Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

The emergence of Wes Craven's Scream in 1996 had a similar effect on cinema as John Carpenter's Halloween did back in 1978. Once again video-store top shelves were filled with endless low budget knock-offs, so many so in fact that Blockbuster Video reported that it was receiving four times the amount of Horror films from 1998 to 2004 that it had since the organisation's birth in 1985. Although this was also due to the huge popularity of high-grossing titles such as The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense and The Ring; Craven's opus should be credited for its hand in the re-birth of the genre as a bankable medium.The slasher cycle is still thriving on the Direct-to-Video market mainly due to the fact that it has become a much simpler task to shoot an independent feature and find reasonable distribution than it was some twenty years earlier. But the biggest notable difference between the two periods of slasher-indulgence is the levels of quality. Whilst there certainly were awfully poor entries released during the eighties ('Don't go in the Woods'/'The Forest'), their comical lack of credibility was perhaps saved by the likes of 'Halloween' and 'My Bloody Valentine', which were eminently superior. But this time around, we have not had as many audacious offerings to shield the brunt of the criticism from the numerous mediocre efforts.The Clown at Midnight was released hot on the heels of Craven's Scream, taking the favoured approach of enthusiasts by incorporating a killer clown into its synopsis. It tells the tale of seven drama students that are forced as part of their course work to clean and prepare a dilapidated theatre for re-opening. It had been closed for many years since a leading actress was brutally butchered by a maniac who escaped the scene without trial. The victim's daughter, Kate Williams (Sarah Lassez), is among the eager group and upon her arrival she begins suffering flashbacks and visions of the fate of her mother. Before long, the group are locked in and the psychopathic clown makes an inevitable reappearance for his swan song performance.If there is any credit to be given to this scarcely popular new-age slasher, it has to be for the ambitious effort from Jean Pellerin, the junior director. Some of the camera work was neatly planned and his energetic method managed to prevent the movie from slipping into the clutches of complete tedium. However with that said, it feels woefully uninspired and that must be an underlining factor to its lack of a DVD release. Considering the fact that this was first circulated in 1998 by a relatively large studio, its lack of an appearance on digital format is a huge snub in itself.The main problem with The Clown at Midnight is that it feels half-hearted. The characters are horrendously portrayed by a cast that have proved that they can do better and despite the inclusion of various so-called 'stars of the future', the dramatics remain distinctly sub-par throughout. It's left up to Christopher Plummer to inject some class into a leisurely paced group of performers, but even he's slumming it here.The mystery is excellently constructed and in fairness, you'll never guess who it is that's sporting the creepy clown attire. But the lack of any thorough cast credibility leaves the twists somewhat redundant. The characters are completely unlikeable and even the stereotypical final girl is unapproachable. Never have I watched a slasher film and disliked the entire cast, which proved to be short-sighted character development from the script-writers. The plot closes with a corny 'light-hearted' ending, which was an unnecessary sugar-sweet topping to a surprisingly un-palatable cake.I read somewhere that The Clown at Midnight has become renowned as the best killer clown movie since the psychological 'Clownhouse'. That statement says more about the lack of quality in that sector of horror than it does about the credibility of this muddled effort. I watched this movie many years back as a young student at Carlos III University de Madrid. The young lady I was dating at the time was a huge fan of 'Scream' and was the kind of girl that would flinch at every jolt in the soundtrack of a scary movie. After watching her reaction, I remember feeling that The Clown at Midnight must have been good to have that kind of effect on her, even if she was something of a vulnerable viewer. Unfortunately after watching the film again seven years later, I was disappointed with not only its mediocre quality, but also with my ability at that time to judge a decent performance. It's surprising how our attitudes and levels of awareness can change isn't it? There are reports of an uncut copy somewhere in existence, although these have neither been confirmed nor denied. But a huge amount of gore would not subtract from the poor level of performances on display in The Clown at Midnight and with the finances that Pellerin had at his disposal, this really should have been better. It does have its share of ambitious moments (The opening killing marks an excellent use of suspense and creativity), but overall it doesn't have enough of them to warrant a purchase. I agree, there are not enough killer clown movies in existence, but the excellent 'The House on Sorority Row' deserves to be seen over this.

