Killjoy 3

When Band first announced that a third entry into the Killjoy franchise would be going into production I was a bit dumbstruck, why make Killjoy 3 when a new Trancers or Subspecies would have been guaranteed money in the bank? A new Puppet Master or Demonic Toys I can see as puppets have always been Full Moon's true cash cow but Killjoy? Boy was I wrong! Killjoy 3 was no masterpiece of horror, that's for sure, but I'll be damned if it wasn't creepy, sexy fun! Not only was Trent Haaga's Killjoy in rare form but the additional demonic clowns created by writer/director John Lechago (Blood Gnome & Bio-Slime) were genius! This time around we get a lumbering Emmett Kelly style clown dubbed "Punchy the clown," a scary mime and his parasitic sibling dubbed "Freakshow" and, last but certainly not least, a scorching hot succubus clown covered head to toe in body paint named "Batty Boop." Each clown brings its own distinctive look and abilities to the film but the most impressive power wielded by any of them was Batty Boop's amazing ability to cause my pants to spontaneously tent.

It's obvious Lechago was working on a low budget which is no surprise but he still managed to do a damn good job creating a wickedly entertaining sequel. The way Killjoy 3 is written one needn't watch the first two films in order to get their bearings as everything you really need to know about the character is made available to you in this installment. The dialog, outside of a few flat performances, was believable, the CG was fun and appropriate and the special effects make-up and gore were gruesome; this was an enjoyable B-movie romp with more positive than negative to look forward to.

If you're a fan of the first two Killjoy films, you'll want to grab this as it's the best of the series. If you've never seen a Killjoy film but you're interested in checking this out, be sure to rent.

House-sitting for a professor, a group of friends receive a magical mirror containing Killjoy and his brethren of demonic clowns inside who lure them within to torture and kill them forcing them to find a way of stopping the creatures from satisfying their urges.

This one here was quite the enjoyable and impressive entry in the series. One of the better features here is the fact that this one carries on the series' utterly funny and twisted mangling of the traditional clown torments that are featured throughout here. There's plenty of utterly demented clown puns and sight-gags that are present which are just the right side of morbid to be hilarious while managing to go for a rather frantic series of encounters which are truly demented and somewhat chilling as well, from the one-sided boxing match between the clown and one of the group, the spiraling stairway that keeps twirling around in on itself and the whole dinner basting sequence that features the clowns lavishing her with all sorts of broth and vegetables in preparation for a feast makes this seem like a truly demented and disjointed killer clown effort. Likewise, the finale in their dimension where it goes for the seduction of the group by the two clowns, the different brawling tactics over the dinner preparations of their friend while the whole affair descends into a massive fight with their super-powerful weapons being utilized in a demented yet rather silly manner. With all these providing this one with some solid and rather fun gore effects for the different kills, these here make this one quite an entertaining blast that works well in holding off the few minor flaws here. The biggest issue with the film is that it really doesn't seem to have any kind of coherent plot line present, tending to go bouncing around from scene to scene without much connection between them. Once the mirror arrives and the kids are aware of the creatures within it, they don't tend to do anything which really sets it up from the beginning of how the film begins bouncing around without any sense of coherence and it's quite a goofy set-up to have this carry on throughout the whole film. The other rather big problem with this one is the rather obvious goofy and cheesy time throughout here, from the outrageous creatures, the set-up in the clown's dimension and the wacky action that ensues here doesn't really have a universal appeal in which will allow everyone to get into it easily. It's mostly for the fans of these particularly goofy and cheesy types of efforts only who will get these types of efforts. These here are what hold it back.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity.

Killjoy 3 is a worthwhile view if you're a fan of clown-related horror films. Killjoy is wacky, uses a lot of tricks and has many one liners, similar to Freddy Krueger at his silliest. There are also 3 other bad clowns that are pretty fun, too. However, all this wackiness among the characters makes very little of the film scary. It will remind you greatly of the Joker from Batman joking around with his goons.

The "normal" characters are pretty boring, though, as are most scenes that don't take place in the clown world. The film starts to get dumb at the end when the characters try to defeat Killjoy... though the final scene is a nice touch. Not as great as It or Killer Klowns from Outer Space, but satisfying.

I hated the first two Killjoy movies, and was expecting Kiljoy 3 to be even worse. So imagine my surprise when I found it to be the best of the series by a significant margin, and that it was reasonably good. It is not perfect, the human acting is rather poor with the characters clichéd and the dialogue rather cheesy. The effects are also on the cheap side, the film drags at times, and apart from the nice final scene some of the second half is rather dumb and unsatisfying, a longer length might have helped. However, the camera work is better than the amateurish mobile-phone-shot-like camera work of especially the second film, and the make-up for Killjoy and Batty Boop is quite good I thought. The story is not exceptional as such but it is much less derivative and I think less predictable than the previous two, and Killjoy is at his least annoying here, actually having some witty one-liners and some signs of a menacing presence. Batty Boop is the character who steals the film though, in fact all the minions are welcome touches. All in all, I was surprised by this. It is not a great movie, but considering the awfulness of the first two movies it is saying a lot when I say this was the best of the series. 5/10 Bethany Cox

What essentially hurt the Killjoy movies was the first 2. Part 1 was awful and 2 wasn't much better. Killjoy 3 turns this around and does what the franchise should have done with to begin with. Gone is the urban setting. Gone is the shoestring budget. Gone is the horrid script. Gone is the annoying main character. This one actually makes Killjoy ghoulishly demonic and semi menacing. The story evolves around Killjoy being resurrected once again but not told the victim he is to kill. So in turn he and his newly formed minions are trapped in a mirror which serves as a portal to their world. The mirror gets delivered to a house a group of kids are house sitting and as you can guess they get sucked into Killjoy's world. Full moon seemed to set out and make a decent Killjoy movie which they did. Is it great? No but its entertaining. Killjoy's minions are also a welcome addition (especially Batty Boop) and add some to the movie. Granted this is for fans of the genre or fans of full moon but it works in its own way. 5 out 10. Hopefully these movies keep going this route. It seems Killjoy can't be kept down.