Vampire Clown – review

Director: Paul Andrich

Release date: 20225

Contains spoilers

This is a Canadian production and merges the vampire and clown genres, not unheard of but not overdone. It is, however, on a budget and that is telling in some of the filming. Though, I have to say, the photography had a nice solid feel to it, though the lighting did little , unfortunately.

It starts with a car and a woman parking and going to her home. We see the legs of an observer… we see clown pants. She gets in her house, using a keypad, but, after she enters, we see someone following and replicating the code. In the house she hears a toilet flush but it turns out to be her husband, Tom (Todd Picklyk), home early. She leaves him to watch the game but is attacked, he hears her scream and is attacked next.

in Tom's car

Matt (Tyhr Trubiak) is taking the trash out and heading out on his bicycle. He hears a car horn and spots Tom’s car but is shocked to see it being driven by a clown (note sunlight is not an issue in this). He is startled by another neighbour, Pete (Warren Bard), and asks him if he saw Tom just then and wonders why he might be in a clown outfit. It doesn’t seem normal for accountant Tom. Unable to solve the mystery Matt cycles to see his therapist.

Tyhr Trubiak as Matt

Matt seems ok with his life but is worried that he has underachieved and whether this could be an issue for his girlfriend Sarah (Amy Couldwell). However, there is a vampire clown in town and the next to be got by it are Pete and his wife Karen (Debra Ross) and it is Matt who finds them (when he goes to drop a parcel off). He is somewhat disturbed by the cockamamie theory the cops (Allan Turner & Paul O'Donnell) come up with and perturbed that they don’t take their face masks off – Matt wonders if there is a new pandemic he’s not heard of. Of course, they wear masks as they’ve been turned and they’re hiding the perma-fangs.

feeding proboscis

Matt begins to believe there is a conspiracy but can’t work out exactly what – and to make matters worse Sarah’s ex-boyfriend Kevin (Joshua Sarna) has just got out of jail and is back in town. However, as the film goes on it is only really Kevin who believes him. Indeed, Matt is concentrating on the clown, but it is Kevin who works out vampires are involved. So, vampire victims are either dead, turned or turned into a more unaware zombie-like variant. The clown vampire has some form of tube or proboscis it feeds through but we only see a small detail of it and not where it emerges from (due, I assume, to budget). Other standard lore either doesn’t work or the jury is out.

fangs

And budget is the issue overall… also there wasn’t the lighting to offer as much atmosphere that would have worked in the films favour – it all seems the lighting on offer at the location. The fangs are all a tad fake looking, the blood is sparse and attacks are off screen or detail lite. That said the primaries are good, especially Trubiak, who projects likable well. The reason for the clown outfit is never offered (there are a couple of bandied around theories) and essentially this is a “take over the town” scenario. This was, however, watchable 4 out of 10 seems fair.

The imdb page is here.