The Clown at Midnight

The opening to this film is exceptional...It delivers a very creepy atmosphere, that continues through the first death scene...The thought of a film set in an old theater, of course, gives this the Phantom of the Opera feel, but It really doesn't feel that way when watching it. The stalking scenes, are at times, silly and predictable...and should be able to be avoided by the character, but nonetheless, people got to die in horror movies.

Written by Kenneth J. Hall (Puppet Master, Blonde Heaven, Dr. Alien), it is not wonder there is some flaw to this. However, it really delivers more than one would expect from a DTV (direct to video) horror film.

My big Gripe! The use of the standard Horror movie characters: The Jock, The bitchy Princess, The black girl, The gay Guy, the creepy guy no one can figure out, the weird lesbo-type girl into the paranormal, and a dim-witted teacher....and of course the basket-case main character...They follow all the stereotypes for their characters, and it tends to sway from the story, and make utter nonesense.

Tatayan Ali, in my opinion is best performer in the film...Her death scene, however, leaves much to be desired (the girl just didn't Die well).

Corny, predicatable Dialouge, slow, but creepy paced...the film really isn't that bad...but I disagree with one review saying this is a HOrror film for true horror fans...It is a decent slasher, but nothing we haven't seen before....The end, was no big surprise...but I didn't quite figure out everything until almost the very end....

Enjoyable watch....I plan on watching it again...

7 out of 10

Those who have followed Margot Kidder's career know that she got her start in low-budget horror flicks(BLACK CHRISTMAS, SISTERS, AMITYVILLE HORROR)and have undoubtably been pining for her return to the genre. Well, wait no more! Ms. Kidder returns in this flick, a rather undistinguished slasher flick concerning a group of college students conscripted by drama teacher Kidder to clean up a previously long-closed theater, owned by Christopher Plummer. The kids are the usual stock cliches(jock, tramp, gay guy, plain fat girl, loner), and their presence angers a pyscho in a clown costume who lives in the theater. Lots of killings in creative ways, which is about all you can say about this movie, except that Margot Kidder and Chris Plummer are in it.

An old opera house is donated to a high school theater program and teacher Margot Kidder brings a group of students there to help clean up the joint. Sarah Lassez has volunteered because her mother's murder by her co-star (in the titular clown outfit) was the incident that closed the theater years ago. She's been suffering from terrible nightmares since finding out and thinks spending a lot of time in the theater will sort things out in her head. (Yeah ... sure it will)

I'm sure you know what happens. The clown killer, or someone pretending to be him, is in the theater and kids die one by one. It's a pretty standard body count slasher film that makes very little sense (the personal belongings of the murder victim are still sitting in her dressing room over a decade later) and is fairly dull and bloodless. Besides Kidder, Christopher Plummer shows up as the owner of the theater, and Tatyana Ali and James Duval are among the kids. All acquit themselves pretty well ... Plummer is actually pretty great.

I'd probably be completely dismissive of the film if it weren't for the fact that it was shot in the Walker Theatre (now the Burton Cummings Theatre) here in Winnipeg. It was an opera house in the early 20th century and became a movie theater in the 1940's. It's been a music venue since the 1990's, and was when this was shot there. I know this place very well, so it was kind of interesting seeing it on film. Even better, there's some exterior shooting that shows the surrounding neighborhood. It's kind of fun to watch for people who live here.

There's one pretty great thing involving costuming near the end that I can't describe without spoiling the ending. I'll just say, the identity of the killer leads to an amusing clown related sequence.

Just a re-hash of 80's slasher movies with a "Phantom of the Opera" twist--and not much of a twist at that. Acting is terrible, script writing is terrible. It's too bad all the goofy characters weren't killed. Rent something else.

A group of students are reopening a theater soon, so during Christmas vacation they volunteer to stay and get it into shape, but the theather was plagued with the horrible murder of its star attraction. And one of the students is that star's daughter. Will history repeat itself?

Creepy and eerie from start to finish with a nice setting for the action to take place and featuring compenent direction and good performances. What makes it work so well though is the strong characterization of its central character and the appealing supporting characters.

My rating: 8 out of 10.