CLOWN HUNT (2008)

Available for purchase on Amazon!
Directed/Written by Barry Tubb.
Check out the trailer here!!

Though most of the budget here went toward clown make-up, I must commend the makers of CLOWN HUNT for coming up with a truly original concept and running with it. Now, this doesn’t mean that this low budgeter is great, but it does have quite a few well-executed ideas and moments of sheer weirdness. Ultimately, CLOWN HUNT is a good idea done decently, but not completely great.

As I said above, the concept is a winner. So many horror films work as metaphors for other problems with the world. Usually, it’s zombies who are the ripest to be farmed for deeper meaning. Everything from 9-11 to the AIDS epidemic has delved into with the zombie mythos. Here, clowns is the metaphor of the day, representing everything from racism to homophobia to gun control, to border patrolling, CLOWN HUNT uses the metaphor of the clown to represent “the other” here as the story follows a troop of good old boys out to enjoy a beautiful afternoon of clown hunting.

Though the acting is not top notch, I’ve seen much worse and a lot of these proud Texas hunters load up their guns, down a ton of beers, and head out to clown territory on the opening day of “Happy Clown Season”. But this isn’t a free for all. There are rules. Sad clowns are off limits until “Sad Clown Season”, which protects Shitty Fred, a hobo clown who wanders around trying to be shot and killed by the hunters. Killing a sad clown awards a swift penalty, as illustrated in this film. It’s the straight-faced approach to this odd mythos that makes this entire film work.

While the hunters are often portrayed as idiots with buckshot and beer on their breath, the clowns themselves are not completely without sin. Early on, hunters witness the clown ritual of baby chicken stomping and kitten tossing, letting the viewer know that on top of there being an over-abundance of clowns in the world, they also are not kind to animals. Scenes of the clowns eating, interacting with one another, having sex, and roaming the range in their natural habitat is a nice touch here and again serves as some of its most endearing aspects to watch (though the clown mating scene with clown shoe fellatio was way too long).

I also thought the scene where one of the hunters has a crisis of conscience and comes out as a closeted clown added more nuance to the thinly veiled metaphor of homosexuality and its acceptance in the good old boy community. There’s even a scene of clown rape, which is both disturbing and funny all at once. Had that metaphor been delved into with some more thought, the makers of this film would have a fantastically nuanced film here. But instead, a lot of the time, the cheap laugh is gone for with mixed results. The ending as well is kind of a mess with a lot of fun sucked out of it to have an action sequence that is a little too much for the budget to allow as the battle between clowns and hunters ignites into a nuclear battle to end all battles.

In the end, there were quite a few scenes of hilarity (every scene with Shitty Fred is gold) and more than enough scenes that are “just damn wrong” as with the clown sex scene, the clown rape scene, the kitty tossing, and the chick stomping to warrant this film as an odd little curiosity. Clocking in at just over an hour, the joke well runs dry about 40 minutes in making me think this would have made for a fantastic 20-30 minute short. As is, it’s just plain weirdness. But if you’re creeped out by clowns, CLOWN HUNT is going to hit buttons you didn’t know you had.