Father and child sit together smiling while looking at a smart phone.

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Parents' Guide to

Clown

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Gruesome killer-clown movie is mean, unfunny, not scary.

Movie R 2016 100 minutes
Clown Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 14+

Based on 6 parent reviews

age 14+

Paura....

In Italia il film è vietato ai minori di 14 anni

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much swearing
age 16+

Great horror

Lots of gore, bad acting...harassment between father and other innocent children. All round pretty scary film!

This title has:

Too much violence

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (6 ):
Kids say (15 ):

While clowns are scary to many, filmmakers Christopher Ford and Jon Watts give the white-faced subject matter behind this loathsome horror movie only a cursory exploration; the result isn't much fun. (Frankly, the story behind Clown is actually better than the movie itself: Apparently director/writer Watts and co-writer Ford -- who later made Cop Car -- created a fake trailer for a non-existent movie, crediting it to Eli Roth. Roth saw it and commissioned an actual movie ... and also played a clown.)

The story could have been funny, which it isn't, or it could have been scary, which it also isn't. It could have been original, but it isn't that, either; it more or less uses the same historical idea as the terrific Krampus, about an evil demon morphing into a children's favorite. Instead, it callously focuses on grown-ups terrorizing children, particularly a father terrorizing his own child. It's no wonder this sat on the shelf for years.

Movie Details

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