Customer Reviews

Amusement [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

When a horror movie posts a creepy looking clown on the cover odds are I'm going to check it out. When looking at scary movies with clowns only Clownhouse, It, & Killer Klowns from Outer Space are real standouts for my taste. Despite that fact I still tend to check out all these weak clown horror attempts in hopes of finding a classic. Unfortunately in this case the clown on the cover was something to lure you in since it only played a role for about 10 minutes of the film. I've noticed this is a pretty common complaint about the film and overall will aid in more negative reviews.

The film turns out to consist of a few different poorly written stories all tying together at the end. The first story is about a girl Shelby & her boyfriend rob as they become part of a disastrous convey trip. The second is the best part of the film where the clown appears for the first and only time while a girl named Tabitha is babysitting. The third installment is a girl Lisa who goes home with a guy after a night at the bar to never come home again. Now all the girls in the stories wind up being linked through a ridiculous situation back in elementary school along with their killer.

It's pretty much a waste of an hour and a half with very few enjoyable parts. The killer himself is so pathetic there is no way you could find him scary. He has this annoying laugh he does through that becomes so annoying you want jump through the tv and strangle him. It wasn't all terrible though thanks to the girls in the story. All 3 actresses did a really solid job with Tabitha(Katheryn Winnick) leading the pack by being the most believable. The clown segment itself was pretty creepy and should have been the premise for the entire film. If they had focused primarily on the killer being dressed up as the clown the film would've had a better chance at success.

If you're reading this review, it is because (1) You are thinking about watching this movie but are skeptical as to whether or not you should, or (2) You have already seen it and want to see what other people think. If you (1), take this to heart. I just got done watching this movie and it did absolutely nothing for me.
Amusement doesn't draw you in whatsoever. All the principles of a good movie are completely absent. There is no rise of action, no climax, it just simply keeps the same pace the whole movie. I can respect the attempted story line, as it does make an attempt at a thick plot, but it completely fails. The scenes don't seem to connect and it turns out to be really sloppy. This is honestly all i got from tihs movie: A weirdo from back in grade school seeks revenge (for whatever reason, motives are never revealed) This guy just dresses up as different people and puts on acts then, as you probably guessed, he reveals himself and laughs an obnoxious laugh. Seriously, he laughs this entire movie. This movie should be called "Annoying Laughter".
The best part of this movie is towards the end... While he is in the act, the main girl (I think) starts laughing, he is immediately touched by this laughter and frees her from her restraints and for a moment there is a romantic and touching connection between the two. Haha that was amusing. This is not a Clown killer movie by any means. Don't let the cover fool you. Well, you have been warned, if you ignore this review and proceed to rent or buy this movie, this review will soon become a painful reality for you. Don't say i didn't tell you so.

What a mess.

This movie was boring, predictable, and poorly written. Even after saying that I haven't touched on the biggest problem with the film -- it made absolutely no sense. I'll expand on that later. First let me point out the other flaws.

The movie is divided into three separate stories, each one accomplishing the impressive feat of being worse than the last. These three stories "converge" at the end for a final section that is so bad and nonsensical that I can only hope it's some type of avant-garde joke. Each story is basically its own cliched horror film: a killer is loose on the highway; a killer terrorizes the babysitter; a killer has a girl trapped inside an old building.

All of these stories are infuriating, mostly because the victims are unfathomably retarded. At one point, the babysitter escapes the house into the front yard. She decides that the best thing to do is hide in the tool shed. Guess how that turns out. The girl in the third story suspects her friend is being held captive inside an old building. She sends her boyfriend in to investigate. Hours later, when he doesn't come back, she decides to sneak in by herself. Guess how that turns out. Later in the film, one of the characters manages to stab the killer in the neck. He falls to the floor, and of course the girls all run away to try to find a way to escape. Guess how that turns out. Honestly, how many times do we have to see these tired scenes play out with their complete predictability and impossibly stupid characters? It's just lazy writing, totally unbelievable, and makes me immediately lose all interest in whether or not the characters survive.

