Circus Kane

It's a bad-in-a-good-way movie. Acting isn't terrible in that its consistent, and who really cares about the characters. You get a bit of backstory with each one - not a lot of detail but just enough - and that is the important bit because with these kind of movies who cares. You know why their lives suck in five minutes or less - why they are willing to go for the random 'you're invited to spend the night in the haunted house for cash' trope thing. There is a decent amount of gore, desperation, a bit of humour, and a decent ending. So grab a couple cans and be entertained for an hour and half.

"Circus Kane", not to be confused with "Citizen Kane" (joking; of course), is a mundane and derivative piece of slasher/clown-horror, but it nevertheless features a number of effective gross moments and creepy set-pieces, as well as one genuinely nasty clown and an eerie jester. At least that's more than what I saw in many other recently released and lousy horror movies revolving around clowns ("Clowntergeist", "Clown Town", ...).

Like several fellow reviewers righteously pointed out already, the makers of this film have an unhealthy obsession with the style and persona of Rob Zombie. The lead villain Balthasar Kane, as depicted by Tim Abell, even bears a strong physical resemblance to Zombie, especially during his Hellbilly Deluxe period. The plot of "Circus Kane" also feels somewhat like a crossover between "House of 1,000 Corpses" and the more recent "Escape Room" thrillers. A bunch of annoying and disposable persons, horror cinema influencers of some sort in this case, must escape from the titular circus (which is actually a house) in order to win $250.000, but naturally the whole place is one giant death trap with swinging pendulums, barb-wired labyrinths, and axe-wielding clowns.

Everything about "Circus Kane" is predictable, and the characters are hopelessly dumb (they deliberately run into barbwire, for crying out loud!), but admittedly the sequences inside the house are quite atmospheric and the make-up effects are deliciously gory. The flashback sequences and Kane's endless monologues, on the other hand, are extremely boring. All his screen time should have been replaced with extra footage starring the clown, the jester, and the doorman who looks a lot like Angus Scrimm from "Phanstasm". The "twist" - if you can even call it that - at the end is lame, and won't surprise anyone who ever watched a horror movie before.

PS: I just learned, via this website - of course, that the director Christopher Ray is the son of the infamous 80s/90s low-budget trash director Fred Olen Ray. This surely explains why one of the characters wears a "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers" shirt, and it is further proof of a well-known expression involving a tree and an apple.

Saw 'Circus Kane' as someone with an appreciation for horror and who found the premise oddly interesting. Despite it not being a unique one and one that could have gone either way in execution, it sounded pretty decent and if done right could have made a guilty pleasure sort of film.

What 'Circus Kane' was instead was a very lame, if not irredeemable, film that did very little with its premise and its setting. The setting is the best thing about the film, to me also the only good thing, and is pretty creepy. Even that feels wasted, a shame because it was the one thing that was done pretty well and deserved better than what the rest of 'Circus Kane' turned out to be. Didn't get the sense as such that it didn't even try, other low-budget films seen recently have done a far worse job at that, but did get the sense that it didn't do what to do with itself.

The setting apart, 'Circus Kane' looks cheap. Photography was drab and the editing, while not incoherent as such, was sloppy. Faring worst were the special effects, their ineptitude and intelligence insulting cheapness being an assault on the senses.

'Circus Kane's' villain was not menacing or threatening, actually veering on the goofy side of things. In all fairness the material was cheesy and lacking in suspense, and the action was not disturbing, brutal or scary no matter how much gratuitous and cheap-looking gore or supposedly creepy but actually laughable imagery there was.

Its obvious and over-bearing sound really annoys and hinders the impact of any scares or suspense when they are telegraphed when being built up that they become predictable.

Script constantly sounds stilted and even cheesier than a large cheeseburger. The story is dull, lacking in any kind of atmosphere, tension or suspense and insults the intelligence by how ridiculous and confused it tends to be.

No better news about the characters or acting, the latter being one of the worst assets of 'Circus Kane'. The characters are bland and obnoxious, either or and in a few cases both, with truly dumb illogical decision making that makes them and even the viewer stupid and make one endear to them even less (and you don't even like them in the first place). The acting is a bad mix of over-compensating and disinterested. Jonathan Lipnicki with this film has fallen such a long way since his adorable child actor days.

Overall, very lame and does nothing with something that could have worked. 2/10 Bethany Cox

A Socialmedia stars are invided by a circus master to spend the night in his horror house and get a bunch of money for it. Just typical B-horror crap (Even though there a bunch of good B-movies out there.)

The character Kane tried to look and sound like Rob and his circus ring leader vibe. The story rips off the murder world vibe and last man standing plot of Zombies new movie "31" (which was his worst cinematic effort yet.) Even with this it could have at least been mildly entertaining but it flat out sucked. There was no attempt to thrill with cheap gore or jump scares. Nothing at all entertaining. Just a lot of standing around and listening to bad actors try and talk us to sleep. The dialogue sounded like it was from a third graders play. Whoever was responsible for the script certainly didn't do the non talented actors any favors. It was just a flop all around. Nothing positive to say about it at all. I give it three out of ten.