Out of the Dark (1989)

First of all, this post might contain spoilers. I'll try to avoid making spoilers at all cost.First time I've seen "Out of the Dark" when I was little I know I was scared of it. Even now I don't like clowns thanks to Clownhouse, Out of the Dark, IT, Funhouse and Killer clowns from outer space...Out of the Darks starts really promising but it fails at the last 15-20 minutes of the movie. Sadly, it could have been much better movie if ending wasn't that poor. First hour movie is gonna keep you on the edge of the seat while you see beautiful girls being stalked by psychotic killer clown. I absolutely love slasher movies with clowns, and I found this one among average ones (is it just me or most of the killer clown movies suck?). Killer in this movie looks pretty creepy, but at some moments he might not be that cool when he starts commenting his murders ("Don't call me, I'll call you. " being one of worst lines I've heard from a slasher). Directing is not an original nor there are some special or new camera angles, but it's not bad. It's actually good for a low budget B picture. Same goes for acting.Bottom line: Not very gory, not really a horror movie. It's more of a thriller\mystery\who did it\scooby doo mixed with some horror elements (having too graphical death scenes for a thriller). Two thirds of the movie are excellent, last third of the movie is bad. If you can stand movies with bad ending you'll have no problems watching this. If not, you can always give it a shot since this movie is one of the better killer clown movies and it's worth watching for it's first 60 minutes of the movie.

Someone calling himself Bobo makes short creepy calls to a "phone fantasy" line. One of the women working there walks home alone through a park, and encounters a man wearing a slightly over-sized clown head mask. She doesn't make the connection to the called named Bobo, for some reason. They play mimed baseball together, and then he kills her with the baseball bat saying "you're out!"A wisecracking killer clown is stalking the women of the phone sex line. How original (sarcasm).Police suspicion falls on Kevin - the boyfriend of one of the phone sex workers. He is also in charge of photographing the other women, and he had worked for the estranged husband of the operator of the phone sex company. There are a number of other suspects for the audience, including ones played by character actors Bud Cort and Geoffrey Lewis (the estranged husband) but he's really the only one the police pursue. There are a lot of other character actors in the movie like a detective played by Tracey Walter, and a gratuitous Tab Hunter cameo.More of the women from the company are killed. There's some gratuitous nudity, though relatively little overall. One scene is a slow-motion photoshoot with a smoke machine and colored lights, set to instrumental music, like a bad 80s music video. Lame. Some of the murders are not particularly graphic, though there are some scenes featuring some blood.There are some rather stupid scenes, like the fact the characters twice enter Bud Cort's office just after he has left, twice bump the lights, and twice the blinking lights are noticed by Cort. At another point, a character has an alibi for a murder (though it is one he'd used before), but inexplicably rushes away blowing the alibi, only to be caught shortly thereafter. You'd expect for a character to have a good motivation to blow an alibi, but this one doesn't.Actor Divine shows up towards the end as a male (!) police detective who'd been mentioned a few times throughout the film. The film itself is dedicated to his memory.The ending of the movie is practically stolen right out of John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), though I think it's safe to say at this point there won't be a sequel for Out of the Dark. If anything, a prequel, not a sequel, was hinted at by brief mentions of murders the clown committed while working for the circus prior to the events of this movie.

For a grade-B slasher, this isn't too awful. Tone down the forced nudity and dopey killer and they could've had something even better. As it is a clown-masked nut is dispatching the hot chicks of a phone se....uh, phone *fantasy* hotline. The mystery aspect is very well executed, which is why I say this could've been a lot more if they went for realism. Instead it's a giddy killer, Freddy Kruegering his way through some routine murders. "Don't call me, I'll call you!" he groans after strangling one of the girls. Then all of a sudden the director goes for nasty gore when a hooker is dismantled and left in a bloody bathtub. The cast is really above par (the girls are gorgeous), with some unknowns turning in good performances, along with veteran journeymen (and women) such as Black, Owens, Cort, and in his one big part I've ever seen, Tracey Walter. Long ago infamous crossdresser Divine even shows up for a scene. And Paul Bartel (who ex. prod.), too! Danielson and Dye carry the film well, and have maybe the most steamy sex scene I've ever watched (even moreso than say, "Fatal Attraction"). The ending provides a good shock and makes this not totally useless. So if you can find it, give it a shot. "It's time for Bobo!"

Lively thriller about a clown who stalks the beautiful ladies of an L.A. sex hotline that has a keen eye for the visual and a macabre performance from Cort, whom many may suspect as the killer...but...you must dig deeper to find the answer to that one.