Circus of the Dead

A bunch of circus clowns kidnap a guy, kill his wife, and hold his children hostage to ensure his compliance as they bring him along on a killing spree.

First, the good stuff. Technical work is proficient. No notable problems with editing or sound. Lighting is dark, but most likely was intentional. It was nice to learn about the existence of the strange arcade game, Gals Panic.

Second, the bad stuff. The movie doesn't have that much in way of plot or development of anything. It's one violent encounter into the next. It's mostly an exercise in testing the viewer limits. I don't have resistance to that in particular - after all, I was able to watch this without issue.

But there seems to be a breakdown in understanding what makes thing scary. We should care about the captive, and his children. Without time spent developing him and giving him character, the movie amounts to a big shrug.

The budget limitations are mostly apparent with the lack of any other acts at the "circus". There are extras for an audience, but there only seems to be a ringmaster.

There are a handful of movies that seem to be influences. In particular, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Devil's Rejects. And for some reason, I'm reminded of Bloodsucking Freaks.

By the end of this, the viewer is left wondering where the story was. For a movie that runs over an hour and a half, with the lack of development, the whole thing could have been trimmed down to about 30-40 minutes without much loss to how effective it is.

Why am I bothering to write this review? Because the 5.9 on iMDB right now is seriously misleading. Even for fans of pushing horror to extremes would be disappointed.

I really wanted to enjoy this movie. There have been some good reviews and I can understand how people had a good time, but I guess I just felt like it didn't go far enough in many ways. Violence for the sake of just making the film disgusting just doesn't work for me, and given how barren of humor this film is, I just felt nasty and bored. Many deaths seem similar and for a film like this, didn't really shine. Bill Oberst Jr. is very good here and he really carries the film. Otherwise, the clowns can be creepy, but they lose their scary steam and there seems to be no consequences and no connection to reality. The film is polished and it looks like they spent some money. It has some nice camera and lighting work and I think this director can do well in the future. Maybe come up with a more compelling story with less torture and more suspense.

We have to say that this was a film to watch by yourself or with other people with the same morbid curiosity as we did. modern grindhouse film with scenes that will offend more than a few. The story did start off a bit slow, but once we got rolling it was pretty much non stop. We wished it would have developed the family dynamics just a bit more so when time came you would definitely feel more for the primary character. We do love the crazy, demented and psychosis of the main antagonist and an does he put the cringe in the back of your neck. There were one or two parts where the music was cut off or didn't mesh well, but not enough to make it a point to take you completely out of the film. the attention to detail on set design and small details like costumes make it a real treat! Overall a really gritty, dark and well made film and worth a watch a few times. Looking forward to see if they make a second part.

For most of the movie it is just a bunch of clowns killing people in disgusting ways. No good qualities in the entire movie. No motive for the clowns killing people other than to kill people. Where is the plot? Where is the suspense? Where is the good acting? Just torture, screaming, torture, spurting blood, etc. Etc. Etc. I did watch the whole movie with the last hour of the movie with the volume turned down really low while doing something else as I couldn't stomach all the torture, screaming etc. I always try to watch a movie to the end in case it gets better. With this movie it did not, terrible in the beginning, terrible in the middle and terrible in the end. I would not recommend this movie for anyone who enjoys a good horror movie that is actually scary, has a plot, has good acting and has good direction. I would give this movie a zero if I could.

I couldn't even make it 20 minutes in. The best acting is from the little girl playing the younger daughter. Pets can act better than the cast. Terrible dialogue writing. Painful to watch. I had to turn it off.