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Halloween 2018

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Under the Radar

So here we have an example of a film that hasn't been doing too badly, as far as criticism goes. It's a bit split down the middle, but the majority of people seem to be enjoying it. I suppose I can see why it would appeal to true blue horror fans, but personally, I just didn't find any real connection to this film.

The setup involves two girls, Tara and Dawn (Jenna Kanell and Catherine Corcoran, respectively) who have been out partying on Halloween, and they end up getting stocked by this creepy clown guy; Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton).

The film is ultimately a throwback to the stalker slasher movies of yesteryear, but things are generally just far more uncomfortable to watch with this one. I have to give credit to Thornton for his portrayal of this psycho clown - he's creepy as hell, and honestly has the potential to be a modern day "great" as far as horror villains go. However what the rest of the movie divulges seems to be not much more than bad acting from others, a whole lot of screaming and oh yes, a bit of torture porn - which I tend to veer away from. But oh yeah, there's plenty of blood and gore to be had here for the slightly more sick-hearted.

A lot of what makes this movie compelling to horror fans is just the creepy imagery it offers on top of the gore. For myself, I have to admit I appreciated the fact that this was a movie that made me uneasy, for the most part. In a way, as a horror movie, that's what it's supposed to do. But it ends up feeling like one of those movies that makes you wanna take a shower after watching it.

At the end of the day, I mostly found this to be a bad movie with good horror elements, if that makes any sense at all. I'm not kidding when I tell you so much of the movie is just this clown going to town on his victims with a knife. In a way, it seemed very cheap. But in other ways, this is a good example of how a low budget can do wonders for the overall atmosphere of a horror film.

By the way, if clowns freak you out, this might be better avoided. I'm not scared of clowns at all, but there was something about Art that just got under my skin. He's like a kid with a violent temper tantrum who's lost his toy and keeps taking it out on others... with knives. It just gets so gruesome at times, it's a perfect example of "movie meat". Another good example of this would be the final fight scene in 'Freddy vs Jason', just for reference.

I'm gonna go ahead and give it a bad rating, as the overall content ended up being a bit much for my particular tastes. But again, I can't deny that this movie will have a lot working for it as far as a deeper horror audience than myself is concerned. If you wanta good, creepy, gorey, blood bath of a torturous movie, it's not a bad place to start.

2/5

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