Three women are stalked by a killer with a grudge that extends back to the girls' childhoods.Three women are stalked by a killer with a grudge that extends back to the girls' childhoods.Three women are stalked by a killer with a grudge that extends back to the girls' childhoods.
Tad Hilgenbrink
- Rob
- (as Tad Hilgenbrinck)
Ashley Marie Arnold
- School Girl
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
To give this movie an above average rating is a waste of stars. Sure, visually the movie looks nice and like most people mentioned the Clown Segment is pretty creepy... BUT like everything else in this movie its totally ripped off and leads nowhere. The whole basic premise of "Amusement" with the subplots just doesn't work at all... Car lost in the woods, Babysitter home alone and stalked by crazy guy, old abandoned hotel with crazy people in it... you've seen it all before and it isn't even bound together by a clever script. Far from that... Chicks get abducted by some crazy guy, then some strange interrogation in a FBI Cell takes place ... I guess just because they needed some reason for the flashback sequences. Beside that the whole part is idiotic... how could a psychologist fall for a crazy guy in FBI dress with an interrogation room in an old flooded cellar??
"Amusement" is basically just a collection of ideas stuffed into a messy script... Let's make a horror movie with beautiful chicks and a crazy guy! OK, but I want a clown in there and Joyride was fun, so let's also put that in and have some people being stabbed in the eye. If we make the crazy guy an inventor with killer gimmicks and some Dr. Giggles laughter I am in! OK, deal... but we need a psychologist in there plus some unexpected twist and a moral ending to at least make it look smart on first sight.
Phew...things build up, the whole reason for the movie title is unfolded and pretty meaningless, the characters get killed in most uninspired ways possible, the flashbacks are clumsy and don't explain much and we never learn why people are sown into mattresses or crazy guy has a fetish for pulling living things open. It just happens.. random shreds of stolen ideas like in a cheesy clip show.
THIS IS A MESS!! For the few scenes that work its 90 Minute too much wasted and the ending should make anybody angry. Avoid!
"Amusement" is basically just a collection of ideas stuffed into a messy script... Let's make a horror movie with beautiful chicks and a crazy guy! OK, but I want a clown in there and Joyride was fun, so let's also put that in and have some people being stabbed in the eye. If we make the crazy guy an inventor with killer gimmicks and some Dr. Giggles laughter I am in! OK, deal... but we need a psychologist in there plus some unexpected twist and a moral ending to at least make it look smart on first sight.
Phew...things build up, the whole reason for the movie title is unfolded and pretty meaningless, the characters get killed in most uninspired ways possible, the flashbacks are clumsy and don't explain much and we never learn why people are sown into mattresses or crazy guy has a fetish for pulling living things open. It just happens.. random shreds of stolen ideas like in a cheesy clip show.
THIS IS A MESS!! For the few scenes that work its 90 Minute too much wasted and the ending should make anybody angry. Avoid!
This instantly forgettable piece of generic, modern horror sees a giggling psycho (known as The Laugh) wreaking revenge on three beautiful young women who, years before, failed to find his school project—a diorama featuring a mutilated rat—as amusing as he had hoped.
The film opens in an innovative enough manner, with each girl's abduction being shown as a 'story within a story', but soon descends into mediocrity as the focus of the plot becomes the standard woman in peril garbage that we have seen countless times before. To make matters worse, director John Simpson's visuals suffer from the grimy 'torture porn' look and feel that is all the rage these days, and Jake Wade Wall's script is packed with so many plot holes, clichés, and dumb characters that taking the film seriously is very hard indeed.
Admittedly, Simpson does manage to create quite a bit of tense atmosphere during one effective section of the film involving a room full of creepy toy clowns, but the premise is hardly original, and one does have to question how a killer in a creepy clown costume can enter a house completely unnoticed.
Thank heavens for the presence of hottie Katheryn Winnick (the lovely renaissance slut from Satan's Little Helper) as lead victim Tabitha, for without her as diverting eye-candy, Amusement would have been a whole lot more difficult to endure.
