By Geno McGahee
There are two characters that are overdone in horror. One, the zombie. There was a time when everything was a zombie and the other, which is very prevalent now, is clowns. I get it. People have fear of clowns. So, you are already ahead of the game, but if there are a million clown movies, it tends to lose the impact. Come on filmmakers, you can do better that that!
Writer/Director Steve Sessions is responsible for the 2007 film “TORMENT,” a clown horror movie, but he also did another film in 2004 called DEAD CLOWNS, which is apparently another killer clown movie. I think the generation that grew up with “IT” became filmmakers and are trying to recreate it. So, I blame Stephen King for this. Damn you King!
Lauren (Suzi Lorraine) was just released from the mental hospital and her husband, Ray (Tom Stedham), picks her up. They begin driving and he isn’t convinced that she is ready for release. In the meantime, two men that turn out to be missing Mormons are being tortured by a clown. There isn’t much to the clown character. He is very generic and has no real backstory outside of that he’s a clown, he hates Mormons and that he enjoys torturing people. This torture thing has gotten out of control too.
Ray brings his wife to a cottage in the middle of nowhere to get away and find some normalcy, but she begins seeing the clown. Her hubby thinks she’s imagining it and he is a real jerk at times, nearly mocking his wife and her stories. Eventually the clown invades and Ray comes face to face with reality as Lauren does what she can to survive and fight off the crazed killer.
Lauren finds herself in the position that the Mormons did and is on the verge of death when she shows her resourcefulness and grit, taking on the clown in a physical altercation and getting the better of it. This leads to a painfully predictable ending that has been done about a million times too.
For micro-budget, indie horror films, you can do a lot worse than TORMENT. It’s not a bad watch and it is shot rather well, but there just isn’t much thought. There are a few ideas taken from different places and implemented here without any originality to set it apart from other films. This film has the problem that a lot of indie films have. They have not done any real character development. They banked on the clown killer being cool enough to keep the interest of the viewers, but being a clown killer isn’t enough. Why is he killing? Who is he? Why has he opted to dress like a clown? Why does he target Mormons? Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses get a pass?
Suzi Lorraine did a good job with the role and played it in a very sincere way. It was easy to understand her emotions and she was able to do a lot with a little. Stedham was way too robotic in both his mannerisms and delivery. To his credit, you can tell that he was trying to do well, but his acting was a problem. It was very clunky.
TORMENT feels like one of those films that you would rent from Hollywood Video in the early 2000s. It’s good for a watch, but it provides nothing new, and you’ll forget about it immediately after it’s complete. I guess the best thing that I can say about this one is that you could do worse.
Rating: 3.5/10