I didn’t go into The Curse of the Clown Motel expecting it to be good. What was interesting to me was the location. The Clown Motel is a real place in Tonopah, Nevada. The idea of a horror movie set in this bizarre and fascinating location was honestly too interesting to ignore.  The great thing for me is, I don’t need a movie to be good to enjoy it. For me, The Curse of the Clown Motel should have had plenty to offer.

• Directed by: Asif Akbar. Lance Kawas
• Written by: Christopher Malone. Alexander Nistratov. James Tamburino
• Starring: Randy Couture. Romeo Miller. Tobin Bell

The Plot

Like Deer Camp ‘86, an indie film I very much enjoyed, Clown Motel is trying to tackle big issues regarding the treatment of indigenous people, both historically and presently.  The movie starts with Alma, the descendant of a tribe that was massacred to make way for a railroad, looking for proof of her ancestors.  Tobin Bell plays the current owner of the motel, who has nothing to gain by helping her turn the land into a historical site.  He’s ok in this, which is probably the only good thing I can say.

It’s an area-appropriate story and there are some good elements within in. Alma’s grandmother, Kaku, has some 100% valid points about the U.S. government.  More importantly, she’s right about the displacement that will happen to the people living at the motel if Alma’s plan to turn the location into a registered historical memorial is successful. Alma doesn’t listen because she is young and idealistic.

After this one scene the themes and issues are handled with the subtly and sophistication of the decor found around their famous location. If you are looking for a movie that addresses the treatment of native tribes in a thoughtful manner, maybe skip this.

So, the script isn’t great. It’s slow and completely unscary. Unless of course, you don’t like clowns. Alma is so aggressively trying to “do the right thing” that she’s kind of unsympathetic. She also pronounces “unscrupulous” wrong, which tells you a lot about the production.

Location is Everything

The best part of Curse of the Clown Motel is the location. It’s weird and off-putting as is. So why would you not do more with that?  Even if this script was better, it’s a gross misuse of a fantastic setting.  

Why would you not do something with a cult of crazy clown killers, or literally anything else more closely tied to the cultivated insanity of the motel? Showcase more of the intricately decorated rooms and give us more of a reason to come see the real-life building. I’ve seen some documentary features on The World-Famous Clown Motel. It is far more interesting and far scarier than this horror movie makes it look. 

I never thought I’d list “not enough time with clowns” as a flaw in a movie, but here we are. We spend time with some bankers who are clearly just here to raise the body count, especially after a lecture about unethical lending.   It’s not until there’s thirty minutes left in the movie before things actually start happening. 

When Something Happens It’s Still Nothing

When we do finally get some kills, they don’t look great. There is a lot of CG blood that, for some reason, splashes on the camera lens. I have a mild issue with one of the kills: it’s a scalping done by a spirit from a tribe in Nevada.  While there isn’t hard evidence that tribes from Nevada did not engage in this practice, there is far more evidence that it was done elsewhere. The inclusion of it here seems to trade on the kind of stereotype that a movie about reclaiming heritage might seek to avoid. Of course, the same thing could be said about multiple plot and design elements here. Nitpicking about this kind of thing, in this kind of movie, is probably a waste of time. 

In the end, none of the mythology they tried to build makes much sense. There are a lot of “why did that work?” moments.  It is a truly unsatisfying ending to a missed opportunity of a movie. 

Final Thoughts. 

If you make a movie in the Clown Motel, I damn well better see killer clowns. 

You could watch Curse of Clown Motel on streaming but there are YouTube tours of the properties that are much more unsettling. Like this one