Review of The Clown Murders (1976) by Stephen K — 28 Feb 2008

Decent low budget Canadian genre film shot just outside Toronto in 1975. John Candy plays it straight in one of his earliest roles.

Highly recommended for those who are interested in the history of Canadian horror films, otherwise the low budget and slow pacing will not interest casual viewers.

I actually kind of enjoyed this minor contribution to the early Canadian horror.

I remembered reading a brief description of the movie in Caelum Vatnsdal's book "They Came From Within" and having just discovered it was available on DVD I quickly snatched it up.

The first half of the movie is pretty boring, but I found the characters to be slightly interesting and their banter to be amusing. The fat jokes grow old real quick, and there are no memorable kill scenes, but the amateur homemade feel of the film was appealing. I was of course not expecting much and that always helps.

Regarding the DVD, the video transfer is of sub-par quality, with a very muddy audio mix. I was pleasantly surprised to find the DVD is widescreen despite the 1.33:1 spec listed on the box. As for the cover art, it is horribly lame and misleading especially since the movie features neither a cemetery or a machete!!