Clown: 'father trapped in a clown costume begins to hunt children'

Fans of horror, rejoice: "Clown" is a horrifically effective sampling from the genre, and definitely not for solitary viewing. It's probably best to get a posse of friends and plan on a party afterwards because this will induce a serious scream-fest with weeping on the side. Yes, it's that scary.

Apparently, producer Eli Roth had no idea the movie existed or who Jon Watts was, but Watts and his crew concocted a fake trailer and put Roth's name in the credits. Their audacity intrigued the horror director enough to sign on, and his name also appears in the cast.

Nice dad Kent (Andy Powers) finds a clown suit and puts it on for his young son's birthday party. That night, he can't take the costume off, and his make-up stays firmly on his face. Wife Meg (Laura Allen) is at first annoyed, then alarmed and, finally, genuinely frightened when Kent begins to show disturbing behavior — namely, murdering small children. Desperate to understand what's going on, Kent tracks down the clown suit's original owner (Peter Stormare). "Clown" marks Watts' feature debut and it shows: The plot often swerves into incoherent mayhem, the execution is unpolished and the conclusion is a sprawl of dissatisfaction. Yet "Clown" sports a bold, raw brilliance that's hard to resist.