I don’t really think that either the writer (Jake Wade Hall, The Hitcher) or director (John Simpson, Freeze Frame) of Amusement would take it as much of an insult if they heard me say that the film delivered exactly what it promised. I took one look at the DVD box, and presumed that this was going to be a film about a weird guy with some sort of clown fixation who killed off young, attractive women for reasons that really only make sense to him. I wasn’t too far off.
The film opens with vignettes(kind of Creepshow-style) of three young women: Shelby (Laura Breckenridge), who is driving home on the highway with her boyfriend; Tabitha (Katheryn Winnick), who is babysitting her two nephews (real-life brothers Preston and Brennan Bailey); and Lisa (Jessica Lucas), who is looking for her missing room-mate. They’re unconnected, or are they? Well, of course, they aren’t, because then the movie would really suck. They are all being stalked by a boy (who has, you know, grown up by now) from their schoolgirl past, and wants to extract bloody revenge on them for being made fun of in a way that most of us had to deal with in one way or another. But he can’t just let it go and move on. No, he has to assume this demented clown identity and systematically kill those wronged him in the past.
Look, I’m going to level with you: I enjoyed the first forty-five minutes of this movie a lot. I wasn’t blown away, but they felt like a real horror movie to me. They were gimmicky (the home that Tabitha is babysitting at has a life-sized clown doll sitting in a rocking chair), they looked pretty good (some of the outdoor bits actually reminded me of Sleepy Hollow, and I mean that in a good way), and there wasn’t any of the habitual horrible dialogue or characterizations that tend to set movies like this apart from very outset (a lot of was better than plenty of the crap I heard in the last Saw movie that I watched, whichever number that was). I wasn’t unhappy.
When some of it started to unravel was when we started to learn more about the killer. Frankly, this guy is a whole lot creepier in flashback as a demented kid with a still-breathing dissected rat in a diorama box (hell, I’d make fun of that kid, then ask how him on Earth he did that) than he is as a full-grown adult with one of those booby-trapped sub-basements that seem to be available to any maniac who wants one. It probably doesn’t help that this guy is coming right after that other clown villain who laughs all the time and sets up elaborate traps for his unsuspecting victims, but still. This feels like the kind of role that somebody like Jeffrey Combs or Crispin Glover could have turned into an inspired pile of campy mania, but this dude (Keir O’Donnell) doesn’t seem to be having any where near as much as fun as the term demented clown would suggest.
Movies like this sort of act as their own sort of acid test: if you’re some one who likes these kind of movies, odds are good that you’ll enjoy Amusement. It has subterranean basements, hot babes, and it’s share of bloody mayhem (and, in a couple of spots even a little bit of atmosphere). There’s clearly a market for this kind of material, and if you’re a part of it, then go for it. If you’re wondering how someone who manages to tie his own shoes in the morning (which I have done, like, twice) can muster even the slightest bit of praise for a movie like this, then it probably isn’t for you.
Amusement hits DVD and BLU-RAY on January 20. It comes with both wide-screen and full-screen formats on the disc, as well as optional Spanish and English subtitles.
"Amusement" is on sale January 20, 2009 and is rated R. Horror. Directed by John Simpson. Written by Jake Wade Wall. Starring Jessica Lucas, Katheryn Winnick, Keir ODonnell, Laura Breckenridge.
