Monthly Archives: December 2024
Tea’s Weird Week: Send in the (Killer) Clowns (Again)
Back in October, I published a zine/e-book titled Political Monsters: How Presidents Influence Horror Movies. This explored an old theory which I expanded on. The Political Monsters Theory says that we get more vampire movies during Democratic Party administrations, more zombie flicks for Republican ones, with the monsters reflecting fears of the parties in power. After analyzing movie lists, I found this theory checked out for the most part. I also found an interesting new development– under Trump’s first administration, the MAGA Party had brought a new fear– there was a big spike in evil killer clown movies. When Biden won, vampire movies were back in. In particular, there were a wave of Dracula-inspired movies like Renfield, Abigail (inspired by Dracula’s Daughter), and The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
The graceful last act of the Biden-era vampires is the remake of Nosferatu, which crept into theaters on Christmas. The story, also based on Dracula, is a box office hit, which will certainly inspire more vampire productions. Dracula and company will always be retold. But with the MAGA Party clown car pulling up to the White House on January 20, expect vampires to take a coffin nap while we hear more evil giggling on the horizon.
As I mentioned in Political Monsters, this is probably the least of concerns about what will happen in the next Trump era. But weird pop culture/ social stuff is how I cope, so I’ll be following this trend by launching CLOWNWATCH 2025. Here are the first reports of evil clowns we’re expected to encounter on screen in 2025/26.
Terrifier 4. One of 2024’s biggest fails was killer clown movie Joker: Folie a Deux. Unlike the first Joker film, this sequel was a commercial and critical stinkbomb. Terrifier 3, on the other hand, was quite successful with a box office of $68 million, the highest grossing unrated film of all time. Director Damien Leone confirmed that a Terrifier 4 will happen, probably with a 2025 or 26 release date. Leone says this will be Art the Clown’s “final chapter,” but they said that about Freddy and Jason before resurrecting them again and again.
Welcome to Derry. Although the Political Monsters Theory examines movies and doesn’t consider TV shows, it’s maybe time to revise and reconsider this. We’re seeing movie-TV crossovers more frequently– the MCU shows, Dune: Prophecy, and The Penguin being a few recent examples of TV shows tied to a cinematic universe. A prequel series to It, Welcome to Derry will premiere on HBO with an unannounced 2025 date with Bill Skarsgård returning as Pennywise. The It movies (2017, 2019), by the way, were both released in the first Trump administration (as well as Terrifier, 2018, and Joker, 2019).
Clown in a Cornfield. This adaptation of an award-winning 2020 YA horror novel by Adam Cesare will be directed by Eli Craig (Tucker & Dale vs. Evil). The movie has a May 9, 2025 release date.
UPDATE, 01/16/2025: Unless we find info to the contrary, it appears that the first killer clown movie of Trump 2.0 is the simply named Clowns (d. Alexander Kane) with an April 1, 2025 release date.
IMDb: “CLOWNS is a tale of revenge of a filmmaker-turned-serial killer who hunts down and captures the key individuals in his life responsible for his downward spiral.”
And so it starts! I’ll continue to ride this balloon animal over the next four years. Murderous, buffoonish… we shall see how the clown car unpacks.
—
Political Monsters is available as a zine: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778576030/political-monsters-how-presidents
Or as an e-book: https://www.amazon.com/Political-Monsters-Presidents-Influence-Horror-ebook/dp/B0DFJ7DZKQ/ref=sr_1_1
Tea’s Weird Week: Favorite Words of 2024 (and where I wrote ’em)
Words! Some just feel better rolling off the tongue than others. I’ve been trying to keep track of some of my favorites over the last year. Here’s 12 I love (and by extension, some of the best articles I’ve written for various publications this year). I’m looking forward to more word usage in 2025. Happy New Year!
LANDLUBBERS: “Goth Barge has developed a following for their Dark Wave fueled boat cruises, but they do plenty of sets for landlubbers too.” —Madcap Milwaukee Calendar: Who Will You Ask to the Goth Prom?, Shepherd Express, Jan. 30.
