10 Best Movie Clowns That Aren't Pennywise (original) (raw)
Published Jan 10, 2024, 1:00 PM EST
Jeremy has more than 2500 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows.
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One of life’s greatest mysteries is the question of who actually likes clowns. These staples of circuses everywhere wear ridiculous outfits, are defined by their exaggerated makeup, and are, allegedly, comedic. Yet there is something uncanny and unsettling about clowns, with coulrophobia being the term used to describe an intense fear of clowns. Furthermore, it’s not unreasonable to assume many who aren’t sufferers of this phobia still find clowns mildly creepy.
The horror genre has utilized this fear of clowns well, and there are few clown characters more terrifying or noteworthy than Pennywise from Stephen King’s It (adapted into a miniseries as well as a pair of films released in the late 2010s), which centers on a demonic entity that takes the appearance of a clown. What follows are some other iconic clowns who’ve shown up in various movies, some of them similarly horrifying and some others proving unique in other ways. These films all add to the cinematic clown canon, though anyone with coulrophobia may want to avoid them.
10 'Terrifier' (2016) and 'Terrifier 2' (2022)
Art the Clown
David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown in Terrifier 2 (2022)
Image via Bloody Disgusting
2016’s Terrifier is a gory and flawed low-budget horror movie, but it did introduce a central villainous character with immense potential: Art the Clown. This ridiculously sinister and sadistic figure seems like a serial killer who enjoys dressing up like a clown at first, but by the end of Terrifier, it becomes apparent that Art the Clown is more demonic in nature than he originally seemed.
He has further supernatural abilities in Terrifier 2, which is also an all-around better film, feeling more creative, inspired, grisly, and ambitious than the first movie, which feels more like a proof-of-concept in hindsight. Art the Clown has felt like one of the most instantly iconic horror movie villains in recent memory, defined by his inability or unwillingness to speak, as well as the lengths he’s willing to go to when it comes to causing pain and suffering to his supremely unlucky victims.
Release Date
March 15, 2018
Runtime
86 Minutes
Director
Damien Leone
9 'Spawn' (1997)
Violator
John Leguizamo as Violator, laughing maniacally in Spawn
Image via New Line Cinema
Clown characters don’t necessarily need to be in good movies to be memorable, as the infamous 1997 superhero movie, Spawn, demonstrates. The titular character is a man who dies, yet makes a deal with the devil to be reborn once more, at which point he adopts the name Spawn and finds himself forced to lead the devil’s army on a quest to take over the world.
Violator is one of many villainous demons far more evil than eventual anti-hero Spawn, and this is made apparent by the fact that both his two main forms are equal parts intimidating. While on Earth, he generally takes the appearance of a clown, while his “true” demonic form is entirely inhuman, and hard to describe. For what it’s worth, John Leguizamo looks like he’s having some fun in the role, but Spawn overall is, at best, an acquired taste.
8 'Shakes the Clown' (1991)
Shakes the Clown
Image via IRS Media
The titular Shakes the Clown is up there with the worst-behaved movie clowns of all time, and potentially one of the more sinister ones who isn’t the lead villain of a horror movie. Instead, as a film, Shakes the Clown is a particularly dark blend of crime and comedy genres, following the lead character whose life as a party clown is generally a drunken mess, with various events causing him to sink further into depression and anarchy.
It's an intentionally messy film about a very messy main character, and even at 87 minutes, the one main joke of the film – “look at how terrible this man dressed as a clown is” – starts to wear a little thin. But as a particularly bleak comedy, Shakes the Clown does have its moments, and those interested in seeing a menacing clown outside the horror genre might well find the film somewhat engaging.
7 'The Greatest Show on Earth' (1952)
Buttons the Clown
Image via Paramount Pictures
Some Best Picture winners age better than others, with The Greatest Show on Earth being one that isn’t exactly held in high regard by modern standards. It’s a long and somewhat slow movie, clocking in at about 2.5 hours long and more or less being a drama about various behind-the-scenes conflicts at a circus. Along the way, there are also plenty of circus sequences that tend to drag on a bit, and might’ve been more thrilling to audiences back in the 1950s.
Of course, you couldn’t really have a movie all about a circus without featuring at least one clown, and so The Greatest Show on Earth gives viewers Buttons the Clown, who’s played by legendary actor James Stewart. Buttons has a surprisingly dark past that makes for one of the movie’s more alarming elements, certainly pushing the character into potentially shady or even menacing territory.
6 'Chocolat' (2016)
Rafael Padilla, aka Chocolat
Image via Gaumont
Chocolat is a loose biographical film about a man named Rafael Padilla, who used the name Chocolat as a stage name during his time as a circus performer. It stars Omar Sy (perhaps best known for 2011’s The Intouchables) in the titular role, showcasing how he broke certain circus conventions of the time by being the first Black performer to ever appear in a French circus.
