Independent horror films push boundaries of taste and excess, which is certainly true of this movie. The “Killer Clown” of the title is none other than John Wayne Gacy / Pogo (Jeremy Woodworth), while the “Candy Man” is Dean Corll (Edward X. Young). Two of the worst serial killers to stalk American streets during the past half century. This film, co-written and directed by Pete Jacelone — a friend of mine — wonders what might occur if the two had happened to meet up in 1972, sharing stories, drinks, and a victim. It’s a disturbing movie about vile people doing vile things, and the truth is that I don’t like this movie much, despite its many humorous moments and occasional swings into absurdity.
Pete Jacelone’s film is imaginative, yet strongly tied to the histories of its characters. Victims are tied up, molested and killed in the manners in which Gacy and Corll operated, although the film is not nearly as graphic as it could have been, or perhaps should have been. I termed it “torture porn” when I was talking to Pete about it afterward, mainly because of the many scenes of teenage boys, stripped to their white briefs, hollering and begging for mercy before being strangled or shot. That was really not a fair term, because the film has more ambition than to present teens in unrelenting peril. Actually, the more I consider what I saw, I think that Pete Jacelone has made an anti-horror film.
Horror, for me, involves suspense and creativity. Films like Halloween or Dracula or Night of the Living Dead work so well because there is an evil which threatens a story’s characters, but we, the audience, do not know when or how that evil will strike, or who it will destroy. Part of our fascination lies with the evil itself, be it vampires, zombies, alien spores or the boogeyman, and how that evil is presented to us in cinematic terms. And part of our fascination lies with the potential victims, hoping that they survive (or perish spectacularly in some cases), wondering how they will possibly find a way to fight off what seems to be certain death. The best films find innovative, fresh, flamboyant ways to shock our senses, engage our imaginations and fulfill our expectations.
Pete’s film is almost completely void of suspense, because the history is known. Teenage boys are recruited by others (which is the most heinous aspect of Dean Corll’s methodology, if you ask me), captured, tortured briefly and dispatched. Thus, any tension about their fates is unnecessary; we know what is going to happen. And we never learn the identities or care about any of these victims; the focus is squarely on the larger-than-life cowboy Corll and milquetoast clown Gacy. So for me, this doesn’t actually qualify as a traditional horror opus. Really, it’s a crazy character study about how Gacy and Corll gradually reveal their secrets to each other over beers and whiskey, what they find in common, and how they disgust each other as their secrets are conveyed. Pete describes these two men as “modern American monsters, walking the streets in complete anonymity,” which was absolutely true. His film attempts to delve into what makes these two people commit the sick, demented crimes which shocked the world when those secrets became known.
This experience could have been really nasty for me (I think it was for the dozen or so people who walked out of the premiere screening at the theatre where I work) but for the amount of humor that Pete pumps into the proceedings. As socially and politically incorrect as it can be, there are moments in the movie which cause the audience to laugh out loud, sometimes for extended periods. Pete finds humor in dialogue, costume and situation, and there is no doubt that the funnier moments make all the screaming and killing a little more palatable.
Many of Gacy’s and Corll’s abductions and killings were sexual in nature, and that is referred to in the movie, modestly enacted, yet the film spares us the sight of the worst deviance that tragically occurred to those poor victims. That is a good thing, I believe, and yet I sort of wished that Pete had pushed the envelope a little bit more and truly made things more uncomfortable to watch. It’s not that I want to see that kind of thing; it’s that to really understand and despise what these men did to their victims it might be more effective to depict their awful behavior with a bit more detail. I felt that the actors were holding back at a certain point, and while I certainly empathize with them, that “holding back” feeling works against the story and atmosphere Pete is trying to convey.
On the positive side, there are moments of subtle social commentary throughout the film. Parents trust their children with the friendly clown, unaware that he is looking for victims among them. Other people turn away from situations where something is distinctly wrong, unwilling to interfere or become involved in any way. The lure of money drives young men to turn over people they know to someone they also know is going to rape and kill. Killers become so confident and narcissistic that they commit crimes in broad daylight, unafraid of exposure. And, finally, the inevitable confrontation between these monsters becomes comic fodder. Irony and cynicism are expressed often, usually hand in hand.
The bottom line is that if you eschew low-budget, bloody, disturbing horror movies, by all means stay away. If you have interest in these infamous serial killers, why they did what they did, and what might have happened if they had ever met, then watch for The Killer Clown Meets the Candy Man later this year at a horror film festival near you. It has now premiered with a screening where I work and in a horror festival in Atlanta, both shows this past weekend. Pete is looking for a distributor and is already working on his next project. I don’t much like this film, but I do recognize the ambition behind it, and I appreciate the fact that it is not just a run-of-the-mill horror flick. It turns conventions inside-out and attempts to redefine what a modern monster really is. Pete has asked me to share a link to his film for those who are interested: www.facebook.com/gacymeetscorll. ☆ ☆. 29 January 2019.