The Clown at Midnight (1998)

Crappy film

Awesome Movie

A lot of fun.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

A group of kids are methodically stalked by a killer in clown makeup while they are cleaning up an old opera house. Who lives? Who dies? Who cares?Say what you will, but clowns are just inherently frightening for some reason. Furthermore, it takes some serious talent to make a killer clown that's not scary in any way, sense, or from. Not one iota. This robs the viewer of even silently cheering while the group of stereotypical, asinine, unlikable characters get slashed. A real chore to sit through.Eye Candy: Liz Crawford as Ashley gets briefly topless

Distributor: Columbia Tristar Home Video Plot: 15 years after a beautiful opera singer was killed, her daughter, Kat is plagued by nightmares of a clown trying to kill her. Her friend Monica signs them up for a drama class at the theater where her mother was killed. Once the students enter the theater, they discover the phone's are dead, and the doors are locked from the outside. Someone is dressed like a clown and is ready to strike...it's almost midnight.Audio/Video: Quality is excellent.Extras: Nothing.Fianl Thoughts: This is a pretty average late 90's slasher flick. I wouldn't advise people to buy it right away, but rent it if you can to see if you like it or not. It has not been released on DVD, so the best you can get is VHS.

"The Clown at Midnight" is a pretty bad movie; plain and simple. It had potential to be a relatively decent horror film, especially if you're someone like me that finds clowns to be creepy and unnerving. In fact, the ONE good part about this film is that the Clown is actually scary looking and menacing. He is one of the creepier clowns that I have ever seen portrayed in a film. But despite this one "diamond in the rough", the rest of this movie is all down-hill. The acting is atrocious! I cannot stand the work of James Duval playing "George". He is far too hokey and is not convincing at all. You can't acknowledge him as his portrayed character; he just comes across as a really poor actor instead. I have always liked Tatyana Ali (she portrays "Monica"), and although she's really cute, she certainly is not a top-notch actress. And I'm afraid that all of the other young actors and actresses that portray the teenagers in this film fall along the same lines as James Duval; they're not convincing one bit, and they give some of the poorest acting performances out there. But the worst part has to be the fact that Margot Kidder and Chris Plummer are in "The Clown at Midnight". Don't get me wrong; these two acting veterans give the ONLY two worthwhile performances in this film! This can be expected, because both are terrific performers in their own right. The sad part is seeing two people that we widely loved in other roles (Margot Kidder in the "Superman" movies and of course Plummer in "The Sound of Music") at a point in their careers where they're stuck doing cheap horror flicks. Why is it that some great veterans like Kidder and Plummer fall into this pit? It just seems that they deserve to have better. I also think that the Clown offs his victims too easily. Without getting into specifics, for fear of spoilers, the Clown comes across as being nearly "invincible". Each time that he confronts one of his victims, you know that they're going to die, and quickly, and without much of a struggle. Yes, it is a common horror-movie lover's ability to be able to predict the upcoming death of a character, but "The Clown at Midnight" makes it too easy. C'mon, at least give us a bit of a tease here. Why do the victims have to die so easily at the hands of the Clown? The deaths are dull, despite the fact that they're gruesome, because there's virtually no struggle or chase to make the viewer's heart race. The Clown simply has his way with each victim, and then it's suddenly over. As the director, Jean Pellerin needs to have a bit more respect for his viewers, and give us something to work with if we're going to get a kick out of this film. So with the exceptions of the creepy clown, along with Kidder and Plummer, I was really disappointed in "The Clown at Midnight". Maybe I'm somewhat at fault for setting my expectations too high, but I guess I just thought that this film should have been better. If a director is able to devise such a disturbing clown, and if he has the bonus of having two veteran actors in his grasp, he should be able to make a bit more out of the tools that he has to work with. I'd rate "The Clown at Midnight" a 3 out of 10.

A fun movie. Although the last 20 minutes left me bored, the rest was very well done. Sarah Lassez does very well in the lead, she reminds me a lot of Julia Roberts. I enjoy movie's with clowns in them and this one might get under your skin. Decent acting and plot but as I stated before, the ending could have used a little more work.