Film Review: Apocalypse Clown is a honking good time - just don't wig out

Apocalypse Clown: Big shoes to fill

• Apocalypse Clown
• ★★★★☆
• Cinema release

If you’ve ever wondered how clowns might fare in the wake of Armageddon, then wonder no more. 

Apocalypse Clown (16s) stars David Earl as Bobo, once a proud clown but now reduced to touting his talents as being ‘cheaper than a babysitter’. 

But when an apocalyptic event annihilates all TV and device-based diversions, and live entertainment becomes all the rage once more, it seems Bobo’s time has come around again.

Unfortunately, the devious, foul-mouthed Great Alphonso (Ivan Kaye) has exactly the same idea, and the Great Alphonso has no intention of sharing the limelight.

Those who suffer from coulrophobia, or a fear of clowns, would do well to steer clear of Apocalypse Clown, because George Kane’s film confirms every illogical clown terror and tosses a few new ones in for good measure. 

The deranged Funzo (Natalie Palamides) pays homage to Stephen King’s Pennywise, and that’s just for starters: the clown funeral, as the garish clowns gather to pay their respects to a fallen veteran, would be the stuff of nightmares if it wasn’t all so hilarious. 

Surrealism and absurdity vie for supremacy in a story that resembles what Flann O’Brien might have devised had he turned his attention to the clowning fraternity, with one particular highlight an extended chase sequence in which a dead clown’s cortege is pursued by moving statues of James Joyce and the Statue of Liberty. 

The result is a black comedy that is one of the most original movies of the year, and one of the funniest too.