Wrinkles the Clown (2019) User Reviews

Interesting

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 12 December 2019]

Wrinkles the Clown is an unidentified performance artist from Naples, Florida, who is supposedly an angry homeless man who hires himself out to parents who need him to frighten their children into behaving properly. He first appeared in a 2015 YouTube video where he crawled out from under a girl's bed. He's also appeared in other videos, terrorizing motorists and ruining birthday parties.

Since then, stickers bearing his face and a telephone number began appearing around Florida, with the number soon became a rite of passage for children around the United States. Now, there's a documentary all about this clown and how parents are either using or abusing his abilities.

In 2019, Wrinkles agreed to allow a documentary crew to follow him in his daily life and explain his philosophy. He's an elderly man who lives in a van that spends most of his days and nights fishing, drinking and going to strip clubs. There's no logic or ideology behind Wrinkles, only money.

Or is there? By the end of the documentary, it is revealed that the man the crew has been following is an actor named D.B. Lambert, who has been hired by the real Wrinkles to portray his secret identity. Now blurred out, the real Wrinkles shows how the viral videos were made and that they were all created with actors.

Filmmaker Cary Longchamps was the man that the Naples Daily News has discovered helped start the Wrinkles viral videos. Is he Wrinkles? No one is sure. The idea that an old clown is devoted to scaring children is the kind of urban legend and boogeyman that some parents need to keep their kids in line, which is either bad parenting or just trying to escape the pressure of having kids. The film takes no real stand.

Not enough here to justify a documentary

[jtindahouse · 4/10 · 28 October 2020]

It's not a good sign when a film is only 78 minutes and it still feels extremely stretched out and long. Unfortunately that was the case with 'Wrinkles the Clown'. The funny thing is that I'm very glad this documentary brought the fact that this clown exists to my attention. But once I knew that, the film didn't really have any additional information to offer me that I was interested in. I kept hoping there would be a twist or a shocking addition to the story to come. It never did though and it made for a very dull ride.

While I was watching this I thought to myself that I'd actually enjoy doing this in my region. By the end of the documentary though it had convinced me that that would be a very bad idea. From that point of view I suppose it offered something. Otherwise though I found 'Wrinkles the Clown' very much lacking in justification for a documentary. Have a quick read up about this story instead would be my advice.

Probably only for people familiar with the actual events

[aronharde · 4/10 · 18 November 2023]

This was a pretty boring documentary about a clown that can be called by parents to scare their kids if they don't behave. It all started when in 2015 a video was uploaded to YouTube where a clown was shown emerging from underneath a bed in a young girl's room. After the clip went viral, apparently lots of parents actually called The Clown by the name of Wrinkles and actually hired him to scare their kids for misbehaving. Four years later this documentary comes out showing the man living his simple life in his van talking to the camera about his experiences as Wrinkles the Clown.

Towards the end there's some sort of twist that tells us the whole truth and if you are generally interested in this whole story you might enjoy this but I was but throughout its rather short runtime. [3,9/10]

30-40 minutes of content stretched to 1.5 hours.

[defendtheend · 3/10 · 11 May 2020]

Is this documentary about "Wrinkles the Clown" as a person? Sorta. Is it about the clown hysteria from a few years ago, and how people reacted to it? It could've been with more focus. Is it about the behind the scenes of making modern day folklore? Again, it could've been with more focus. This documentary, as a concept, could've been incredibly interesting if it decided what it wanted to be. Instead it meanders on "clowns are scary" for a good portion of it's runtime. It's shot well, but with odd (and occasionally bad) editing & pacing. If 30-50 minutes were cut from this it would be a much more solid piece (but if they did that it wouldn't be considered "featured length" anymore.) Ultimately, this probably would've been better as an episode of a mini-series about some related theme (modern day/online horror and how people react to it, etc.)

I tried. I really did.

