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The Clown Murders
(Halloween/Clown) 6******skulls
*Blood* *Violent* *Strong Language* *No Nudity* *Sexual Situations* *Not Particularly Gory*
Director.........Martyn Burke (The Last Chase)
Screenplay.......Martyn Burke
Music............John Mills-Cockell
Producer.........Christopher Dalton
Executive Producer.....J. Stephen Stohn
Special Effects Make-up by Shonagh Jabour
Dramatis Personae
Charlie.........Stephen Young (Lifeguard, Patton, Spring Fever)
Phillip..........Lawrence Dane (Fatal Attraction, Rituals, Scanners)
Police Sgt....Al Waxman (The Hitman, Meatballs III, Spasms)
Alison..........Susan Keller
Rosie...........Gary Reineke (Why Shoot the Teacher/)
Peter............John Bayliss
Compton.....Michael Magee
Developer...Cec Linder (Quatermass and the Pit, Strange Tales)
Harrison......William Osler
Tom.............Philip Craig
Critique: Above average acting, and fairly good production values. Look, it's a seventies movie, so what do you expect? People will stand around in front of sports cars with "funky" hats and sun glasses. These people are not likable either, which makes their immanent departures that much more enjoyable. This is apparently a study in the effects of the admixture of alcohol and guns. Not pretty. It is hard to keep track of all the lunatics as one after another, the participants in the prank lose it. What these petty, bickering people are doing with one another at all is a mystery, still it would appear to mirror your average Halloween party accurately. It is pretty enjoyable watching everyone go completely mad as an impressive array of schizoid tendencies is uncovered. People who are uneasy about clowns anyway might feel nervous seeing a scary clown standing around in the shadows in the barn. However, the problem is that a horror movie slasher type seems to have wandered onto the set of a traditional, if chaotic, prank cum kidnapping yarn. As such, the entrance of the slasher is more baffling than scary. The film encourages audience participation as the other participants in the prank unaccountably stay with it after Charlie inexcusably knocks Phil senseless and chloroforms Allison. In fact, the reactions of the characters (such as Allison's going along with the kidnapping) to the various events will leave you shaking your head.
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