The film opens in an innovative enough manner, with each girl's abduction being shown as a 'story within a story', but soon descends into mediocrity as the focus of the plot becomes the standard woman in peril garbage that we have seen countless times before. To make matters worse, director John Simpson's visuals suffer from the grimy 'torture porn' look and feel that is all the rage these days, and Jake Wade Wall's script is packed with so many plot holes, clichés, and dumb characters that taking the film seriously is very hard indeed.
Admittedly, Simpson does manage to create quite a bit of tense atmosphere during one effective section of the film involving a room full of creepy toy clowns, but the premise is hardly original, and one does have to question how a killer in a creepy clown costume can enter a house completely unnoticed.
Thank heavens for the presence of hottie Katheryn Winnick (the lovely renaissance slut from Satan's Little Helper) as lead victim Tabitha, for without her as diverting eye-candy, Amusement would have been a whole lot more difficult to endure.
I get that this was released more than 10 years ago and maybe the actresses were not "big" back then, but in 2019 Katheryn Winnick is a pretty well known name and Jessica Lucas altough less known has grown a fanbase for her portrayal of Tabatha in Gotham.
I was interested to see a slasher flick with these ladies. So thats why i chose this movie in my 2019 Halloween program. Turn out the movie is really not good, i am being generous with a 4 to be honest. First its one of those movies with "substories", as you follow one character for a while then another, it can work at times but in this movie i think it didn't and it could had been better presented. The gore/violence is also pretty low. Some things are just not explained and make little sense.
If you want a better indy slasher flick with creepy environements in an unsettling fashion, give a look at Terrifier.
I was interested to see a slasher flick with these ladies. So thats why i chose this movie in my 2019 Halloween program. Turn out the movie is really not good, i am being generous with a 4 to be honest. First its one of those movies with "substories", as you follow one character for a while then another, it can work at times but in this movie i think it didn't and it could had been better presented. The gore/violence is also pretty low. Some things are just not explained and make little sense.
If you want a better indy slasher flick with creepy environements in an unsettling fashion, give a look at Terrifier.
After languishing for so long in 2008, Amusement is finally making its debut on DVD. I had high hopes for the movie after watching the trailer but it is nowhere near what I had expected it to be.
The movie can be summarized as a series of vignettes.Each vignette tells the tale of three women and their encounter with a psychotic killer, out to get them for they had done to him in the past. The plot is similar to Valentine (2001) but the movie was weighed, measured and found wanting.
For starters the editing could have been a lot better. The movie starts off with the Shelby story when it could have been much better placed when the psychiatrist questions Tabitha about Shelby. Another scene in which Lisa tries to enter the hotel and accidentally breaks a bottle, when the psycho steps out the bottle is still on the steps untouched and in one piece.
The story was not impressive at all. The whole Tabitha portion of the story of her babysitting her cousins and being attacked by the clown was very similar to Halloween (1978). The back-story which told why the psycho had such an animosity towards the girls in the first place should have been well explained.
The characters where not plausible at all. For instance, when Lisa sends her boyfriend to check on her friend at the hotel and when he doesn't come out, she doesn't call the cops, she goes in herself. I mean how stupid can you get. The movie is nothing more than a compilation of several slasher movies made in the past all jumbled up into one movie. No wonder why this movie never made it to the big screen.
If you want to watch a good horror movie rent out Halloween(1978), Psycho(1960) or The Changeling(1980)because this movie is nothing more than another futile attempt by Hollywood to create a decent, original horror movie.
The movie can be summarized as a series of vignettes.Each vignette tells the tale of three women and their encounter with a psychotic killer, out to get them for they had done to him in the past. The plot is similar to Valentine (2001) but the movie was weighed, measured and found wanting.
For starters the editing could have been a lot better. The movie starts off with the Shelby story when it could have been much better placed when the psychiatrist questions Tabitha about Shelby. Another scene in which Lisa tries to enter the hotel and accidentally breaks a bottle, when the psycho steps out the bottle is still on the steps untouched and in one piece.
