Gags the Clown

I enjoyd this movie far more than i expected to. the acting was pretty good all around and the clown was creepy af. and I apperciate it not having the usual cliches nor the phony hollywood ending. it gets a pretty loud horray from me.

Its definitely not the worst found footage out there but... Clowns? Really? I don't think this topic works anymore on anybody. I can see that decent amount of work went in to making this movie, it has its short moments but the main topic makes it just not very enjoyable but really really meh and boring.

It's been a while since I saw a new found-footage/mockumentary horror flick, so "Gags the clown" was welcome on the screen this evening & I really did enjoy it, however, it's not a very good one.

A pretty fast moving found footage horror comedy (with nearly zero actual comedy) taking course over one night, put together from live news, police cameras, teens and their smartphones, cctv's, a podcast team etc. - I liked this approach, the many cameras, characters, locations really helped with the pacing and visual diversity. So the whole city is either looking for or hiding from Gags the clown. The characters involved are very simple and one-dimensional, with a concerning amount of a-hole roles. As it happens in a lot of horror movies, some characters and their actions don't always make sense. The acting is as good as the script allows. The story is pretty straight forward, trying to build up the climax, the mystery behind the clown, only to reveal what it had revealed already before - it's all a social commentary, a satire on today's media, society and other related things. Not that it's bad, it's just that somewhere "Gags the clown" falls a bit flat, not hitting the nail on the head. The scares and most of the potential for creepiness is abruptly stopped with digital glitches and the gore is weak. There were a few little, cool elements I liked, for example, the balloon shtick (You'll have to watch it if You want to know). Visually, judging by the found-footage genre standarts, it's quite alright, could've been better if the budget allowed more than a "let's cut it with a glitch".

I think "Gags the clown" has a great idea somewhere in it, but is confused within itself. The fast pacing & many faces and locations provide a level of entertainment, and if you like or, even better, are scared of clowns, you might enjoy this. My rating: 5/10.

Gags was surprising entertaining and refreshing way of merging clown phobias and the idea of fake news. Its production values looks good and good acting. Apparently the director, Adam Krause and screenwriter, John Pata was inspired by real accounts of a person in California and another person in England who dressed as a clown walking at night, baiting for people take pics of them.

For this film, director Krause took that idea turned it into an interesting fun movie with jump scares and a bit of humor. Some of its cast create memorable characters like the ultra right/social media figure, Charles Wright (played by Aaron Christensen) who goes on a live social media event chase-hunt for Gags. It makes for its funny dialogue!

Recommended it for a fun time and of course clowns are usually creepy, Gags succeeded at being such an enigma. Other characters such as Heater Duprey (played by Lauren Ashley Carter) represent the local public media reportage and channel stations trying to get the latest news of Gaga sightings before the social media coverage does.

After watching Gags I thought "meh." Its underdeveloped, not really gory, mostly creepy, the characters have no depth, and there's not a lot going on. But given a moment to think about, the actors were entertaining, the story moved along, and it was legitimately freaky. Given it looks like it was made on $50 and a bottle of ketchup, I'd have to say I thought Gags the Clown is a fairly done B-movie.