Connect with us

News

Fantastic Fest 2019: ‘Wrinkles the Clown’ is a Constantly Surprising Peek Behind the Mask

Published

on

Wrinkles

You remember that clown that was going around scaring the pants off pedestrians in Florida a few years back? It’s Such a specific question that the answer boils down to an absolute wide-eyed nod of the head, or a befuddled shake of the head that comes with inquiry. Well, guys that clown has a name. His name is Wrinkles and the documentary Wrinkles the Clown drops an exuberant amount of info about the creepy exterior as well as the method behind the madness. But, it may not be headed in exactly the direction you might assume.

You might remember that in 2015 Wrinkles was interviewed by a major news network, following that interview Wrinkles blew up both on the internet and in rural Naples, Florida. Stories circling the clown presupposed that wrinkles was an older war veteran who wasn’t happy with his mundane life as a retiree, and started donning the mask of a clown.

From there, the story began taking on a life of its own. Stickers and other ads were placed around Wrinkles hometown encouraging parents with misbehaving kids or people in need of a good spookin’ to give him a call. The ads included his number and dude began receiving a ton of phone calls each day. Viral videos made Wrinkles a household name and one that parents would use to scare their children into being well-behaved.

At least, that’s the story we were lead to believe. And the truth ends up being stranger than fiction.

Director, Michael Beach Nichols (Welcome to Leith) peels the layers away and exposes pieces behind the mysterious figure. Nichols follows that up by showing how sometimes the most terrifying thing is how society can be an environment of the product.

Whatever the case was/is, the Wrinkles phenomenon launched a lot of more sinister imitators and had the world in a sort of spiraling clown-demonium for a good while. People were dressing up as clowns standing out on country roads, some were even causing violence or inciting so much fear that large groups were threatening violence.

That escalation and the people surrounding and playing into the Wrinkles phenomenon are under examination here too. Nichols does a naturally seamless job of interweaving the bits with Wrinkles and the innocuous fanaticism that is an all too real and at times all too sobering byproduct.

Wrinkles the Clown has an interesting turn in its runtime that completely flips all conceived notions on their head. It takes per-conceived notions about the subject and creates additional questions that extend to the sorta crazy people surrounding the man behind the Wrinkles mask. It also, digs into how hilariously depraved it is that parents would use a clown as a way of punishing their children. A method that takes Santa’s naughty or nice list to new disturbing heights.

It is an effective doc that doesn’t bother lingering too long on its main subject and instead takes its runtime and uses it for jarring turns and as illumination for the dangers that are not wearing a mask. It’s chilling in its unexpected turns and is absolutely socially aware in its raw portrait.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

on

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

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Movies

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

Published

on

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.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

News

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

Published

on

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.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading