clown horror theatre story

Years ago, opera singer Lorraine Sedgewick (Vicki Marentette) was killed in her dressing room at an opera house, supposedly by Lorenzo Orsini (Jonathan Barrett), one of the lead actors in a performance of Pagliacci. When Orsini was thought to have fled to Europe afterwards, the opera house closed down.

Years later, high school student Kate (Sarah Lassez) is plagued with nightmares after discovering she is Lorraine's daughter. Kate's best friend Monica (Tatyana Ali) convinces Kate to help restore the opera house, and when they arrive they meet the rest of the group including nerdy Cheryl "Walnut" Webber (Melissa Galianos), flamboyant Marty (J. P. Grimard), rebel George (James Duvall), vindictive Ashley (Liz Crawford) and her jock boyfriend Taylor (Ryan Bittle). The group are lectured by their teacher Ms. Gibby (Margot Kidder), however a stage light falls and nearly hits her, drawing the attention of the owner of the opera house Mr. Caruthers (Christopher Plummer). The group deduces it was an accident, however Mr. Caruthers insists the opera house is haunted by Lorraine, upsetting Kate who is comforted by Ms. Gibby. Soon after, Ms. Gibby leaves, allowing the teenagers to lock up, who instead engage in pizza and beers, before investigating Lorraine's murder scene. They find a patch of fresh blood, that causes Kate to have a vivid vision of her mother's death. While everyone else leaves, Monica consoles Kate, before the pair discover Lorenzo is Kate's father.

Ms. Gibby arrives the following morning, but is swiftly murdered with an axe by the killer, who is dressed like the clown that killed Lorraine. When the group arrive they begin cleaning, despite Ms. Gibby's absence. Ashley and Taylor sneak off to have sex, however Taylor ditches Ashley when they get into an argument, before the killer attacks Ashley and strangles her to death. Hearing the attack, Monica begins to investigate, only to find the clown who chases her until she reaches the rest of the group, where it is revealed that George dressed up as the clown to scare her. The group decide to try to locate the missing Ashley and Ms. Gibby, but while in the basement Monica is attacked by the clown who chases her and finally stabs her with a spear. Meanwhile, Kate attempts to phone the school but the phone is cut dead before she discovers they have become locked in the opera house. The group begin to panic and soon after find Ashley hung on the stage. Marty falls through a stage door, and Kate and George rush to save him, however he is electrocuted to death. Meanwhile, Taylor and Cheryl reach the roof to escape, but the clown grabs Taylor and throws him off the roof, killing him while Cheryl flees, however she is soon decapitated.

Kate and George decide Lorenzo is not the killer, before they are split up. Kate runs to the auditorium and is chased by the clown onto a catwalk where she runs into Mr. Caruthers. Mr. Caruthers sends the clown over the catwalk, killing him, but Mr. Caruthers then turns on Kate and knocks her out. Kate awakes tied up in the auditorium with the victims bodies propped up on the seats. It is revealed Mr. Caruthers killed Lorraine because she denied him love, before another clown arrives and attacks him. In the panic, the clown is knocked out, but Kate breaks free and manages to kill Mr. Caruthers. The clown is revealed to be George, who was told by Kate's father, who had been living in the opera house, all about Mr. Caruthers before he had been killed on the catwalk. Kate and George then break free from the opera house.

 

 

 definition and describe of clown mask horror in period of the last centuries since the suggestion has been begging

 

Manic medieval origins

Comedic clowns, complete with brightly-patterned uniforms, were a common form of popular entertainment in medieval times.

But although the holy fool was funny, there was always an undercurrent of disturbing truth behind his humour.

Andrew Stott, an English professor who specialises in clowning culture, says that fools always had a tenuous grip on life and society. “The medieval fool was continually reminding us of our mortality, our animal nature, of how unreasonable and ridiculous and petty we can be.”

 
^{A court fool from the 15th century}

This continued through to the 16th century, where Shakespearean jesters were often linked to death and dark truths. “King Lear’s fool wanders around reminding everyone that they’re not as clever as think they are while talking in contorted double speak to undermine our sense of what we think is going on,” says Stott.

 
^{Shakespearean fools are a disturbing ancestor of the clown}

“Clowns have always been associated with danger and fear, because they push logic up to its breaking point,” he adds. “They push our understanding to the limits of reason and they do this through joking but also through ridicule.”

The impenetrable mask

A clown’s mask may be a happy image, but it still works to hide true emotions. And while the real man behind the paint could be a smiley and cheery chap, he could also be hungover and resent having to prance about. The disguise is innately unnerving, as is the perpetual smile.

