Clownado

Clownado is a freakish and hair-raising film directed by Todd Sheets that serves up a hefty chunk of circus-themed horror. This 2019 English-language oddity artfully stirs together the best elements of disaster and horror genres to give life to an unbelievable and arcane film that comes across as equal parts bizarre and fascinating.

With a star-studded cast that includes accomplished actors like John O'Hara, Rachel Lagen, and Bobby Westrick, the film is a wild ride of extravagant characters, paranormal chaos, and jaw-dropping visual effects.

The narrative of Clownado kicks off with a vengeance, brewing a terrifying storm of blood-thirsty clowns. These aren't your regular circus clowns, though. No balloon animals or pie-splatting comedic antics seen here - in their place stand demonic entities performing heinous acts of absolute terror.

The story follows a troupe of cursed circus clowns who break free from their imprisonment within a tornado and embark on a merciless, killing rampage across the midwest. Their curse and monstrous appearance turn out to be the result of a spell gone wrong, cast by a vindictive circus performer.

The plot gives us a circus owner who fits the quasi-Dracula role, with his gifted yet aggrieved stripper girlfriend, made all inhuman and evil by the use of dark magic. She and her group of grotesque clowns are now the prisoners of a diabolically powered tornado, which spins and roars through rural America, wrecking havoc wherever it goes. The clowns feed off the fear they perpetrate, taking morbid delight in the indescribable terror they instill in their victims.

Unlike the traditional horror movie format, Clownado doesn’t limit its grotesque horrors to the dim corners of the night. Instead, it runs its reign of terror all through the day, gleefully pushing against the norms of the genre.

To add a complex dimension to the tale and its characters, we met an ensemble of unlikely heroes; a teen runaway, a hard-nosed trucker, an ex-stripper, and her overly enthusiastic boyfriend. Their paths converge, and together, they take it upon themselves to stand up and confront the circus of horrors.

Performances by John O'Hara, Rachel Lagen, and Bobby Westrick are nothing short of mesmerizing, acting as the pillars for this beautifully bizarre tale. They carry their eccentric roles with an infectious sense of fun and conviction, infusing their characters with the right mix of humor, intensity, and terror.

Perhaps most impressive about Clownado is its technical grace and vision. The movie is not just a pastiche of campy nostalgia but also a bold exploration of visual effects and makeup artistry. Filled to the brim with practical effects and augmented by surprisingly accomplished CGI, we not only get a sense of wide-scale disaster but also revel in the details of the grotesque clowns.

Every scene brims with sheer delight and horror, the precise yin and yang it needs to reel the viewer in. It's blood-splattered chaos, killer clowns, gore, and any viewer's worst nightmare come true as far as horror goes.

While definitely not for the faint of heart, Clownado is a roller coaster ride of thrilling lunacy for the genre lovers. It never promises to be the thought-provoking high-brow horror or meticulously knit mysteries that have snuggled into our Netflix watch lists. But it promises, and delivers, uninhibited craziness, an unapologetic gore-fest and tons of laughter, often at the bizarreness of it all.

In short, Director Todd Sheets has undoubtedly created an unorthodox spectacle with Clownado, taking familiar elements from both disaster and horror genres and knitting them together in an extravagant and horrifying spectacle. It is certainly a film that belongs in a category of its own –70's pulp cinema meets modern-day horror thriller, tossed into a whirlwind of mania, magic, and mutilation. Watching Clownado is like witnessing a tornado itself: powerful, awe-inspiring, terrifying yet darkly fascinating.