As such, Chocolat is one of the best examples of a movie centered around a clown that isn’t anywhere close to being a horror movie. It deals with some intense themes regarding race and the way certain people were treated back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but is overall more of a drama that takes a good deal of inspiration from the story of a real-life trailblazing performer/artist.
5 'The Dark Knight' (2008)
The Joker
Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight
Image via Warner Bros.
Put simply, villains don’t get a whole lot more iconic than the Joker, who stands tall above numerous other great antagonists as Batman’s true nemesis. The Joker takes on the appearance of a clown, causes chaos and anarchy as opposed to the order and justice Batman tries to enact, and is an overall cunning criminal mastermind who’s both fearsome and entertaining to watch.
As for picking the best Joker depiction in cinema history, there’s a case to be made that Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the character in 2019’s Joker emphasizes the clown appearance most often, but it’s hard to find a more impactful take on the character than Heath Ledger’s. He’s menacing and darkly funny in equal measure, and largely steals The Dark Knight… which is impressive, considering the rest of the movie is also very good.
Release Date
July 16, 2008
Runtime
152 minutes
Director
Main Genre
Crime
4 'The Clown at Midnight' (1998)
Mr. Caruthers
Murderous clown from The Clown at Midnight (1998)
Image via GFT Paquin Entertainment
At least those with coulrophobia will be instantly aware to stay away from The Clown at Midnight, given the title instantly implies this will be a film with a particularly unsettling clown at its center. After all, the only thing scarier than a clown during the day is a clown at night, and for anyone who feels particularly creeped out by clowns, midnight is probably the worst part of the night to encounter one.
It's more or less a combination of a slasher film and a thriller, following a group of teenagers that get stalked by a strange murderer who dresses as a clown, because apparently, just being a serial killer isn’t frightening enough. The phenomenon of terrifying clowns became very apparent in the 2010s, becoming something of a craze, even, so if you’re feeling charitable, you could call The Clown at Midnight a little ahead of its time.
3 'Zombieland' (2009)
Clown Zombie
Scary Clown Zombie from Zombieland (2009)
Image via Sony Pictures Releasing
Zombieland is a movie that shows the end of the world doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom, because as far as post-apocalyptic stories go, it’s pretty funny overall. It’s a movie about four people coming together during a zombie apocalypse and making a strange sort of found family together, eventually bonding over their similarities and differences alike while also sharing undeniably great zombie-killing skills.
That being said, the film’s main character, Columbus, does have an intense fear of clowns and, as luck would have it, he has to directly face this fear in Zombieland’s climax when he encounters a clown zombie. One way to make a zombie more fearsome is indeed by making it undead, but Columbus thankfully overcomes this fear and becomes an unlikely hero, annihilating this particularly terrifying and flesh-hungry clown in the process.
Release Date
October 2, 2009
Runtime
87 minutes
Director
Ruben Fleischer
2 'Poltergeist' (1982)
Clown Doll
Clown doll from Poltergeist (1982)
Image via MGM/UA Entertainment Co.
While he didn't officially direct Poltergeist, there is speculation surrounding whether Steven Spielberg was involved with the film's direction, rather than merely being a producer. If he was behind the film in this manner, Poltergeist would likely rank as one of his most intense and oftentimes horrifying movies, given it's a rather nonstop and twisted film about a family forced to survive in a house that seems particularly - and dangerously - haunted.
One of the most unsettling paranormal sights in Poltergeist is that of a clown doll that gets brought to life by the ghosts the family is pitted against, traumatizing young Robbie in the process, given he was already afraid of clowns. While it's technically a doll, rather than a human or some kind of other living being dressed up as a clown, it's still a notable enough example of a cinematic clown to be worth mentioning, particularly given how effectively scary it is.
1 'Quick Change' (1990)
Grimm
Bill Murray dressed as a clown robbing a bank in Quick Change (1990)
Image via Warner Bros.
A lesser-known Bill Murray movie that’s noteworthy for being the actor’s sole directorial credit to date (shared with co-director Howard Franklin), Quick Change is also one of many crime movies released in 1990. Murray plays a man who pulls off a successful bank robbery in Manhattan while dressed as a clown named Grimm, only to find that actually making an escape post-robbery proves far more difficult than the heist itself.
Quick Change isn’t a great movie, but it is worth checking out for those who like dark comedies and/or are particularly big fans of Bill Murray and his unique screen presence. It’s also one of the only movies that isn’t the aforementioned The Dark Knight where viewers can witness a clown rob a bank, so that’s got to count for something.
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