Product Details

• Actors: Katheryn Winnick, Laura Breckenridge, Jessica Lucas, Keir O'Donnell, Tad Hilgenbrink
• Directors: John Simpson
• Writers: Jake Wade Wall
• Producers: Merideth Finn, Mike Macari, Neal Edelstein, Udi Nedivi
• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: New Line Home Video
• DVD Release Date: January 20, 2009
• Run Time: 85 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001LIK8MA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,339 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Amusement" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Amusement opens with a too-long scene involving a girl named Shelby’s (Laura Breckenridge) reluctance to join a trucking convoy that her boyfriend behind the wheel is for some reason totally dedicated to. One can guess if they ever return from this fateful road trip. From here, the film splinters into three more parts, focusing on Shelby’s childhood friends, Lisa (Jessica Lucas) and Tabitha (Katheryn Winnick), and finally, a serial killer who aims to ensnare them all because they didn’t laugh at his animal-torturing diorama in grade school. The killer, a brainiac who sports rubber apron, gloves, and goggles for his sick enterprises, operates on the premise that his killings are funny, and cackles ring throughout the film. There is not a tremendous amount of gore in Amusement, as it focuses on what little suspense it manages, as citizens and FBI agents alike fail to catch the crafty villain. Perhaps the most notable aspect to this film is the mysterious criminal ringleader, a clown doll, who appears midway through as Tabitha tries to babysit. Furthering Stephen King’s It tradition, this movie gets slightly better when the girls enter this evil clown’s territory, a bedroom packed with clown toys. However, the clown and his clown posse are a bit non sequitur, and the entire film feels confused and patched together. Return to Child’s Play if you really want to delve into evil toys and the young boys who play with them. --Trinie Dalton

Product Description

Tabitha. Shelby. Lisa. Theyre longtime friends on separate life paths. But they share a horrific destination when a seemingly innocent incident from their school days comes back to terrify them. Something someone wants payback: warped vengeance…mind-games vengeance…taunting, shredding, slashing vengeance. Inside a stonewalled chamber of prison cells and mechanisms of doom, the three women and other victims face a fierce fight to survive. Who lives? Who dies? Its all for someones Amusement. From screenwriter Jake Wade Wall (The Hitcher) and director John Simpson (Freeze Frame) comes a new film foray into horror. Turn down the lights. Turn up the fear.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Cover drew me in but the film didn't deliver, July 5, 2009

By 

Jay (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amusement (DVD)

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.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Truth, September 6, 2009

By 

Benjamin Kroell (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Amusement (DVD)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What?, November 28, 2011

By 

Jeremy (WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amusement (DVD)

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.