Wrinkles the Clown

I was excited to see this after I saw the trailer, but was severely disappointed. This documentary could've been 10 minutes long. There really is no point. The production quality is good, but that's it. The "twist" in the final half hour is lazy and only served to make me angry. Save yourself the hour and a half and watch something else instead.

This was a pretty boring documentary about a clown that can be called by parents to scare their kids if they don't behave. It all started when in 2015 a video was uploaded to YouTube where a clown was shown emerging from underneath a bed in a young girl's room. After the clip went viral, apparently lots of parents actually called The Clown by the name of Wrinkles and actually hired him to scare their kids for misbehaving. Four years later this documentary comes out showing the man living his simple life in his van talking to the camera about his experiences as Wrinkles the Clown.

Towards the end there's some sort of twist that tells us the whole truth and if you are generally interested in this whole story you might enjoy this but I was but throughout its rather short runtime. [3,9/10]

Is this documentary about "Wrinkles the Clown" as a person? Sorta. Is it about the clown hysteria from a few years ago, and how people reacted to it? It could've been with more focus. Is it about the behind the scenes of making modern day folklore? Again, it could've been with more focus. This documentary, as a concept, could've been incredibly interesting if it decided what it wanted to be. Instead it meanders on "clowns are scary" for a good portion of it's runtime. It's shot well, but with odd (and occasionally bad) editing & pacing. If 30-50 minutes were cut from this it would be a much more solid piece (but if they did that it wouldn't be considered "featured length" anymore.) Ultimately, this probably would've been better as an episode of a mini-series about some related theme (modern day/online horror and how people react to it, etc.)

The documentary does a nice job of pacing the storytelling to keep you interested while not rushing through anything.

Takes the form of telling the story of Wrinkles while interjecting interviews with culture and folklore experts, and with everyday kids who find clowns in general, or Wrinkles in particular, interesting.

The tone shifts a couple of times into a darker or more evil tone which I found jarring, and it didn't really add much. I think it could have been done with more nuance or subtlety, which would have more accurately depicted how our culture sees clowns: as more of a trickster with malicious undertones than all out evil.

Overall the pacing, unique storytelling and unique subject matter made this an enjoyable watch that I will remember.

I hadn't had a chance to watch this movie until recently when I actually had a day off from work and other personal obligations. Honestly, I should've just worked that evening. This is BY FAR the worst documentary I've ever seen. The topic itself obviously was enough to get me interested in watching, but that's about it. The overall flow was awful... and focus was primarily on random people who have either come across Wrinkles or who have researched him themselves.. either way, none of the children nor adults featured say anything illuminating or interesting at any point. Just crap.