[csafille-08840 · 2/10 · 6 November 2019]

I hadn't had a chance to watch this movie until recently when I actually had a day off from work and other personal obligations. Honestly, I should've just worked that evening. This is BY FAR the worst documentary I've ever seen. The topic itself obviously was enough to get me interested in watching, but that's about it. The overall flow was awful... and focus was primarily on random people who have either come across Wrinkles or who have researched him themselves.. either way, none of the children nor adults featured say anything illuminating or interesting at any point. Just crap.

Interesting story, but not enough for a movie

[jfgibson73 · 3/10 · 5 October 2021]

I thought the premise of this movie sounded like one of the most must-see documentaries I've ever come across. It starts out ok, as you learn about a mysterious clown who parents can call to scare their children if they misbehave. There are some very creepy shots of the clown appearing in random places. They interview a man who claims to be the performer and he tells us he doesn't really care what effect he has on kids, he is just providing the parents a service. Perhaps the most effective segment of the film is when we hear voices messages parents have left on his phone. Parents say things like, "I need you to come get these mother#%$@s" while the children howl with fear in the background. Eventually, we find out near the end that there isn't really a Wrinkles the Clown--someone just hired actors to make viral videos. The man they were interviewing for the first half of this documentary was also an actor and nothing he told us was real. They then interview a man who claims to have made it all up, but we don't see his face or hear his real voice. He describes how he made videos and set up the phone line to spread rumors about this character. He himself says that he thinks that parents telling their kids they will call a clown to get them is "messed up," and probably "psychologically damaging." His rationale is that Christianity is worse because it tells people they will go to Hell. I assume that the voice messages we heard earlier really were left on the phone number that was posted around the area. They movie has other interviews as well, many of them only tangentially connected to the main subject. They have some news footage of reports of Wrinkles sightings and they talk to some experts. They also interview some kids who don't have much to do with the topic. Going off on these tangents really takes away from the effectiveness of the documentary, but they clearly needed to fill time. I think this lack of focus, along with the misleading first half, are why some people rate this movie so low.

No narrative nor structure

[eschase · 18 May 2020]

This is one of the extremely rare cases where I turned a movie off. It was such an interesting idea, and they completely squandered it. There's no sense of order, you could recut the majority of this movie and it would not make a difference, if it weren't for a twist that rendered the first half of the doc a waste of time.

This is the cinematic equivalent to reading the comments on YouTube video called "scary 3:00 AM challenge". It is largely just kids yapping into cellphone cameras about spooky clowns. They even often fail to give an opinion. It fails at exploring its topic with any kind of depth and comes across as extremely lazy.

Let me save you 78 minutes. See that guy on the poster? Parents can hire him to scare misbehaving children. You learn nothing more by watching this film.

Comfortable pace for an easy watch, but spread a little thin.

[njbaldwin-01315 · 7/10 · 7 October 2023]

The documentary does a nice job of pacing the storytelling to keep you interested while not rushing through anything.

Takes the form of telling the story of Wrinkles while interjecting interviews with culture and folklore experts, and with everyday kids who find clowns in general, or Wrinkles in particular, interesting.

The tone shifts a couple of times into a darker or more evil tone which I found jarring, and it didn't really add much. I think it could have been done with more nuance or subtlety, which would have more accurately depicted how our culture sees clowns: as more of a trickster with malicious undertones than all out evil.

Overall the pacing, unique storytelling and unique subject matter made this an enjoyable watch that I will remember.

Pointless and an hour too long.

[danbutler-45322 · 2/10 · 6 November 2019]

I was excited to see this after I saw the trailer, but was severely disappointed. This documentary could've been 10 minutes long. There really is no point. The production quality is good, but that's it. The "twist" in the final half hour is lazy and only served to make me angry. Save yourself the hour and a half and watch something else instead.

Great stuff

[thacker27 · 7/10 · 17 February 2020]

Anyone who gives this movie less than six is an idiot.

This documentary is fantastic and completely flips your wig back. Watch it all the way through. If you don't get it you have no soul.

Scary - but not in a cinematic way

[Kkiff-640-46856 · 1/10 · 13 October 2019]

This is the worst possible film making combined with random children who are difficult to understand and seem to have zero relevance to anything. I hate giving bad reviews, but this was a huge disappointment.