LYNCHIAN: “If you want to make the experience even more immersive, show up ‘dressed in your Lynchian best’ to win a prize in the costume contest.” — Madcap Milwaukee Calendar: Furries and Motorcyclists Assemble; Music for Your Lynchian Lifestyle, Shepherd Express, Feb. 14
PENDING: “Pending approval, the statue will be placed in a corner of Elm Park they hope to rename Gygax Park and will feature a likeness of Gary Gyagx sitting at the head of a table, where visitors can sit down and join him for a game.”– Dungeons & Dragons All Started In This Tiny Wisconsin Town, Atlas Obscura, March 28
CAPRINE VINYASA: “Share your yoga mat with a baby dwarf goat in a session of “caprine vinyasa,” or goat yoga, a trend that dates back to an Oregon farm in 2016.” — Madcap Milwaukee Calendar: Buffy Prom is Ready to Slay, Shepherd Express, May 8.
GOTHABILLIES: “These sour goths don’t like looking out their window to see their moonlit lawn filled with cybergoths, dark wavers, deathrockers, gothabillies, and other new-fangled creatures of the night.”–I’m on a goth boat: All aboard Milwaukee’s Goth Barge, Milwaukee Record, June 4. Please Clap Dept.: This article was included on the “25 favorite Milwaukee Record stories of 2024 list.”
TERRAZZO: “Waitstaff zipped across the hall’s terrazzo floor, delivering plates of fried cod and perch to the maze of tables, each decorated with a centerpiece vase featuring minature American and Serbian flags and colored carnations nestled amongst the condiments.”– Generations of Politicians Have Passed Through Serb Hall, Milwaukee Magazine, July 2024
CLACK: “With both parties satisfied with the deal, Dul sits at his Olympia SG-1 typewriter, and with a clack clack clack he types the customer a receipt, turning a crank to pull it free from the platen (the roller that holds the paper).”– Gen Z is into typewriters, Chicago Reader, Sept. 19
CLOWNADO: “The success of those movies led to a score of low budget entries like Killer Clowns: Unleashed (2016), Crispy’s Curse (2017), Clowntergeist (2017), Clown Motel: Spirits Arise (2018), and a film title that perhaps sums up the Trump administration in a single word: Clownado (2019).”– Political Monsters: How Presidents Influence Horror Movies, zine/e-book, October 2024
BLOWHOLE: “The band’s logo, a mohawked humpback whale in a leather jacket (with an enormous safety pin piercing the noble animal’s blowhole) breaching the water while defiantly raising a flipper, was a common sight on the streets, plastered everywhere on flyers and stickers slapped on dumpsters and electrical boxes.”– The Terrible Curse of the Humpbacks, Riverwest Radio Ghost Walk booklet, October 2024. Please Clap Dept.: Illustrator Ashley Altadonna captured what I thought this logo might look like exactly:
SCHTICK: “I sell a drink, put the money in the register; at the end of the night, I count the money – immediate gratification,” Guenther says. “I make a new customer, I tell a joke, people laugh, and that’s my schtick.”– A Short Guide to Milwaukee’s Dive Bars, Milwaukee Magazine, October 2024
HODAG-GREEN: “Then, in 2018, he went all in, giving the exterior of the shop a Hodag-green coat of paint and rebranding as The Hodag Store.”– Do You Know the Legend of the Rhinelander Hodag? Milwaukee Magazine, October 2024
KRAMPUSSCHLAP: “Krampuschlap,” a game where people slap each other as hard as they can, is revealed to be “the favorite game of Krampusnacht” in the action comedy Red One. At Milwaukee Krampusnacht, we partnered with Best Place on a “Krampusschlap” drink special (cider and Fireball) and set up a photo opp so people could pretend they were being slapped by a Krampus hand. —Milwaukee Krampusnacht website and social media promotions
teakrulos.com 