The Clown at Midnight tells the story of teen Kate Williams (Sarah Lessaz) who recently discovered she was adopted, her real mother an opera singer named Lorraine Sedgewick (Vicki Marentette) having been brutally stabbed to death supposedly by a jealous lover after a performance of Pagliacci, a tragic play about a lovesick clown. Kate has been having very vivid nightmares & hallucinations but life goes on as they say... Seven college students including Kate have signed up to help clean up the old Walker Theatre which the head of drama Ms. Gibby (Margot Kidder) has had a grant to reopen, it's not long before Kate is getting freaked out because the Walker is the very theatre where her mom was murdered by a psychotic in a clown costume & he's on the prowl again as he locks the theatre up & begins to kill the teens off one-by-one...This Canadian production was directed by Jean Pellerin & guess what? It's rubbish. The script by Kenneth J. Hall seems to take itself very seriously & has all the usual clichés, the teens keep splitting up for trivial reasons, the killers motives are thin to say the least, it's utterly predictable & it doesn't come together that well at the end either. How many more dull, lifeless films about annoying American teens do we need? There is a distinct lack of gore, in fact this is one of the driest slashers I've seen & considering it was made in 1998 when special effects were very advanced there's no excuse, it wouldn't be so bad if the character's made up for it but they don't because their all rubbish & the dialogue is poor too. Then there's the generic run down theatre location which is just a bore of a setting & not used to any great effect at all. You know it's over 40 minutes before the clown kills someone, that's 40 minutes of dullsville I'd rather be doing something fun like watching paint dry. Then there's the confused ending in which three people end up dressed exactly the same as the clown, why? For a start why did George go back & get dressed like the clown when he could have been saving Kate? Why did he need to dress as the clown anyway? It's pointless. Then there's the none too shocking revelation that the initial suspect didn't do it, wow what a surprise. He claimed he was trying to help them, yeah right & he did a good job didn't he as 5 people were killed & I didn't see him anywhere frankly until the pathetic twist ending which is so obvious it's embarrassing. You know who the killer is the very first time he appears on screen it's that obvious. To make matters even worse the only half decent looking cast member Liz Crawford is the first to be killed, although it takes a while to get there...Director Pellerin does nothing to liven things up, the films well made & professional but very dull, flat & lifeless. The stalk scenes are poor, it's not scary, there's no tension as it's all so clichéd & obvious & there isn't even any decent gore in it either. You know slasher films have moved on since 1978 when Halloween came out but you'd never have guessed it watching Clown at Midnight. The violence & gore is tame with no imagination to the kills, someone gets a spear through the stomach, someone is strangled, someone is thrown off the roof, someone is electrocuted, someone is impaled on what looks like spikes although I don't know why someone would keep a load of spikes under a trap door on a theatre stage & someone is decapitated, seen it all before & done better as well.Technically the film is pretty good actually & the best thing that can be said about it overall is that it's well made with decent production values. Filmed in the real life Walker Theatre in Winnipeg in Canada. The acting isn't anything special but it's alright, I didn't like anyone particularly but Liz Crawford was quite hot & she gets her top off as well. I take it Chirstopher Plummer & Margot Kidder need the money to agree to appear in this.Clown at Midnight is a dull slasher film with a low body count, next to no gore, annoying teen character's & a very predictable twist ending which I predicted within 30 minutes, poor all round then really. There are many good slashers out there you really shouldn't be wasting your time or money on this.

Some teens work to clean up an old theater that has been closed for about fourteen years, ever since an opera star was killed there. Suspicion for the murder fell on her co-star, who played Pagliacci, a clown character I guess. I must admit, I'm not familiar with the opera, and the movie doesn't fill us in about it. That actor has been missing since the murder, presumably a fugitive, perhaps in Europe.One of the teens found out six months ago that the murdered actress was her biological mother. I'm not sure whether she just found out that she was adopted as well, or if she knew that, but just not who her biological mother was. Somehow, everyone else in the school also knows. She's also having nightmares and visions of the murder.The students are all pretty much stereotypes. They also exhibit bad taste, as when they insist on seeing the room the murder occurred in, dress up in the clown costume, etc. all with the victim's daughter present.There are a lot of things that don't make any sense in the movie. There are lots of things they look at that the police presumably would have taken away at the time of the murder. Jewelry, letters, etc. Unless they had been hidden at the time of the murder, and then placed there later by someone, I suppose. There's also some fresh blood in the murder room that's never really explained.There's really no secret who the murderer is. Ebert's Law of Economy of Characters will lead you to the killer, as will an early scene in the movie. What isn't explained is why two characters who are not the murderer are wearing the clown costume in the final events of the film, and why one of them is there at all. That was pretty darn absurd.I had some hope that this might be a giallo - not quite. I had some hope it might at least be a decent slasher, but it's not. The clown is creepy looking, the setting fair, the ladies pretty cute. The acting is so-so, but the movie itself is just stupid, stupid, stupid. It is at times quite boring as well. There's a silly cleaning-up the theater montage to music. There are clichés aplenty. One character comes across one of the people dressed as the clown, who runs at her, and she runs away screaming. When they unmask him, and then ask him why he ran at her, he says he was coming to tell her it was OK, it was just him. Well, why didn't he just say so? Dumb.

Well, actually, I can say a bit. Ok, we all know this is direct-to-video, but it is actually pretty good considering. Actually, the late 90s produced a few direct-to-video flicks worth viewing. At times I even think that the direct-to-video flicks are better than some horror films that manage to go to theaters. I mean, at least these know they're bad and don't pull us in with good marketing. But that's enough about horror movies in general. "The Clown At Midnight" is a slasher film that brings you back to the 80s, when horror movies were trying to be fun, and occasionally scary. That is what this movie is like. First off, unlike some direct-to-video slasher films, this movie has some potential. The cast is surprisingly pretty talented. We are actually given actors that we might have heard of somewhere out of the horror realm: Margot Kidder (well...), Christopher Plummer, Tatyana Ali, James Duvall, etc.Second, the story is reasonably good. Maybe it's just my general paranoia of clowns, but I actually found the movie creepy. At times, the movie actually delivers some pretty good scares. Wow! Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you.Finally, this movie tries to give it's body count some depth. Yeah, most of the teenagers in this film are just there to get killed off, but they have personalities. Back in the eighties, around the time we got to "Friday the 13th part... 30," characters in horror movies were just meant to show up, have sex, and get killed. The characters here, though a couple do follow this pattern, still have... something to them. We are given bitchy characters, smart-ass characters, sweet characters, wimpy characters, and, of course, horny characters. You know, the kind that figure: "hmmm... we're in a creepy old theater house where people were murdered before and, as far as we know, the killer was never found. Let's have sex!"Ok, so we have a bunch of teenagers in a place they should never have gone to and die off one by one. We've all seen it before, but who cares. Some of us actually appreciate cheese... and this cheese tries to be scary... and delivers at times. It's direct-to-video, it's not classic, it's fun, and it's creepy!