To me, this movie is perfection.

Redundant and unnecessary.

The first must-see film of the year.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The involvement of Paul Bartel in "Out of the Dark" goes beyond his appearance, with an atrocious wig, as the manager of the seedy Royale Motel. As executive producer he has influenced Bartel-like dark humor throughout the film. The supporting cast alone is reason to seek this one out. You get "Lust in the Dust" alumni Lanie Kazan, Geoffrey Lewis, Tab Hunter, and "Divine". In addition, Tracey Walters, Karen Black, and Bud Cort are on board. This story of a clown masked killer murdering phone sex girls, is creatively photographed, and the performances are enthusiastic. Unfortunately, "Out of the Dark" was "Divine's": final film. ...................... - MERK

"Out of the Dark" is an unknown & obscure, but surprisingly good late 80's thriller/slasher that massively surpassed my expectations. Sure it's unoriginal, predictable and derivative of approximately a dozen of other movies, but at least the pacing is stable and the level of suspense is admirably high throughout. It's too easy to point out all the clichés and little defaults, but it's much more fun to enjoy the nicely grim atmosphere, the adequate performances by familiar B-movie actors and the vivid killer clown character Bobo! Horror queen Karen Black stars as Ruth; the Mother Goose of a phone-sex agency L.A., inventively named Suite Nothing, but lately her girls are being terrorized by a psychopath that calls himself Bobo the Clown. Even more disturbing is that Bobo actually stalks the girls when they return home at night and butchers them in various sickening ways. And I do mean sickening, like the poor girl who's bludgeoned to death or another one who's literally hacked up in a bathtub. The cynical cop Lt. Meyers sets up a trap for Bobo, but this only results in more violent killing. Myers is convinced that the hunky photographer (and boyfriend to one of the phone-sex girls) is the culprit, but there are other suspects like the perverted accountant Stringer and Ruth's drunken ex-husband. "Out of the Dark" is quite similar to the streak of misogynist-thrillers that came out during the late 70's and early 80's. They were movies in which a perverted and sleazy male individual, who never bothered much to keep his identity a secret, targets all women because one woman wronged him. These were generally vile and hugely exploitative films (like "Maniac" and "Don't Go in the House") plentiful of sleazy and sadism, but without much depth. The creators of this particular gem at least tried a little harder. There's a lot of effort to keep Bobo's real identity hidden and no less than two stereotypical male characters are killed in order to keep the ratio with murdered girls in balance. It's a particularly praiseworthy gesture towards feminism to kill of 1) a fat and lazy Hispanic bastard and 2) a voyeuristic copper. Bobo himself is a genuinely creepy character with an uncanny mask, eerie voice and a marvelous sense of sadistic humor. He's one of the best killer clowns out there in the horror industry, and for that reason alone I find it bizarre that "Out of the Dark" isn't wider known. Because it was the eighties, there naturally also is some gratuitous nudity (in the form of a steaming sex-sequence) and a lot of sexual innuendo. The numerous fragments from the phone-sex conversations unceasingly use terms like "throbbing", "tool", "muscle", etc… By the way, it's pretty hilarious that the phone sex girls dress sexy and put on tons of make-up just to talk to guys they can't even see. As briefly mentioned already, "Out of the Dark" is a delight for fans of B-movie actors. Karen Black is terrific, but there are also great roles for Bud Cort (as the suspicious accountant) and Tracey Walter as the sardonic cop. You especially should keep an eye open for cameo appearances by Divine ("Pink Flamingos") as a disgusting Police Detective and Paul Bartel ("Eating Raoul", "Death Race 2000") as the sleazy motel owner.

I seem to be on a slasher kick today. This one is about a clown named Bobo that targets phone-sex girls.Karen Black, Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner for Five Easy Pieces, Golden Globe winner for The Great Gatsby, and Golden Globe nominee for The Day of the Locust; along with Geoffrey Lewis, Golden Globe nominee for "Flo" are featured, along with Divine in his/her last film.At least this one had some interesting points of interest, especially Lynn Danielson-Rosenthal as Kristi Larson (no relation).Nice ending.

First of all, this post might contain spoilers. I'll try to avoid making spoilers at all cost.First time I've seen "Out of the Dark" when I was little I know I was scared of it. Even now I don't like clowns thanks to Clownhouse, Out of the Dark, IT, Funhouse and Killer clowns from outer space...Out of the Darks starts really promising but it fails at the last 15-20 minutes of the movie. Sadly, it could have been much better movie if ending wasn't that poor. First hour movie is gonna keep you on the edge of the seat while you see beautiful girls being stalked by psychotic killer clown. I absolutely love slasher movies with clowns, and I found this one among average ones (is it just me or most of the killer clown movies suck?). Killer in this movie looks pretty creepy, but at some moments he might not be that cool when he starts commenting his murders ("Don't call me, I'll call you. " being one of worst lines I've heard from a slasher). Directing is not an original nor there are some special or new camera angles, but it's not bad. It's actually good for a low budget B picture. Same goes for acting.Bottom line: Not very gory, not really a horror movie. It's more of a thriller\mystery\who did it\scooby doo mixed with some horror elements (having too graphical death scenes for a thriller). Two thirds of the movie are excellent, last third of the movie is bad. If you can stand movies with bad ending you'll have no problems watching this. If not, you can always give it a shot since this movie is one of the better killer clown movies and it's worth watching for it's first 60 minutes of the movie.