Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Luisito Joaquin Gonzalez (LuisitoJoaquinGonzalez) The emergence of Wes Craven's Scream in 1996 had a similar effect on cinema as John Carpenter's Halloween did back in 1978. Once again video-store top shelves were filled with endless low budget knock-offs, so many so in fact that Blockbuster Video reported that it was receiving four times the amount of Horror films from 1998 to 2004 that it had since the organisation's birth in 1985. Although this was also due to the huge popularity of high-grossing titles such as The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense and The Ring; Craven's opus should be credited for its hand in the re-birth of the genre as a bankable medium.The slasher cycle is still thriving on the Direct-to-Video market mainly due to the fact that it has become a much simpler task to shoot an independent feature and find reasonable distribution than it was some twenty years earlier. But the biggest notable difference between the two periods of slasher-indulgence is the levels of quality. Whilst there certainly were awfully poor entries released during the eighties ('Don't go in the Woods'/'The Forest'), their comical lack of credibility was perhaps saved by the likes of 'Halloween' and 'My Bloody Valentine', which were eminently superior. But this time around, we have not had as many audacious offerings to shield the brunt of the criticism from the numerous mediocre efforts.The Clown at Midnight was released hot on the heels of Craven's Scream, taking the favoured approach of enthusiasts by incorporating a killer clown into its synopsis. It tells the tale of seven drama students that are forced as part of their course work to clean and prepare a dilapidated theatre for re-opening. It had been closed for many years since a leading actress was brutally butchered by a maniac who escaped the scene without trial. The victim's daughter, Kate Williams (Sarah Lassez), is among the eager group and upon her arrival she begins suffering flashbacks and visions of the fate of her mother. Before long, the group are locked in and the psychopathic clown makes an inevitable reappearance for his swan song performance.If there is any credit to be given to this scarcely popular new-age slasher, it has to be for the ambitious effort from Jean Pellerin, the junior director. Some of the camera work was neatly planned and his energetic method managed to prevent the movie from slipping into the clutches of complete tedium. However with that said, it feels woefully uninspired and that must be an underlining factor to its lack of a DVD release. Considering the fact that this was first circulated in 1998 by a relatively large studio, its lack of an appearance on digital format is a huge snub in itself.The main problem with The Clown at Midnight is that it feels half-hearted. The characters are horrendously portrayed by a cast that have proved that they can do better and despite the inclusion of various so-called 'stars of the future', the dramatics remain distinctly sub-par throughout. It's left up to Christopher Plummer to inject some class into a leisurely paced group of performers, but even he's slumming it here.The mystery is excellently constructed and in fairness, you'll never guess who it is that's sporting the creepy clown attire. But the lack of any thorough cast credibility leaves the twists somewhat redundant. The characters are completely unlikeable and even the stereotypical final girl is unapproachable. Never have I watched a slasher film and disliked the entire cast, which proved to be short-sighted character development from the script-writers. The plot closes with a corny 'light-hearted' ending, which was an unnecessary sugar-sweet topping to a surprisingly un-palatable cake.I read somewhere that The Clown at Midnight has become renowned as the best killer clown movie since the psychological 'Clownhouse'. That statement says more about the lack of quality in that sector of horror than it does about the credibility of this muddled effort. I watched this movie many years back as a young student at Carlos III University de Madrid. The young lady I was dating at the time was a huge fan of 'Scream' and was the kind of girl that would flinch at every jolt in the soundtrack of a scary movie. After watching her reaction, I remember feeling that The Clown at Midnight must have been good to have that kind of effect on her, even if she was something of a vulnerable viewer. Unfortunately after watching the film again seven years later, I was disappointed with not only its mediocre quality, but also with my ability at that time to judge a decent performance. It's surprising how our attitudes and levels of awareness can change isn't it? There are reports of an uncut copy somewhere in existence, although these have neither been confirmed nor denied. But a huge amount of gore would not subtract from the poor level of performances on display in The Clown at Midnight and with the finances that Pellerin had at his disposal, this really should have been better. It does have its share of ambitious moments (The opening killing marks an excellent use of suspense and creativity), but overall it doesn't have enough of them to warrant a purchase. I agree, there are not enough killer clown movies in existence, but the excellent 'The House on Sorority Row' deserves to be seen over this.

Paul Andrews The Clown at Midnight tells the story of teen Kate Williams (Sarah Lessaz) who recently discovered she was adopted, her real mother an opera singer named Lorraine Sedgewick (Vicki Marentette) having been brutally stabbed to death supposedly by a jealous lover after a performance of Pagliacci, a tragic play about a lovesick clown. Kate has been having very vivid nightmares & hallucinations but life goes on as they say... Seven college students including Kate have signed up to help clean up the old Walker Theatre which the head of drama Ms. Gibby (Margot Kidder) has had a grant to reopen, it's not long before Kate is getting freaked out because the Walker is the very theatre where her mom was murdered by a psychotic in a clown costume & he's on the prowl again as he locks the theatre up & begins to kill the teens off one-by-one...This Canadian production was directed by Jean Pellerin & guess what? It's rubbish. The script by Kenneth J. Hall seems to take itself very seriously & has all the usual clichés, the teens keep splitting up for trivial reasons, the killers motives are thin to say the least, it's utterly predictable & it doesn't come together that well at the end either. How many more dull, lifeless films about annoying American teens do we need? There is a distinct lack of gore, in fact this is one of the driest slashers I've seen & considering it was made in 1998 when special effects were very advanced there's no excuse, it wouldn't be so bad if the character's made up for it but they don't because their all rubbish & the dialogue is poor too. Then there's the generic run down theatre location which is just a bore of a setting & not used to any great effect at all. You know it's over 40 minutes before the clown kills someone, that's 40 minutes of dullsville I'd rather be doing something fun like watching paint dry. Then there's the confused ending in which three people end up dressed exactly the same as the clown, why? For a start why did George go back & get dressed like the clown when he could have been saving Kate? Why did he need to dress as the clown anyway? It's pointless. Then there's the none too shocking revelation that the initial suspect didn't do it, wow what a surprise. He claimed he was trying to help them, yeah right & he did a good job didn't he as 5 people were killed & I didn't see him anywhere frankly until the pathetic twist ending which is so obvious it's embarrassing. You know who the killer is the very first time he appears on screen it's that obvious. To make matters even worse the only half decent looking cast member Liz Crawford is the first to be killed, although it takes a while to get there...Director Pellerin does nothing to liven things up, the films well made & professional but very dull, flat & lifeless. The stalk scenes are poor, it's not scary, there's no tension as it's all so clichéd & obvious & there isn't even any decent gore in it either. You know slasher films have moved on since 1978 when Halloween came out but you'd never have guessed it watching Clown at Midnight. The violence & gore is tame with no imagination to the kills, someone gets a spear through the stomach, someone is strangled, someone is thrown off the roof, someone is electrocuted, someone is impaled on what looks like spikes although I don't know why someone would keep a load of spikes under a trap door on a theatre stage & someone is decapitated, seen it all before & done better as well.Technically the film is pretty good actually & the best thing that can be said about it overall is that it's well made with decent production values. Filmed in the real life Walker Theatre in Winnipeg in Canada. The acting isn't anything special but it's alright, I didn't like anyone particularly but Liz Crawford was quite hot & she gets her top off as well. I take it Chirstopher Plummer & Margot Kidder need the money to agree to appear in this.Clown at Midnight is a dull slasher film with a low body count, next to no gore, annoying teen character's & a very predictable twist ending which I predicted within 30 minutes, poor all round then really. There are many good slashers out there you really shouldn't be wasting your time or money on this.

ricky roche 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.

GorgonHeep "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.