Independent horror-comedy Clownspiracy, the latest feature from writer and director Marc Tarczali, will make its premiere on June 13 at Cinema Salem in Salem, Massachusetts.
Set during a contentious small-town election, Clownspiracy follows a high school outsider who begins investigating the sudden appearance of unsettling clowns spreading across town. As fear and suspicion mount, the teenager uncovers a mystery suggesting the clowns may be far more dangerous than they first appear.
The film stars Fox Varian, Ashlie Burgun, Maggie Tumiotto Jackson, Em Lubbers, and Ken Arquelio.
Produced by Elizabeth Aurora Petersen of Glitch TV alongside Murdock Production, Clownspiracy was completed with a remarkably small three-person crew over a six-month part-time production schedule. The project also devoted nearly a year to visual effects work with VFX artist M.P. Murdock, creating stylized CGI clown characters described as cartoon-like but demonic in nature.
Tarczali said the film was designed to channel the larger-than-life energy of genre films from the 1990s.
“I wanted to make something that felt like the movies I grew up renting at Blockbuster in the ‘90s — films like The Mask and Hocus Pocus — where everything felt larger than life, weird, fun, and immersive,” Tarczali said.
Rather than leaning into confined, minimalist storytelling, the filmmaker said the goal was to create an entertaining horror-comedy experience with a broader scope despite the production’s micro-budget origins.
