre using tornadoes. A stripper, Elvis impersonator, truck driver, teen runaway, and a dude get caught in the supernatural battle between femme fatal and the boss clown from hell. Rachel Lagen, John O’Hara, and Joel D. Wynkoop co-star in “an enjoyable, blood-soaked love letter to the genre” from legendary writer/director Todd Sheets.
Todd Sheet’s Clownado is a comedy horror that stops being funny or horrific just half-an-hour in. Whereas his cast have thrown themselves enthusiastically into their roles and Sheet’s writing is fine, there’s an issue is with the direction, it’s too relaxed and one-note, the pacing is languid where it really should zip. Consequently the film becomes staid and repetitive.
There’s a black Elvis impersonator, played by Antwoine Steele (Catacombs), however any comic potential afforded by this gem of a character is squandered, and it’s almost as if they didn’t really know what to do with him. The practical effects are expectedly and pleasingly naff but by and large they, like the film’s plot, become repetitive and uninspired.
On the plus side there’s Bobby Westrick, as Hunter Fidelis, who steals every scene he’s in and for hardcore horror fans there’s an appearance from icon Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead) who appears briefly as Spider (the same character she played in Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-Rama) and Eileen Dietz, Linda Blair’s double in some of The Exorcist’s more risqué moments, who cameos as Christine.