The story was not impressive at all. The whole Tabitha portion of the story of her babysitting her cousins and being attacked by the clown was very similar to Halloween (1978). The back-story which told why the psycho had such an animosity towards the girls in the first place should have been well explained.
The characters where not plausible at all. For instance, when Lisa sends her boyfriend to check on her friend at the hotel and when he doesn't come out, she doesn't call the cops, she goes in herself. I mean how stupid can you get. The movie is nothing more than a compilation of several slasher movies made in the past all jumbled up into one movie. No wonder why this movie never made it to the big screen.
If you want to watch a good horror movie rent out Halloween(1978), Psycho(1960) or The Changeling(1980)because this movie is nothing more than another futile attempt by Hollywood to create a decent, original horror movie.
AMUSEMENT tells the story of three women who are stalked by a psychopathic friend from their childhood who has a murderous sense of humor.
The movie was actually shot well, and at least in outline the story could intrigue because of its unusual structure. So there was potential here, but black hole-sized plotholes ruined the movie.
Let's forget about how a mental case released from psychiatric hospital can gather the financial resources to pull off all the outlandish things shown in the movie. Or how he can apparently carry out tasks that would take some time literally in seconds. Or how he can fall of a down a long shaft and survive without major injuries.
No, this movie takes stupid character syndrome to heights unseen, like past the event horizon of those aforementioned black plotholes.
Guy notices two people in the backseat, covered in fabric and bound up, but moving and making noises, only after he finishes his car trip? Check!
Girl has a phone on her while looking for her disappeared housemate and her lover inside a super creepy house, but never bothers to call the police? Check!
Girl manages to subdue the villain momentarily but then runs away instead of finishing him off? Check!
The movie ends with one of the cringiest voice over narrations I have ever heard, which includes this diamond: "He was a joke that crossed the line".
The garbage quality screenplay is by far the worst aspect of this movie. If you still want to watch it for the visuals, make sure to shut off your brain first.
The movie was actually shot well, and at least in outline the story could intrigue because of its unusual structure. So there was potential here, but black hole-sized plotholes ruined the movie.
Let's forget about how a mental case released from psychiatric hospital can gather the financial resources to pull off all the outlandish things shown in the movie. Or how he can apparently carry out tasks that would take some time literally in seconds. Or how he can fall of a down a long shaft and survive without major injuries.
No, this movie takes stupid character syndrome to heights unseen, like past the event horizon of those aforementioned black plotholes.
Guy notices two people in the backseat, covered in fabric and bound up, but moving and making noises, only after he finishes his car trip? Check!
Girl has a phone on her while looking for her disappeared housemate and her lover inside a super creepy house, but never bothers to call the police? Check!
Girl manages to subdue the villain momentarily but then runs away instead of finishing him off? Check!
The movie ends with one of the cringiest voice over narrations I have ever heard, which includes this diamond: "He was a joke that crossed the line".
The garbage quality screenplay is by far the worst aspect of this movie. If you still want to watch it for the visuals, make sure to shut off your brain first.
Did you know
- TriviaFilmed from November 2006 to January 2007, given a limited release in Thailand in October 2008, but not given a wide release until early 2009. Its release stateside was in January 2009.
- GoofsThe speedometer reads as KM/H (filmed in Australia), Yet they reference "Miles" and travelling too Connecticut.
- Quotes
Danny: What's wrong, Tabby?
Max: Don't be scared.
Tabitha: Boys, listen to me, we have to hide. There's a bad man, a very bad man in the house.
Max: He just wants to play. Like earlier at the door.
Tabitha: That was him?
Danny: [Chuckles] Owen.
Tabitha: No, don't.
Danny: But, Tabby, he said he just wanted to have some fun.
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Scariest Clowns in Movies and TV (2014)
- SoundtracksRafe
(Pacha Remix)
Written by Leigh Nash, Bill Leeb and Roy Salmond
Performed by Fauxliage
Courtesy of Nettwerk Productions
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $10,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $170,255
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