Dustin Ferguson’s The Clown Chainsaw Massacre begins with a riff on the opening crawl from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre before moving on to a news report about creepy clown sightings. (Remember when those were all the rage?) Then, the plot begins. And by “plot”, I mean a bunch of friends go to a Halloween party at a house where ten years earlier, a murderer who dressed like a clown, was killed by vigilante justice. It doesn’t take a nuclear physicist to figure out what happens next.
There are scenes here that not only rip off The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but Halloween (the early stalking scenes) and even A Nightmare on Elm Street (the vigilantes were the parents of the main characters) as well. Even though it’s only forty-five minutes long, there’s still a lot of padding in the form of a gratuitous montage of two girls roaming the aisles of Spirit Halloween looking for a costume and long scenes of people dancing at the party. Despite that, as far as Dustin Ferguson movies go, it’s not bad. While we still get plenty of dumb moments (like when the clown shoves a lollipop up a guy’s ass and it comes out his zipper, and then… the killer sucks on it?), it’s not nearly enough to make or break it.
Also, the skimpy running time is a bit of a mixed blessing. By the time the killer finally gets around to knocking off the teens, it feels like Ferguson is rushing through the death scenes to get to the end. They would’ve worked much better had they been given a little suspense or at least some sort of build-up before they’re killed. Wait. Did I just criticize a Dustin Ferguson movie for being too short? I’m starting to lose it.
Scenes from this also turned up in Ferguson’s compilation, I Drip Blood on Your Grave (under the title Night of the Clown.)
AKA: Night of the Clown.
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