Anyway, let's assume that you're an idiot and this all sounds appealing to you because you like horror movies. I STILL say to steer clear of this one. Why? Because it makes absolutely zero sense. Just trust me, it doesn't. Yes, I paid attention. Yes, I understood the connection between the three stories. The movie does not make a lick of sense. I don't know how to explain why without giving away plot details, so let's just say that I will be very impressed if anyone can answer a single one of these questions (spoilers below):

1. If the guy in the back of the convoy was the killer, who was the girl in the semi-driver's truck, why did she look scared, and why did the semi-driver lie about being alone?

2. How could the girl's body smash into the main character's windshield when the killer was driving behind them?

3. Why did the semi-driver try to run over the boyfriend?

4. Why is the killer in the first story a different person than in the third and fourth? I could be wrong on this one, maybe it's the same guy with a different hairstyle, but as best as I can tell these are completely different actors. In any case it's extremely confusing.

5. How did the psychologist woman come to be at the abandoned house/tunnel without realizing that it wasn't a real police station and that no one else was around? If the killer had previously been a patient of hers, how could he trick her into thinking he was an FBI agent? This part made no sense at all.

I could go on and on, but it's pointless because there are no answers. Whoever wrote this didn't put an ounce of thought into it. Horrible.

Great movie for the price u can't beat it plus I got it quick it took about 3 days not bad the movie is an underated horror movie with a lot of twists I really enjoyed it.

This movie was actually pretty good. The first 2/3 of the movie was entertaining and kept me guessing. The last third was predictable and didn't really use two of the three main characters as much as they could have. Overall the movie was pretty good and the acting was pretty good. One of the villains was hilarious and did a great job. If you can pick up this movie cheap its worth the watch.

This movie is not about killer clowns! I like those type movies and thats why I bought this. I then thought it would be like saw, which I do not like those, but it was not 100% like that, it is about a killer who kill the people whom made fun of him as a child. The first scenes with the Car/Convoy was good, and the part with the Clown/Baby sitter (although done before) was good, but the rest was just ok. One thing i will say is that the scene where the women are tied up and spread open I said to myself 'ok,this is ridiculous, but then I got a cool surprise' ! 2.5 / 5 Stars.

I don't get all the negative reviews -- this movie actually has a lot going for it. And personally, I've always liked this kind of tripartite structure, whether the three separate stories interconnect at the end (as is the case with this film), or connect only through an actor or general theme (as with my favorite, 1955's excellent "Three Cases of Murder"). I was entertained by "Amusement:" it is not just a flick to help waste your time, and the folks involved in its making clearly wanted to make a good movie, despite the budget.

As mentioned, "Amusement" consists of three stories with somewhat open endings, all three of which are resolved in a common dénouement at the end. Other than the first story, which I felt was the weakest of the bunch, "Amusement" is mostly carried by the main actor, Katheryn Winnick. Despite her demure clothing throughout, Winnick is decidedly more Playboy-bunny (well, a very athletic bunny -- she is after all a Taekwondo champion) than ordinary-girl-next-door, and at first I thought she was slightly mis-cast. I was wrong -- not only does she give a truly solid performance (notably better than the norm in these sorts of roles), her inherent sexuality seemed to enhance the sense of a strong, tough woman who will survive no matter what. Winnick is much more than eye candy here; she actually carries the film.

The sets deserve a special mention -- they are above the norm. The pacing, and focus on telling a coherent story (really hard, I would think, in a movie structured like this) are also above-average.

3 stars because it had potential and because I paid less than $5 for it, so I can't complain too much about wasting money. Since my interest in film and other visual media is academic as well as (dare I say?) amusement, I'm glad I have the film in my collection. There are interesting elements, such as the 70's horror style beginning with the travellers on the road. The clown thing was no surprise, but excellent pacing of the scene put me on edge. The moment of connection between victim and psycho was good.

