Director George Kane delivers some genuine laughs with his comedy tinged with dystopian horror elements, Apocalypse Clown. In Ireland, the death of legendary clown teacher Jean Ducoque has brought the entire clown community (all eight of them, and a journalist with a troubled history with a clown) to the funeral. During the service, everything is plunged into chaos when a mysterious electrical surge renders the country powerless. Now, four desperate clowns — Bobo (David Earl), Pepe (Fionn Foley), has-been The Great Alphonso (Ivan Kaye), and the insane Funzo (Natalie Palamides) — along with journalist Jenny Malone (Amy De Bhrún), are trapped in the Irish countryside, all looking for answers.
It’s not really a plotty film, in the traditional sense. The goal of the road trip shifts and changes several times, but ultimately Alphonso’s ambition to regain his spotlight is the ultimate driving force. The major conflict of the profession of clowning presented in the film is technology. It’s embodied the most with Bobo’s introduction as a volunteer entertainer at a children’s hospital, where we witness him being replaced by a young magician. Bobo makes the case that it’s not his fault, as video games and cell phones make the kids indifferent to the art of clowning. Thus, the circumstances in which all technology is essentially caput lends them hope that this is their time to shine again.
There are several funny moments in the film, with several performances being solid. However, the stand out is 100% Palamides, and her character Funzo. From the moment her creepy clown character pops out of a tent and tries to grab a kid in to give them a show, her presence takes over. She is the clown epitome of scary, but she doesn’t see what EVERYONE else sees. Funzo is operating on her own plane of existence, and it’s a wild one. It leads to so many funny one-liners and weird situations which make the film extremely fun and memorable.
Bobo is the character on which we are to hang our emotions. He wants to find love, and his one-night connection with Jenny – which is the bane of her existence, and her entry into this wild clown car road trip – is where he pins all his hope. Tired of being laughed at…or actually not getting the laughs he is trying to earn, Bobo finds himself wanting to leave the clowning world behind. Earl is up for the task and delivers a sincere performance in the role that also earns quite a few laughs. Something in his performance feels very familiar, though I don’t believe I’ve seen him in anything else beforehand.
Apocalypse Clown is a perfectly enjoyable comedy that maybe overstays its welcome a little. The story is a bit piecemeal, and that allows the audience to fall out of the film from time to time. Fortunately, the set pieces and the performances usually bring you back in when it counts. This would be an easy movie to throw on while you’re doing various honey-do-list items. You may be lost as to where the characters are or why certain things are happening, but you’ll still be able to enjoy the humor.
Apocalypse Clown is a part of the Fantasia International Film Festival 2023.
Rating: Decent Watch
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