The writer/ director of this film served 15 months in prison for giving oral sex to its lead: Nathan Forrest Winters (Casey). I knew this cause I remembered the uproar when "Powder" came out and never forgot the director's name: Victor Salva. It's kind of hard to separate the man’s actions from the man’s film but I’ll do my best.

Clownhouse works real good on one level: A clown standing in the shadows is scary. Salva knows this and milks it for all it's worth. If you have a fear of clowns, this flick will get to you (it got to me, clowns give me the brrr's). Where the film falters is that its payoffs are not as groovy as its setups. The fight scenes are clumsy (fake), the chase scenes sometimes finish in stupid ways (clown bumps head on low ceiling…where’s Macaulay Culkin?) and the kills are mostly implied. Here’s an example of the film bailing out on its promises: Throughout the whole film, the director teases us with a hangman’s noose outside the house. I was hoping that eventually it would be put to good use. Came close but no dice…what a let down. Maybe the fact that the film was made for TV has something to do with its watered down vibe but it definitely could’ve went further with its nasty side.

I also had trouble with the kids reactions to the situation. I must say they’re pretty chill about all of it even after they find out that they’re not alone in the house. More fear from them would have meant more fear from me. The scariest thing in the flick is that the director’s pedophilic tendencies come out a few times. How many shots of young boys in undies, bulging all over the place do we need (none in my book)? We get lots of "boy fondling" shots and they nauseated me. 

On a positive note, Salva glazes over themes that fascinate me such as our fears and our fate to meet them. Notice how every time there’s a clown behind young Winters he feels an itch in his neck or funny how the puppet he wins at the carnival is a clown. I’m a sucker for that destiny shite and I ate it up. I also like the way Salva handled the killers before they put on the clown get up. We hardly see them (he sticks to shots of eyes and mouth) so when they do become clowns we hardly know them otherwise. It makes the clown posse so much scarier.

The release of "Powder" prompted the sexual molestation victim, Nathan Winters (20 at the time), to go public with his ordeal and to protest Disney's employment of filmmaker Victor Salva, (37 at the time). Winters and five friends picketed outside the industry screening of "Powder", handing out leaflets about Salva to hundreds of grim-faced Hollywood executives leaving the theater.