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Professional Clowns Think “IT” Will Hurt Their Business; Stephen King Responds

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Written by Patti Pauley

Let’s get something out of the way before we even dive into this; did I miss the era where party clowns were never NOT creepy?

I REST MY DAMN CASE.

vintage clowns-IT

Photo credit- Flashbak.com

I’m not going to pretend I have an explanation for these seemingly innocent things that creep the shit out of the masses. Dolls, spiders, and the painted faces of clowns have long been a deep phobia and the prime subject of fear for dozens of horror stories and films. So the entertainment industry plays on that. We ask to be scared. They want to deliver. And the fact that coulrophobia affects moe than a few horror fans, shouldn’t be much of a shock when we see countless horror films touching on that very fear. Regardless though, professional clowns are firmly stating that one of the most highly anticipated horror movies of 2017, Stephen King’s IT, will ultimately hurt their lucrative businesses.

In a report run by the BBC NewsBeat, the UK-based news site spoke with clown performers Celine Harland whose alter ego for 17 years goes by the name of Tickles and Matthew Faint (Mattie the Clown). Harland explained to the press, and a fair argument at that, being as how both the UK and US are just recovering from last year’s numerous clown threats, pranks, and torment, that the upcoming IT movie that is to be released September 8, will cause a serious loss in revenue for party clowns and call the film “sensational rubbish.”

Harland to the BBC-

“It’s a horror movie and it affects people’s thoughts and opinions on what a clown is. Unfortunately, it’s not like Jaws which is unrealistic, we do have clowns in society. I have parents and teachers phoning me. They’re scared to hire you in case they’ve got one child who will be upset.”

Faint to the BBC-

“It’s a horrible movie and we’d like to distance ourselves from the subject of scary clowns. There’s just so many horrible movies out there… clowns that eat people or whatever. It takes people’s minds in the wrong direction. We don’t need it, it’s bad, it’s disgusting.”

Pennywise creator and master storyteller Stephen King, has heard the complaints from the concerned clowns, and of course in pure Stephen King savagery, really didn’t sugar coat his feelings on the subject. Last year, in an interview with BDN Maine, King weighed in on exactly why he chose the image of a clown to represent IT:

“When I wrote my novel ‘IT’, I set it in Bangor, because it’s a town with a tough and violent history. I chose Pennywise the Clown as the face which the monster originally shows the kiddies because kids love clowns, but they also fear them; clowns with their white faces and red lips are so different and so grotesque compared to ‘normal’ people. Take a little kid to the circus and show him a clown, he’s more apt to scream with fear than laugh.”

And his response to the outrage via Twitter states pretty much the same thing, well in under 140 characters of course.

 

What are your thoughts on the subject? Do you think that entertainment clowns have a valid base for being upset? Or do you think they’re merely overreacting? As always, friendly comments and opinions below!

 

Oh, and here’s that awesome trailer again, because.. well.. just because it’s incrediballs.

 

 

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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