#208 -- 100 Tears (2007)

Rating: 2.5 / 5
Director: Marcus Koch

According to IMDB, this movie has an NC-17 rating, and I think that's because it's a complete splatterfest. But make no mistakes, that's really the only thing it's got going for it. Once you've seen one killer clown, you've pretty much seen them all, and this one is really no different from the rest.

The first ten or fifteen minutes, the clown kills all the residents at a halfway house, including a poor diabetic girl in a wheelchair. It's a splatterfest for sure; he paints that house red. I will say that the clown is really freakin' vicious. But he somehow managed to be completely un-scary. After that, it takes a while for more blood to be spilled. We spend most of the time following a couple of tabloid reporters. They mostly do stupid stories about reptile people, and a ghostly Titanic rising from the depths of the ocean to cruise again. But Jennifer really wants to do a piece that will mean something. She figures the Teardrop Killer is a way to get herself noticed, and be a writer of more than just bathroom reading. They call him the Teardrop Killer because he draws a bloody teardrop at the murder scenes.

So why is the clown crying? Well, when he worked for the carnival, he fell in love with one of the girls there. While they were getting busy, a jealous girl told The Strong Man that he was raping the girl. So The Strong Man beat the hell out of the clown. To have his revenge, the clown killed the girl and The Strong Man, and then he ran away from the circus. I think he was searching for his long-lost love, killing everyone on the way. He eventually meets his daughter, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. His daughter is some kind of Smiley-Face killer, and they go on a Father-Daughter killing spree together.

What I liked was the Father-Daughter thing. I actually liked the clown's daughter more than the clown himself. She killed people and giggled while she was doing it. She was loony tunes big time, and I liked that. I really wanted to like this movie--I really did. But the ending was so poorly done that it was ruined for me. It seemed like they were running out of time and couldn't figure out a good ending to the movie. So they just came up with some  half-assed way for the killers to be defeated and then rolled the credits. It was quick, it didn't really make any sense, and it ruined a movie that could have otherwise been enjoyable for me. For the most part, it was okay. It wasn't any different from any of the other ten million killer clown movies out there, but it wasn't boring. All the technical stuff--acting, effects, filming--was better than I expected it to be, and for the most part, it really wasn't all that bad. Like I said, though, the ending completely ruins it.

If you're just in the mood for a killer clown, there are only two I can think of that are unique and completely awesome. Try Stephen King's It, or Killer Klowns from Outer Space, if you haven't seen them. Those clowns are bad-ass and amazing. This one was just so-so.