Rating: 
Summary: Clownhouse
Review: Above-average thriller from acclaimed director Victor Salva who also worked on Jeepers Creepers. It's the story of three mental patients who kill three clowns at the local town circus, and then invade the privacy of the home of three brothers, one of which is extremely frightened of clowns. I have always had a great fear of mysterious clowns and this movie reinforced my fear. The three clowns are directed and photographed so well that they almost felt like they were with me in my living room. The script is good, although it falls apart towards the climax, and the photography and action makes this a terrifying film to watch. Although the Victor Salva/Nathan Winters incident overshadows this film (and even appears to have related to the first waking-up scene where Casey's bare bottom is shown), this thriller is truthfully one of the eeriest films from the 80's - and 90's for that matter- and even if I'm knowing the film's dreary side events, this nearly bloodless horror movie still deserves a place in the heart of every horror fan out there.
Rating: 
Summary: MORALLY BANKRUPT CLOWNHOUSE DESERVES LESS THAN 1 STAR
Review: Avoid this film like the plague. The sophomoric-homoerotic innuendo from the oldest brother to the younger two is very disturbed. I found this movie even more disturbing after I found out the director, Victor Salva, was CONVICTED of molesting the boy who plays the youngest of the 3 brothers in this film. Go to any search engine and type in "Victor Salva" and you will see the facts. This in addition to the underwear, bed-wetting, and youngest brother in the tub scene contained in the film have really made me wonder why Victor Salva is making money hand over fist in Hollywood from Powder, Jeepers Creepers & Jeepers Creepers 2. I choose to boycott any further work from a victimizer.
Rating:
Summary: mixed feelings with this one!!!
Review: Before I bought this movie I've read the reviews here on Amazon.com, and one review said something about the child being molested by the director during the making of this movie. I still bought it because of many good reviews, but I also surfed on the net to find out more about the story behind the movie, and I found the answers. The director did molest the young 12 year old lead in this movie during the making of it, AND he taped it. This evidence convicted him (for only 3 years!(?)).
Anyway knowing that the director is a child-molester makes you spot things in the movie. The young lead filmed changing his underwear showing his nude rear end, his 15 y/o (movie)brother filmed in tight underwear, and his 17 y/o (movie)brother saying strange lines to his younger (movie)brothers like: "don't feel each other up when I'm gone" and "let's see if you got any hair on places where it counts" such things made me wonder if I was watching a good horror-movie or a child-porn-flick. Besides those scenes which made me wonder, it was a relativle good movie with a good story, and quite good SFX.
Rating: 
Summary: It's amazing Salva was allowed to make another movie.
Review: Clownhouse (Victor Salva, 1988)I really don't want to say Clownhouse is a bad film. I mean, you've got a standup comic (Tree) dressed up as a psychotic killer clown menacing three teenage boys with his two equally psychotic associates. It's a late-eighties horror flick. I mean, how bad can it be? Well, the answer is, pretty bad. And as much as the recent rash of email chain letters attempting to get Salva's films boycotted drives me to want to contribue to Salva's coffers, I'd rather watch Powder for twenty-four hours back-to-back than sit through this dog again. Salva enjoys descending into the realm of teen sex comedy humor all too often, including the inevitable masturbation jokes. Salva (who also wrote the screenplay) has a less then fine ear for dialog. At times, in fact, it gets positively hideous. It probably says more than I ever could about the film that only two of the ten top-billed actors in the film, Sam Rockwell (whose film debut was Clownhouse, and who has since gone on to such films as The Green Mile, Heist, and Galaxy Quest) and Karlheinz Teuber (coming back to the screen next year in Kung Phooey), made more than one film after Clownhouse. Do yourself a favor and avoid it like the plague. * 1/2
Rating:
Summary: KEY WORD.......CREEPY
Review: Clownhouse is one of those horror films I had hired as a little girl and it kind of creeped me out, especially the cover. For one, Clowns creep me out but I'm still fascinated with them, I've always thought that they were evil behind those big smile and makeup and this film just confirms it.