Unfortunately, the film was not very amusing or frightening. Too much of what was happening was either obvious, disjointed, or just not very entertaining. A few changes in how things were revealed or hidden and a couple different twists would have made the movie excellent. I have to admit, the one big twist during the revelation of all three victims together was quite a novel one, but then the next scenes seemed weak. This movie could have been great. Instead, it barely rose to mediocre.

By the trailers I'd seen of Amusement, I'd assumed I'd be getting the usual teen slash-a-thon; long on clichés and short on originality. It looked fun but I wasn't holding out any hope for a fresh take on the slasher sub-genre, not that there's anything wrong with that on occasion but it's nice to something "different" every now and then. Imagine my surprise when Amusement ends up skipping the clichéd characters and the "same old, same old" for something a bit more, well...amusing.

The Laugh is one hell of a cool psycho, he's a killer of a thousand faces and some incredibly twisted pleasures including stitching his victims into bed mattresses and creating elaborate gore prosthetics to scare his victims! Instead of just donning the usual slasher get-up, he throws down on a clown outfit, a family man, a deaf-mute and more! The production design was off-the-wall, the kills were interesting, women hot, dialogue decent and an entertaining psycho.

Amusement exceeded my expectations and I had a ball watching it! This was a super clever slasher film. Just between you and I, for some reason, the actor Kevin Gage strikes sheer terror in my heart. I know he's just an actor but the man terrifies me, he just exudes this violent alpha male thing that never fails to affect me. Couple that with Winnick's ability to conjure wood and a killer worth cheering for and this was what I call entertainment. There are no extras, which is a shame, but I'd recommend viewing this anyhow.

For the past few trips to Blockbuster Video, I've walked through the "horror" section and have seen the movie Amusement sitting on the shelf. It looks creepy...It has a scary clown on the cover, it's in the HORROR section, and the cover entices you with the line "Your Fear. His Amusement". The cover alone made me pick up the case a few times, and even after reading the summary on the back, the movie looks like it would be a thriller.

Amusement is a horrible movie.

The plot of the movie is quite simple, and should have worked out decently. You meet one of the three girls in the story; Tabitha (Katheryn Winnick), Shelby (Laura Breckenridge), and Lisa (Jessica Lewis), and you follow them for a short period of time, witnessing what we'll call "the worst day of their life". Each girl's story is presented separately, and then all tied together a little later in the film. The gist of the story is that when the three girls were in elementary school, there was a boy in their class who made a disturbing diorama of a gutted squirrel, and they decided to tell the teacher about it. The boy was committed to a mental hospital, and when he grew up, he decided that it was time for revenge on the girls who had him sent away.

So great, you read the plot, and think "Yeah, this has potential...the killer would have a good reason for revenge, I can see how separately the girls "bad day" stories tie into this big story...". The first half of the movie is even pretty neat with some of the other gore that happens...but then we get to the half way point of the film. Everything starts to tie together in the movie, and it seems like there a lead-up to the ending starting to be formed, and then BAM! The movie comes to a dead stop. Once Tabitha realizes what's going on, it seems like the writers just said "Well now what do we do", and just slapped some lines together to finish out the movie. This is extremely poor form, and ruined what could have at least been a barely decent film.

As something billed as a horror movie, especially a movie that's come out in the past few years I would have at least expected one of two things coming into the film that have become "standards" of horror: (semi) nudity or lots of gore. The "violent" scenes are extremely bland, and don't really show anything, and there's no eye candy either. Usually, from what I've seen, if a movie is known as a throw-away movie, there's usually at least something extremely gross to look at, or some semi-naked females here and there. This movie fails on both fronts, but in a film full of fail, I wouldn't have expected anything else from them.

The ONLY redeeming part of the movie is the killer. The Laugh (that's right, The Laugh) does exactly what it sounds like...he laughs. The girls run into him, he does something serial killer-esque, and he just starts laughing in this creepy but hilarious laugh.