Incredibly fun and enjoyable effort

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2017)

Living in small-town Maine, a group of misfit friends finds that the local legends and myths about a demonic clown that terrorizes the community has haunted the town in the past and returned to target them, bringing the group together with their shared bond to fight the being off.
This one ended up being quite the impressive effort. One of the major selling points for this one is the fact that there's such an extreme amount of influence here to show the threat the title villain really musters. By constantly being a force within the storyline as everyone essentially encounters the being, there's plenty of buildup here to his threat which is quite important in making him out to be a figure to be reckoned with. His constant freak appearances, from the library-room encounter to the appearance in the meat-store and off in the underground sewer where the zombie-like previous victims appear to help ease the attack in all combine into helping set-up the threat he represents. The fact that they tie into the backstory of the town itself, from the numerous murders and disappearances to the way he's become a figure of myth and legend for the accidents he causes that help to spur this on even further as well as is physical appearance being such a terrifying being. The make-up and overall design is perfectly chilling to make him feel like a malevolent figure that is perfectly capable of committing the atrocities they bring up about him. He comes off as someone at the center of the big exploits within here, from the encounter in the bathroom with all the blood erupting from the sink to the terrifying scene in the garage where it appears out from the projection while the showstopping scene of them fighting him off inside the abandoned shack gives this plenty of utterly fantastic action while having it take place inside the shack has an atmosphere that has a lot to like overall here in keeping with the brutal action inflicted upon kids. Although not as immediately terrifying, the final battle underground does make for a solid and truly fun battle with the clown as the group continually tries to get the upper-hand with their limited knowledge of what's going on as well as utilizing their friendship bond to solid effect throughout the battle. As well, the big facet that works well here is the idea that kids are explicitly and deliberately the target here with plenty of fine graphic action committed against them which manages to add an extra dose of terror and fear to the main villain. Coupled with their stellar bond together that develops throughout here, thone emerges as a rather fine genre piece overall. About the only real flaw to be found here is a sense of hammering home way too many useless and unnecessary points in the final half about their terrible home-life, from his influence on the town to the abusive home-life she has to live with and them simply gaining in numbers merely because it's convenient. This does grow tiresome at points, but it's still not enough to really lower this that much.
Rated R: Extreme Graphic Language from underage individuals, Graphic Violence against children, continuous notions of children-in-jeopardy and themes of child abuse.