This film isn't excellent but I still watch and if released on DVD I'd still buy it and add to my horror collection. It's good in the creepiness department. Performances are fine, especially from a teenage Sam Rockwell.
Worth a look from every horror buff!
Rating: 
Summary: Victor Salva is helping to keep the HORROR genre alive!
Review: Clownhouse is one of those movies you have to watch when you know nothing about it. I first saw this movie broadcasted on cable TV in the late 80's. I was only a little boy, but I loved this movie beyond belief and have kept it in the back of my head. There was no blood in Clownhouse yet it scared me twice as much as every other horror movie and I have seen them all. The film stars Nathan Forrest WInters(casey) who is deathly afraid of clowns. He has a tormenting brother Randy(Sam Rockwell) and Jeffrey(Brian Mchugh)who make him go to the Jolly Brothers circus because his dad is in Cleveland and his mom is going to her sister's house. Casey obviously gets spooked by the clowns and before the three go back home, a trio of lunatics from the nut house escape and steal clown outfits after killing some sane clowns. Well you guessed it, the lunatics arrive right on Casey's doorstep. The movie has a really creepy atmosphere and the settings are Remarkable. I would die to see this movie on the BIG screen. Victor Salva's filmmaking genius is obviously displayed throughout the film. A scene where Randy goes to the attic and the lights flicker while the fat clown runs by is evidence. Victor Salva mind is that of a Horror master. Clownhouse and Jeepers Creepers 1&2 are great horror flicks and he wrote all of them. Those who do not like Clownhouse simply because of the molestation are STUPID, because the film itself is about something completely different.
Rating: 
Summary: not bad, but wait for the new dvd
Review: clownhouse isn't Victor Salva's best movie, but it's really entertaining trapped in a house with crazy dudes movie. the kids in the movie are annoying and you want them to die and die soon but salva drags it out a bit. clownhouse has a few thrills mostly cliched ones. this dvd isn't worth the cash the used ones are going for.but there is good news if you gotta have it,mgm is supposed to be re-releasing the dvd on 8/24/04. so save your cash and get a new one for under $15 bucks.
Rating:
Summary: Darm Good Thriller. Where Has This Film Been Hiding?
Review: From the new MGM Vault releases, I decided to watch CLOWN HOUSE first. I was quite impressed with it. The plot: A young boy has been frightened by circus clowns since he was three years old. His older brother, 14, is understanding; another brother, 17, is a mean jerk who constantly ridicules the boy about his fears. The circus is in town, of course, and guess who doesn't want to go, but is bullied into it by his oldest brother. As fate would have it, three escaped mental patients kill three clowns, take their clothes and break into the home of the three boys when mom and dad are away. It takes half the picture for the youngest kid to convince his two older brothers that the clowns aren't just in his imagination. Even the police won't believe him. This is one of the best-choreographed horror films I've seen and reminds me of a darker version of HOME ALONE. The amount of times the two older brothers just miss seeing the clowns is amazing and done with extraordinary skill by the filmmakers. I wonder why this film isn't better known? I've seen worse become big hits at the box office. I'm not saying it's a forgotten masterpiece, but I don't think many will be disappointed if they give it a look.
Rating:
Summary: An tainted 80's horror gem...
Review: From writer/director Victor Salva, who brought us Jeepers Creepers (2001) and Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) comes Clownhouse (1988), his big screen directorial debut. The film features a cast of relatively unknown actors, with the exception of a young Sam Rockwell, appearing in his first silver screen role.