I never write reviews, but...

[breannalover345 · 8/10 · 5 May 2020]

The point of this film was to illustrate the way that humans collectively cling to myths. The filmmaker does a superb job of illustrating the point by literally leading viewers into believing a myth.

This film is not meant to entertain, nor teach you about the mythology of Wrinkles the Clown. It is meant to challenge you.

This documentary builds off the already rich documentary filmmaking of Errol Morris (dramatic recreations) and the observational filmmaking of directors like Les Blank and Kazuhiro Sôda.

Better than people are saying

[dar0417 · 6/10 · 15 July 2020]

Not the best documentary but worth checking out. Had some good horror moments and if your like everyone else and hates clowns you will be creeped out.

God. Awful.

[hitman7706 · 1/10 · 9 October 2019]

Painfully boring. Uncompelling. Terrible storytelling. All over the place. Just awful. They had the equipment and the 'filmmaking' skills, and absolutely no storytelling skills. There's no story really so yeah. Awful.

What a waste of time

[PaRa5iteEv3 · 1/10 · 11 November 2019]

This was such a waste of time and money. Not only were the interviews complete crap, there's some in appropriate material as well. You basically just watch people talk about this clown and then watch some old guy sweating and eating food. Do not watch this.

Boring

[eccomicfan-34155 · 2/10 · 10 March 2020]

I thought this was a documentary about Wrinkes the clown, but it's actually a documentary about the most annoying kids on YouTube.

Interesting character but doco doesn't reveal a lot

[olivewahh · 4/10 · 10 December 2019]

What started off as YouTube video of a clown sliding out from underneath a little girls bed in 2015 turned an unknown man into a viral fascination across Florida.

Wrinkles the Clown is based on an unnamed man who dresses up as a horrifying looking clown and pimps himself out to parents to scare their misbehaving children. If that sentence doesn't sound terrifying enough, then all you need do is to have one look at this guy you'll instantly understand what nightmares are made of.

The documentary goes around to the people across Florida, and we hear their personal opinions and encounters with Wrinkles. The crew interview the man behind the clown makeup, but keep his face out of every camera frame to withhold his identity and build mystery. He goes on to explain how Wrinkles became a character and the responses he has received from the community. Most interviews are focused on the younger children who either share a strong hatred toward Wrinkles or surprisingly idolise the clown. Some kids even go to the lengths of wanting to be just like Wrinkles. A role model if you dare to label.

The documentary doesn't really reveal too much and honestly left me questioning if I learnt anything from Wrinkles besides him being an old man living every day like it's Halloween and scaring young children to make a quick buck. A very interesting choice that may be linked to the clown sightings back in 2016 where people disguised themselves as clowns around schools, side of the road and nearby forests, and would scare anybody who crossed their path.

The idea of Wrinkles the Clown as a character and his objective is interesting, but I feel as though it would've been better off as a small Netflix series that dug deeper into the life and secrets of this man and his stories. I'm intrigued by this mysterious story as I felt there could've been more to share, but on the other hand I wouldn't lose any sleep if I never heard of this character again.

It does a good job breaking down his thought process behind the movement and how he put some of the famous videos together.

[kevin_robbins · 6/10 · 1 June 2021]

Watched this then called him. The voicemail is still up and going. I've been meaning to see this awhile. It was honestly just okay until you get to the end and realize this is the movement that started all the clown hysterics a few years ago where people started dressing as clowns and attacking and killing people. It does a good job breaking down his thought process behind the movement and how he put some of the famous videos together. Overall it's alright, maybe a 5 or 6 out of 10.

Painful to watch in how dull, empty, and nothing it is.

[KingOfHungary · 1/10 · 31 May 2020]

This is not a documentary, horror, OR comedy. None are contained. This is nothing more than a random series of "interview" footage of mostly children talking about some clown who supposedly parents call to scare their children with. But this entire video has no purpose, no structure, no narrative. It is blatantly pointless. Every minute of this feels like an hour.

