Five disparate youths, lost on a road trip to the location of the infamous ‘mangrove slasher,’ end up being pursued by a cadre of cannibal clowns.

There are cannibalistic, cocaine-snorting, killer-clown, carnies on the loose in Gravitas Ventures’ horror film Big Top Evil (2019). It is a ‘crazies vs a group of friends’ slasher movie that is reminiscent of House of a Thousand Corpses (2003) at times, written by Sean Haitz and John Morrisey and directed by Sean Haitz and Chris Potter. If you love clowns (or if you have a fear of clowns but are a masochist), Big Top Evil is rolling into town for you.

Big Top Evil follows a group of friends – uber dork Donny (Morgan Ferreira), spoiled Veronica (Chanté Demoustes), newbie Casey (Jisaura Cardinale), jokester Scott (Cameron Hall), Jay (Sean Haitz), Kate (Grace Haitz), and Trevor (Chris Potter). They have set out on a road trip to Mangrove County where there is an urban legend of a giant madman having once slaughtered a bunch of partying teens. Finding themselves lost along the way, they stop for directions at a convenience store and meet a beautiful girl named Candy (Austin Judd) who convinces them to spend the night at the town motel as well as visit the circus that she works at. Little do they know, this circus is run by a psychotic ringmaster, named Mr. Kharver (Bill Moseley), who kidnaps people for sale and who employs a hoard of cannibalistic clowns. The friends find themselves within the grasps of these crazy carnies and only have themselves, as well as a trio of roaming bandits, to help them survive the night. Years later, the lone survivor is pinned as the murderer of the group and recounts this horrifying night to a cold case attorney who believes that she can help.

Though it may be self-aware that it is a bad B horror movie, the acting still seems too over the top, the dialogue cliché, and it lacks consistency in its plot which seems like a mashup of two films with its warring groups of characters. It is totally possible to make an amazing “low-quality” movie, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a B movie turned cult classic because it is an all-around amazing movie, yet Big Top Evil leans into its low-quality and rests on that rather than opting for coherence or establishing a palpable horror atmosphere. This movie has a distinct grindhouse feel, throwing Steadicam to the wind in favor of up close and personal shakey shots. Where Big Top Evil does have some saving grace is in a few of its memorable scenes and gritty gore shots, and also in its musical score.

Though most of the film is poorly acted, I would rather believe that this is on purpose, playing into the B movie-ness of the film; in that case, the cast did a great job at their bad acting. The cast is comprised of a lot of crazy carnies/townies, 3 trigger-happy criminals, and a group of six friends, but the film mainly stars horror classic legend Bill Moseley (Repo! The Genetic Opera), J. LaRose (Saw III), scene-stealer and Baby Firefly-impersonator Austin Judd, and the endearing Jisaura Cardinale, with co-writer/co-director Sean Haitz (Mangrove Slasher 2) appearing as Jay. The trio of roaming bandits were great and had the best lines, Bill Moseley as the evil ringmaster was more of a cameo and totally wasted, and furthermore, the group of friends are carbon copies of each other, and since their deaths are swift and uneventful they are easily forgettable. The best part of this movie is when these 3 worlds collide and the clown leader yells “Release the clown hoard”! The last 30 minutes is hilarious and has some cool kill shots, and though the preceding acts are so-so the last bit is so entertaining that it almost makes Big Top Evil worth a watch just for those parts.

If you like bad movies, Big Top Evil is just the ticket to meet all of your big-time low expectations. It’s a little late to the Rob Zombie knockoff wave, but with the resurgence of IT and Joker, and of course, 3 From Hell (2019), Big Top Evil might have some relevance. As it points out within its own dialogue, “It’s like a bad B horror movie” but this indie film has charm in laughing at itself and does honestly have a lot of humor — it’s basically a horror-comedy with lots of gore, and I ain’t too mad at it thanks to its 3rd act of an insance clown posse. Big Top Evil was released late August and can be found on VOD and DVD.