Small town Oklahoma, 1995: Only days before Halloween, a girl (Kylie Slevin) tasked with babysitting her little sister (Tiana Rogers) has been brutally murdered and her face carved, while the little one has been abducted ... a gruesome gruesome case, all the more so since the local Sheriff (Jimi Nix) figures it might be the work of his nemesis of old, Cleaver (Andrew M. Greenwood), once a pathetic family entertainer until he found his wife (Maria Barr) cheating on him, killed her ... and since he goes on a killing spree every Halloween, wearing his trademark clown mask. As a result, the Sheriff and his deputy (Georgie Smibert) go on a clown hunt, but not exactly knowing Cleaver's motive, they have little clue as to where to begin, and the corpses they end up with in the process just tell them they're too late (again).

In the meantime, student Carley (Stephanie Price), who's in desparate need for money as her tuition is overdue, gladly accepts a job to babysit little Mary-Beth (Holly-Anne Dodkins), happily ignorant to the fact that there's a babysitter-killing clown out there ... but soon, knocks on the door with nobody outside, red baloons popping up in the house out of nowhere, and her best friend's (Vicki Glover) head on the nightstand tell her something's seriously wrong - but knowing one's in danger doesn't necessarily mean one knows how to avert it ...

You might already have guessed it from my synopsis, Cleaver: Rise of the Killer Clown isn't exactly re-inventing horror, rather it's very firmly rooted in the slasher genre, with the parallels to the classic Halloween (also when it comes to the musical score) being especially easy to spot ... but that's not to say Cleaver: Rise of the Killer Clown isn't brilliant at what it is, because actually it's a really strong shocker that's brilliant in creating atmosphere (with the director's trademark use of primary colours again pushed to full effect here), tells the story in an engaging way, with well-played, palpable characters at the center of things, and well-placed shocks and grotesquery to properly freak the audience out on top of it.

Totally worth a look ... or two, actually!

And if this has gotten you at all interested, feel free to go to http://mycho.co.uk to pre-order ...

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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