Movies
No Joke, Real Clowns Say “Freak Show” Contributing to “Clown Fear”
An absolutely bonkers story just came out of a clown car over at THR.
The site is reporting that real life clowns are angry with FX’s “American Horror Story: Freak Show” for depicting clown in a negative light. Yes, there’s actually a group of clowns that are bitching and moaning about the killer clown, which was teased in the series’ premiere last Wednesday.
The FX series from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk revolves around Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch), a serial killer who stalks couples with scissors and imprisons children in an old school bus.
“Hollywood makes money sensationalizing the norm,” bemoans Glenn Kohlberger, president of Clowns of America International, the nation’s biggest clown club. “They can take any situation no matter how good or pure and turn it into a nightmare.
“We do not support in any way, shape or form any medium that sensationalizes or adds to coulrophobia or ‘clown fear,’ ” Kohlberger told the site.
The site then smartly addresses “clown fear” in entertainment over the last century, pointing out scenes in Poltergeist, “IT” and more. Click on over for more on that and to see what c-creator Ryan Murphy has to say about the clown in “Freak Show”
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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