Rish Outfield's reviews
What a fantastic title, first of all. Clownhouse! It really rolls off the tongue. It inspires a certain twisted feeling of discomfort, and totally works for me. And that was the main reason I rented this one, bringing it into tryanist's house, and defiling his VCR with it.
Tyranist is notoriously afraid of clowns. Jack Handey is too, though more understandably so. The only thing tyranist fears more than clowns are...drumroll, please...moths. Yes, the butterfly's less-attractive cousins scare the crap out of big, mean old tyranist.
I expected something really stupid, something obviously low-budget, and something laughable. Well, though it was definitely a cheap film, it was a pretty tight little package. The scares, though not entirely successful, were there, and the character of the boy, though whimpering and pudgy, was believable. Clowns are pretty frightening, if you think about it. The fact that they have painted-on smiles, concealing whatever real feelings and motivations are truly there.
The ending was somewhat lame, but the dialogue and relationship of the three brothers worked really well.
I'd Recommend It To: Anyone who finds it, as I imagine it's pretty hard to find.
Note: it was a year or so after seeing this that I found out the . . . unfortunate history of this movie. I wondered, Do I address it in my review? Do I remove the film from the site altogether? Do I say nothing?" Finally, I decided to leave it as it was--we didn't know of its infamy when we saw it. And perhaps that's all I need to say.

The tyranist's thoughts
This was a really well thought out movie that just wasn't that scary. Perhaps it was because it was made for TV and perhaps it was the fact that the evil clowns looked funnier and more friendly than the good clowns. The concept is really based on the tried and true slasher formula (three defenseless souls in a house that is a long way from anywhere being hunted by a psychopath or group of psychopaths) and it doesn't stray too far. The fact that the victims are three brothers is probably the most unique twist. There is almost always a sister around for the purposes of screaming, showering, and getting it on with her boyfriend. The story is pretty well thought out, but not completely convincing. There are a couple of really creepy moments and a couple of times that you can't believe that the kids are so stupid. All in all, it is pleasant and better than a lot of higher budget, wider distribution horror flicks. Besides, anything with clowns . . .