Mediocre

[josephkearns · 5/10 · 18 October 2019]

I like the concept of the documentary, it was just boring at parts

In Some Ways, "Wrinkles" Might Out Joker "Joker" Just By Being a Documentary

[sheldonnylander · 8/10 · 6 October 2019]

Since I already knew that I wouldn't be seeing "Joker" on opening weekend, I figured I could watch a documentary about a real-life creepy clown opening opposite. It doesn't disappoint, although at the same time it might not be entirely what you expected. It's very difficult to fully analyze this film without talking spoilers, but I'm going to try.

Do you remember all the real-life creepy clown sightings that were reported a little while ago? This film argues that they were inspired by the legend of Wrinkles the Clown, which is where this film becomes relevant and (sort of) timely.

"Wrinkles the Clown" follows the exploits of a real-life urban legend. Wrinkles is a guy in a creepy clown costume who lives in Florida and hires himself out to scare children. Parents call him to scare their misbehaving children straight, threatening them that if they don't start behaving that Wrinkles will come and get them. What started as a guy finding something to do turned into a viral phenomenon after a video of him hiding under a little girl's bed. It takes off from there. He's become a hero to some, a villain to others, and gets compared to other viral legends like Slenderman.

I can't give too much away, but there's a twist to the story about two-thirds of the way through that adds a whole new dimension to the story, but at the same time does feel a bit like they may have been trolling the audience through the first part of the film, which while being part of the point, may still put some people off and likely result in some hate. At the same time, it was pretty clear that this was where it was going if you just do a little research.

It's not quite as in depth as some might like. There's some touches on the history of clowning, why we react to them the way we do, and some interviews with psychologists and other clowns critical of Wrinkles activity. There's also some short profiles of kids who are fans of Wrinkles. I think we might want to keep an eye on those kids. It gets deeper in the final third of the movie after the aforementioned twist, which causes the audience to turn a mirror on themselves and their preconceptions. It's actually a great look at how urban legends take off and inspire others in unexpected ways. Worth a watch.

As wrinkly as it is sloppy

[Mike_Devine · 3/10 · 2 August 2020]

In this day and age, clowns are clearly more feared than they are celebrated as goofy, harmless beings. In 'Wrinkles the Clown,' we're introduced to a creepy figure who parents can call on to scare their kids into behaving. A modern day folklore, of sorts.

While the concept is intriguing, 'Wrinkles' falls down on poor execution. Director Michael Beach Nichols is a relative newcomer, and it shows. The documentary is sloppily patched together, between spliced video footage of future "influencers" and awkward shots of our mystery clown. There's also a general lack of thrills. While this would typically not be a major problem, the documentary definitely tried to ride the cottails of the recent revived interest in clown horror and was marketed accordingly. What we're left with is a pathetic attempt at painting a picture of a troubled retiree who is just trying to enjoy the later years of his life. Instead there are a lot of questions raised - and left unanswered - with the intention being left to viewers to determine how those involved should be remembered - a cop-out in this case.

'Wrinkles the Clown' is a real letdown. Do not waste your time unless you want to feel nothing about it.

Boring

[zackarydaniels · 3/10 · 7 February 2020]

Entirely uninteresting. One of the worst documentaries I've ever watched.

What did I just watch?

[ksduffield · 1/10 · 29 February 2020]

I guess what they were trying to explain is the allure of the folklore of a creepy clown scaring children into submission and how it is fueled by the internet. But this film was a terrible portrayal of that concept. It didn't really get anywhere and was boring the entire time. They talk to kids who are somehow idolizing the creep, but the narrator is trying to compare it to like Bloody Mary and other things that are passed through lore and actually scare kids. Maybe their point would have better been made by talking to kids who were truly afraid. The one kid who talked about being too afraid to sleep still was emulating his behavior.

So. I don't get it. Save yourself and watch something else.

What was the point of this movie?

[reverendrazorback · 1/10 · 28 July 2020]

After excitement about an actual horror documentary about an actual fear of mine, after forcing myself to watch waiting for a scary moment, I was left an hour and a half later wondering what the point of the whole movie was.