It took an indecently long
time, but the world has finally embraced Sam Rockwell as one of the
most versatile and watchable character actors
working today. From small roles in The Green Mile, Galaxy Quest and Charlies
Angels, through to Clooney-endorsed lead turns in Welcome to Collinwood
and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, he was long overdue his breakthrough
in flicks like Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men and the oddball sci-fi
comedy Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Predictably, the road
to this success started in Crappy Horror Avenue with a debut movie role
in this rather self-explanatory circus-themed psycho-shocker.
The 20-year-old Rockwell stars as Randy, the eldest of three brothers
and therefore a rather cocksure and obnoxious bully. With their mom visiting
her sister, and the never-seen father away on business, it’s up
to Randy to keep his younger brothers – Geoffrey and Casey – occupied
and out of trouble. Luckily the circus is in town. Unluckily Casey, the
youngest of the trio, is so scared of clowns that he wets the bed when
they intrude into his dreams. But, hey, that’s not going to stop
Randy and so the three siblings embark for the Jolly Bros. Circus where,
somewhat inevitably, the clowns choose Casey from the audience and he
flees howling into the night.
Things only get worse as the squabbling brothers make their way home.
There’s been a breakout at the local asylum and three psychotic
maniacs are on the loose. Can you guess where they stop first? Yep, at
the circus, where they murder the clowns and steal their costumes. Want
to take a wild guess as to their second destination? Bingo. The remote
house where our three home alone heroes are still bickering and trying
to freak each other out with practical jokes.
The film then spends a tedious amount of time with the clowns inexplicably
creeping around the house, looming behind the kids and then magically
vanishing whenever anyone turns to look. Casey, of course, sees them
out of the corner of his eye – but can’t convince his brothers
that the murderous clowns of his nightmares are actually real.
With just twenty minutes to go, the movie finally kicks up a gear when
the clowns grab Randy and yank him through a glass door, but with such
a short amount of time to play with it takes Casey and Geoffrey very
little effort to turn from petrified kids into clown-killing machines,
polishing off two of the clowns with improbable ease – tripping
one down the attic stairs and sending another hurtling through an upstairs
window. The last clown – Cheezo, since you ask – proves harder
to defeat, but even he keels over when Geoffrey slams a fire axe into
his spine.
As for Randy, his fate remains frustratingly vague as the credits roll.
His younger brothers find his blood-stained body in a cupboard, and seem
convinced he might still be alive. They’re busy dragging him into
another room, for no logical reason, when Cheezo strikes and that’s
the last we see of Sam Rockwell. Bloodied, battered but apparently OK.
Need to know: The creepy reputation of Clownhouse owes more to what happened
off-screen than the rather disappointing action on-screen. It was the
first full-length feature film by writer-director Victor Salva following
his well-reviewed 1986 horror short Something In The Basement, and he
brought the young star of that film, Nathan Forest Winters, onto Clownhouse
to star as young Casey. It was during filming of Clownhouse that Salva
filmed himself performing oral sex acts with the 12-year-old actor.
Subsequently
arrested, he pleaded guilty to charges of lewd and lascivious conduct,
oral copulation with a person under 14 and procuring a child for pornography
and was sentenced to three years in prison. He served 15 months of the
sentence before being paroled. After leaving prison, Salva went on to
write and direct Powder, a fantasy about an albino misfit with supernatural
powers, and the two Jeepers Creepers movies, all of which were produced
by Francis Ford Coppola.
Honourable mentions: For more unlikely Sam Rockwell appearances check
out Hell Night, a 1992 slasher flick about a demented priest, and the
first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, in which he had a tiny role
as “Head Thug”.