The film begins by introducing us to three brothers Casey (Nathan Forrest Winters), Goeffrey (Brian McHugh, and Randy (Rockwell). It seems Casey, the youngest, suffers from a deep-seated fear of clowns, apparently due to a previous visit to the circus a year ago. This fear manifests itself in the form of reoccurring nightmares. We soon learn the boys are going to be alone on this particular night as their father is away on business and their mother will be visiting a distant relative. The boys plan on going to the circus, with a reluctant Casey in tow. We also learn three homicidal inmates from a local insane asylum have escaped. Will the inmates find their way to the circus and assume the roles of clowns, follow the boys and terrorize them in their big, dark, empty house? You betcha...on hearing about some of the elements of the film, it would seem this to be your very run-of-the-mill type 80's horror film, but once you settle in, it becomes much more than that. Salva quickly displays his talent for creating suspense and tension on screen, while avoiding the more visceral elements so prevalent in the genre during that time period. The use of light, shadows, and creepy music really combine well to create an atmospheric chiller that almost leaves you breathless at times. Sure, there's the occasional `pop out' scare, a scene where something jumps out of the dark to frighten and shock the audience, quite a cheap effect in my opinion, especially when overused, but Salva doesn't rely on this technique throughout. I felt he more or less used it sparingly, priming the fear pump to bring on better, more intricate scares developed by turning things the experienced viewer would expect to see in a film like this around and presenting them in a different way. And this was done in a very subtle manner, as not to really call attention to the subversion of the normal techniques, allowing the audience to experience a squirming sensation as the film progresses.
The pacing seems quite slow through the beginning and well into the middle, and I think there's a good twenty minutes between when the clowns enter the dark and creepy house until their presence is actually known by the boys. This seems very deliberate on the director's part, allowing for him to let the pot simmer, letting the viewer get unnerved with the knowledge of the intruders well before the boys know it. The clowns seem intent on playing a game of cat and mouse for whatever reason, but given that they're psychotics recently escaped from a mental hospital, who knows what their methods or motives are? I thought the three actors playing the brothers did quite well, presenting a fairly realistic portrayal of typical siblings, including all the meaningless fighting and rivalries many would be familiar with within their own relationships with their brothers and/or sisters. The house itself was quite odd and maze-like, being so very large yet it felt like so little of the seemingly huge interior was actually utilized within the film. I did feel a few scenes the actions of the characters or dialog didn't seem to fit as well as it should have, but these were minor gripes on my part, and didn't really lessen the overall effect of the film, which was to scare. There is an underlying plot thread throughout the film, one that focuses on the dealing with of one's own fears (actually, it's more of the core of the movie), but it didn't get in the way of this film providing some generally excellent scares.
Okay, as some may know or not, there is a much darker side to this film than what's presented on this disc. It's hard to provide a review and not mention it, so here it goes. The director, Salva, got into trouble after some very inappropriate actions with one of the young stars of the film. I'm not going to go into details, but he was convicted of his crimes, and served his time (you can look up the details on the web easily enough if you wish). Do I support what he did? Certainly not...there is a taint on this film, and those who are familiar with the history behind may decide to avoid this based on the actions of the director, and I wouldn't blame them, but I cannot change what happened. Hopefully all parties involved got the help they needed as it's hard to ignore the talent involved. I can't help but think it was this situation that caused me such difficulty in finding an affordable copy of the film.
The film is presented in a wide screen format here, and it looks pretty good. Some scenes were a bit dark, and the audio seemed a bit soft at times, but if you are looking for a seriously creepy horror film from the 80's that avoids many of the clichés of the time, then this one is a real gem. The disc is extremely sparse on special features, allowing only for a theatrical trailer and English, French, and Spanish subtitles. Some may find the film hard to find, but I did hear of a possible re-release on DVD, so I would suggest avoiding the high priced versions. I actually found my copy on another website, new, for a very reasonable price.
Cookieman108
Rating:
Summary: clown house the real truth
Review: I bought this video off www.Amazon.com a few weeks ago, cuz i live in England and over there, the film i simply not available anymore, i think because it is banned because of the controvesy of it (see other reviews for detail). Despite these stories which are true and the fact that some of these reviews say that it is even scarier as IT the clown, i wouldnt go that far. In terms of blood and clown story, it realy isnt that scary (and that is coming from someone who hates clowns) and certainly isnt scarier than IT, but the mood of the film is great with some pretty original and scary moments towards the end. And if you are quite drunk this is definetly the horror movie for you so if you can, i strongly recomend that you rent or buy this film because in a way it realy is a classic al on its own and like i said there are some scary bits.
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