There are many common fears amongst adults and children alike that people may deem irrational – heights, spiders, the dark, etc. But there is one that continually pops up in horror movies, which never fails to send a shiver down an audience's spine, and that is clowns.
Whether it's because of films like Poltergeist (1982) and IT (1990) showing children as being the targets of their desire or because of real-life serial killers like John Wayne Gacy using the face paint and bright, cheery persona of kid's entertainer to lure in his young victims — there is something undeniably uncanny about clowns.
'IT' (1990)
Starring the incredible Tim Curry, IT (1990) introduced the most infamous, the scariest fictional clown of all time — Stephen King’s Pennywise — to the TV screen.
"It" is an ancient force of evil that returns to the small town of Derry every 30 years to feed on the local children. Pennywise is just one of the many terrifying forms "It" takes. Pennywise is an inescapable horror, from peeping out of drainpipes to crawling around in the sewers and creeping out of the sink.
'IT: Chapter One' (2017) and 'IT: Chapter Two' (2019)
More visceral and gory than their 1990 predecessor, IT Chapter One (2017) and IT Chapter Two (2019) are perfect horror remakes for fans of Pennywise the clown looking for a modern take on Stephen King’s story.
Bill Skarsgard stars as Pennywise, the demonic creature who hunts and eats children. The opening scene alone shows a violent attack on a small child, which will have any parent mortified. The action only escalates from there, with no holds barred on who will live or die.
'Terrifier' (2016)
On Halloween night, three girls are terrorized by Art (David Howard Thornton), a mute clown with a penchant for sadistic violence.
Terrifier is not for the faint-hearted, with tonnes of guts and gore. Designed by Damien Leone, Art has become a modern horror icon with his menacing grin and wordless threats. The childlike joy Art exudes while cutting apart his victims lends credence to the title of the movie.
'Hell House LLC' (2015)
One of the scariest found-footage horror flicks of the last ten years comes in the form of Hell House LLC. The mockumentary shows the Hell House team as they take over the infamous Abaddon Hotel intending to turn it into a scare attraction for Halloween. On the opening night, though, things go wrong, resulting in the death of nearly every member of the crew and all the attending guests.
The tapes from the venture show a series of spine-chilling events in the lead-up to the big opening, with the scariest of all including three life-size clown figures that appear to have a life of their own.
'31' (2016)
It’s 1976 and a group of carnival workers has been taken hostage and forced to play a deadly game named "31." The game lasts 12 hours and consists of them entering different maze-like rooms and battling for survival against a group of demented clowns.
The five clowns are called "Heads": Sick-Head, Psycho-Head, Schizo-Head, Death-Head, and Sex-Head. With names and a premise like that, you know you're in for something strange, sick, and scary.
'Poltergeist' (1982)
Poltergeist follows married couple Steve (Craig T Nelson) and Diane (JoBeth Williams) and their three children, Dana (Dominique Dunne), Robbie (Oliver Robins), and Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke). When strange occurrences occur in their family home and Carol Anne goes missing, the family realizes several menacing spirits are haunting them.
In one of the most iconic scenes in horror history, a clown doll belonging to Robbie is possessed by one of the spirits and attacks the young child. Robbie is strangled and dragged under his bed. This scene has scarred over four generations of children and adults alike.
'Haunt' (2019)
Haunt follows six college kids who stumble across a haunted house experience. Greeted by an ominous and silent clown who simply motions for them to enter, it's clear from the outset that they will not have the fun and festive Halloween experience they’re looking for.
One by one, they are hunted down and terrorized by masked figures until the reality of what they have gotten themselves into becomes clear. Despite the familiar premise and tropes, Haunt has a unique twist to its plot that viewers are unlikely to predict.
'Clown' (2014)
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When Kent (Andy Powers) hosts a birthday party for his son, and the clown he expected doesn’t turn up, he decides to take matters into his own hands. Discovering an old clown costume in the basement of a house he’s selling, he puts it on and becomes the entertainment himself.
After falling asleep in the costume, later on, Kent wakes up to find that he cannot take it off. Things go from bad to worse as the costume begins to meld into his own body and hair, and he develops an angry and violent hunger for human flesh. Kent is cursed, and he must choose between taking his own life or doing the unthinkable and killing and eating five innocent children.
'House of 1000 Corpses' (2003)
Rob Zombie's '70s grindhouse-inspired directorial debut is notorious for being wacky, wild, and straight-up gross. When a group of traveling teenagers stumble across a house of horrors run by Captain Spaulding (the late Sid Haig), they are thrust into a world of the Firefly family. Much like in many horror films that include road trips, the group realizes quickly that this is not a safe place to be.
The Fireflies torture the group in several horrific ways, including, but not limited to, mutilating one of their bodies and attaching it to that of a fish to make a half-man, half-fish.