Freud came up with the notion of the uncanny, where an image is distorted but still recognisable, and this concept is apparent in many horror films. Harvard Medical School psychiatrist and horror-film fan Steven Schlozman explains the concept to Vulture.

The uncanny explains a lot of horror tropes, where you look at something and it’s not quite right — like a human face that’s decomposing. It’s recognisable, but just enough away from normal to scare you.

In fact, clowns in the Middle Ages, if they didn’t make the king laugh, they paid a pretty steep price. A lot of the jesters were mutilated to make them smile all the time. They would have the muscles cut that enabled the mouth to frown.

The first clown: a miserable depressive

The first ancestor of the modern clown was Britain’s most popular entertainer during the early 1800s. Joey Grimaldi devised the standard clown’s make up of stark white face paint with bright red spots on his cheeks as a way of exaggerating his facial features in the newly-expanded Georgian halls.

Grimaldi was one of the earliest celebrities, which meant that the public were aware of his sad personal life behind his joyous performance. Grimaldi’s first wife died during childbirth and his son was an alcoholic who died aged 30. The effort of Grimaldi’s clowning acrobatics left him with painful joints and respiratory problems.

^{Joseph Grimaldi (1779 - 1837) singing 'All the world's in Paris' from the pantomime 'Harlequin Whittington'}

Stott, who wrote The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi: Laughter, Madness and the Story of Britain's Greatest Comedian, says that Grimaldi is a clear example of the downtrodden man behind the happy mask.

“Offstage he was an extreme melancholic who would say, “I make you laugh at night but am grim all day”. It’s the origin of the trope of a depressed comedian,” he adds.

Dickens, who loved to see the pantomime as a child and ghost wrote Grimaldi’s memoirs, focused on this theme.

“In Hard Times and David Copperfield you can see emaciated travelling players and really sad circuses. Dickens was taken by the gap between the childlike fantasy and the adult reality,” says Stott. “When one is intoxicated by the tinsel, lights and roar of the crowd, it transports you to a very different place than when you see these people in the cold light of day and the sad meagre lives they lead.”

Murderous clowns

The French version of Grimaldi was even more disturbing. Jean-Gaspard Deburau, who dressed as a clown called Pierrot, killed a boy in 1836 by hitting him with his walking stick. Although Deburau was acquitted of the murder, he was believed to have attacked the boy for yelling insults at him in public.

^{Jean-Gaspard Deburau as Pierrot Gormand, c. 1830}

But coulrophobia’s worst nightmare – a serial killer clown - became reality with John Wayne Gacy, otherwise known as the “Killer Clown”.

^{John Wayne Gacy dressed as a clown}

Gacy didn’t work as a clown full-time, but he dressed up as “Pogo” at children’s parties and fundraising events in Chicago. During the same period, Gacy sexual assaulted and killed at least 33 young men between 1972 and 1978. Surveillance officers began to monitor Gacy, who once told them “You know… clowns can get away with murder”.

Gacy was sentenced to death in 1980 and executed in 1994, proving that clowns can be caught. But that’s hardly a comforting concept.

Stranger Danger

Clowns were not originally intended as children’s entertainment, but their role shifted during the Victorian era. The fairy tale element of the pantomime became stronger, and clowns evolved into light relief to compliment the main narrative.

“They stand at the front of the stage and throw sweets to children,” says Stott.

Today clowns are clearly recognised as a figure of fun by children – a role that’s cemented in part by Ronald McDonald, the figurehead for McDonald’s fast food.

^{Ronald McDonald, the "Hamburger-Happy Clown" was introduced in 1963}

But the past fifty years has seen growing concern over “stranger danger” and a suspicion of those who want to spend time around children.

“We’ve come to question the sexual motivation of somebody dressing as a clown, of grown men who choose to dress in a full clown costume,” says Stott. Plus, he adds, “There’s something tragically unfunny about the vast majority of people who do clowning.”

Clown figures in horror films – such as Pennywise in Stephen King’s It and the Joker in Batman – build off a fear of clowns that already exists. But their creations aren’t twisted versions of an innocent childhood figure – in fact, the original clown always had a dark side.

“Many phobias are built from this braiding together of various different ideas of the unknown that are also connected to traumatic experience in childhood,” says Stott. “The idea of the reckless anarchic clown has mixed in with our fear of strangers around children.”

So next time a clown asks if you want a balloon, think twice about accepting.