KLOWN KAMP MASSACRE

In May 1991, failed funnyman Edwin (Jared Herholtz) went crazy at Bonzo Ranch clown camp and killed his fellow trainee comedians. He captured the whole event on camcorder, and the film opens with this archive footage.

We’re told, via a TV show entitled ‘Unsolved Clown Murders’, that Edwin has never been caught to this day. But we know where he is: we join him in his fleapit home where he sits in his clown outfit and make-up flicking endlessly through TV channels in search of something amusing to watch.

When Edwin stumbles across an advertisement for the grand re-opening of Bonzo Ranch – the first time it’s opened its doors since the aforementioned massacre – he goes nuts, throwing one of his favoured custard pies to the floor.

There’s going to be trouble...

Sure enough, one female wannabe prankster is the first to bite the bullet while making her way to camp, in a switched-on homage to the opening kill from the original FRIDAY THE 13TH. Meanwhile, aging joker Bonzo (Mike Miller) welcomes those who do make it to his field-set boot camp and prepares them for some military-style training in the arts of throwing custard pies, kicking each other in the bottom and so on.

Among the candidates, all of whom wear full clown greasepaint throughout and behave too simple to be let loose in public, are Philbert (Ross Kelly), Buzter (Isaac Kappy) and Puff (Chris P Payne). They’re having fun, despite sharing the story of Edwin’s terrible experience at camp fifteen years earlier – and the bloodbath that ensued.

Early hi-jinks include clown sex, masturbation, flatulence and in-fighting. All the while, these semi-pro fuckwits are blissfully unaware that death is approaching them in a dirty white Beetle...

KLOWN KAMP MASSACRE is as puerile as it is smart. Filled with slapstick humour and fart gags, some viewers may find the juvenile punchlines (or, more so, running jokes about wanking clowns and comical nookie) tiresome, but there are a lot of ideas that – if you go with it and allow them to – really do work.

Sussed little touches such as animated birds appearing to tweet around a character after a blow to his head, and the world’s worst magic/mime act, gently rip the piss out of the clowning profession. Red noses, honking hats and water pistol flowers are all employed in cleverly casual, never smug, fashion.

The dialogue is risible and this appears to be intentional. The film embraces its absurdities, playing very much as a comedy that just happens to pilfer many motifs and scene set-ups from classic slashers such as FRIDAY THE 13TH, THE BURNING and SLEEPAWAY CAMP.

Taking away the clown element (which is difficult, as it’s visually prominent through the entire film), the storyline runs along conventional revenge lines and the kill scenes, however daft, do remember to toss in their fair share of crudely executed gore. Throats are slashed, heads explode and brains are toyed with.

And when we’re not enjoying the healthy supply of blood and boobies on offer, we have scenes like the one featuring a keyboard-playing monkey to look forward to...

Troma’s region-free DVD is a well authored affair.

The film is presented uncut in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and enhanced for 16x9 television sets. Images are generally clean and sharp. Flesh-tones and colours appear natural, although blacks come across as somewhat washed out on occasion. Overall, the film looks good.

English 2.0 audio does its job throughout playback without cause for quibble.

An animated main menu page leads into an animated scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 16 chapters.

Of the nice set of bonus features on offer, perhaps the audio commentary track from co-writers/co-directors David Valdez and Philip Gunn, along with Gunn’s co-producer brother Darren, is best. It’s a detailed chat that comes punctuated by light-hearted bursts, and is led very much by the comprehensive Valdez.

The film’s original 2-minute trailer is as dumb as you’d expect, with a little help from Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman (he has a cameo in the film too). He’s also on hand to provide a similarly OTT 2-minute video introduction to the main feature, complete with a plug for his own clown school (Kaufman’s Klown Kamp – KKK, geddit?).

4 minutes of deleted scenes come with their own title cards, but add little to the end product. They provide more comedy and nothing in the way of trimmed horrors.

Much more useful was the excellent 15-minute Making Of documentary, "Behind the Scenes". Cast and crew members speak into the camera, first of all to describe the film (though not all of them seem to have understood the plot) and then to offer a tongue-in-cheek insight into how the film was made.

If you want more along the same lines, there is an excellent gallery of behind-the-scenes stills provided over the course of 6 minutes, while Isaac Kappy’s spoof song "Klown Kamp (Make My Dreams Come True)" assaults our eardrums in cheesy 80s pop fashion.

8 ‘clowny webisodes’ follow. These have their own sub-menu allowing you to watch them either individually or as an 18–minute whole via the "Play All" function. They are basically a mix of on-shoot video diary fluff and interviews which originally featured online.

Two short films from the co-directors follow. The 11-minute EDWIN: THE TRAGIC STORY OF THE CLOWN WHO COULDN’T MAKE ANYONE LAUGH is an extremely lo-fi affair which was shot on VHS video. Still, in terms of editing and energy, it shows the guys’ early potential.

BOOBS-A-MINUTE GUARANTEE is 3 minutes long and a tad more showy. Kaufman turns up again in this fake Troma promo reel. With boobs.

Finally, as if all that wasn’t already enough, Troma also treat us to their usual assortment of "Tromatic extras": trailers for MR BRICKS, FATHER’S DAY, THE TOXIC AVENGER and POULTRYGEIST: NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN DEAD; a refreshingly semi-serious (but previously seen) 15-minute featurette on the art of green screen FX wizardry on a micro budget.

KLOWN KAMP MASSACRE is as silly as its title intimates. Taken in the right spirit, its good fun and deceptively well-made. Troma’s disc is a solid proposition too.

Review by Stuart Willis