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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.
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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
TWW: 4 More Years…of Vampires or Killer Clowns?
Political Monsters Week Continues
To conclude my posts about the Political Monsters project, I want to do some monster-casting to the future. During election years, we’re bombarded by both campaigns via emails, texts, junk mail, billboards, TV and internet ads– everywhere we look.
My zine/e-book Political Monsters talks about how we get more zombie movies during Republican administrations and more vampire movies during Democratic ones– the exception being Trump, who launched a rise in killer clown themed movies. In this last year or so we’ve seen lots of vampire movies, particularly Dracula inspired ones– The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, Nosferatu. But with Trump on the periphery, there’s also been a bump in killer clown movies– Joker 2, Terrifier 3. I think if Trump is elected, the chaotic candidate will bring in another wave of evil clown movies.
But what about Kamala Harris? She would be unique in becoming the first woman president. But she’s deeply associated with the Democratic Party as Biden’s VP, unlike Trump’s unhinged splinter MAGA Party. I think Harris would continue the trend of vampire movies as seen during Biden’s term. If anything, there’s be more lady vampire movies along the lines of what we saw in this year’s film Abigail (loosely inspired by the horrror classic Dracula’s Daughter).
As I note in the Political Monsters zine, the fate of the world will hinge on the election in a couple weeks on November 5. Significantly less frightening, it may determine the amount of vampires vs evil clowns we see on the silver screen.
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You can get a copy of Political Monsters…
In person: Saturday, Oct. 19: Milwaukee Paranormal Conference, I’ll be on the vendor floor 10am-5pm at the Irish Cultural & Heritage Center. Register for a free ticket here: milwaukeeparacon.com
Sunday, Oct. 20: Political Monsters Party at Lion’s Tooth, 3-5pm. Admission is free. I’ll talk briefly about the project, we’ll do a round of horror trivia, and if you dress like a zombie, vampire, or killer clown, you get a free copy of the Political Monsters zine!
You can also buy copies at Lion’s Tooth here in Milwaukee and Quimby’s in Chicago. You can order a print copy via the QWERTYFEST MKE Etsy page: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778576030/political-monsters-how-presidents
And an e-book version is available through Kindle/KU: https://www.amazon.com/Political-Monsters-Presidents-Influence-Horror-ebook/dp/B0DFJ7DZKQ/ref=sr_1_1
Tea’s Weird Week: I Love Those Old Monster Movies
I got the idea for this week’s column from the Vice Presidential debate. One of the star performances was not from Mike Pence or Kamala Harris, but the housefly that landed and sat on Pence’s head. I got some much needed laughs when I looked to social media and found that my feeds had been filled with fly memes. I saw a few people posting references to David Cronenberg’s 1986 film The Fly (starring Jeff Goldblum) but I thought I would join in by sharing an image from one of my favorites, the classic 1958 Fly, which featured the great Vincent Price in the cast.
This classic film and others from this era have a dear place in my heart, because I grew up on them. You see, my parents were very strict about what I could watch as a kid. I was their firstborn, they were very religous and they wanted to protect me from a 1980s world gone made, from things controversial or provocative, from hearing words like “fucknut” or seeing sex parts. My options were limited, mostly to cinema pre-1970, give or take, or Disney films.
As such, as other kids were developing screen idols in 80s celebrities, mine were the likes of Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney, Basil Rathbone, Vincent Price, and all of their creepy peers.
My favorites were the classic Universal stuff like Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and The Wolfman, Godzilla movies, and other classic monster and sci-fi like The Blob, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and many more. If it’s black and white and features monsters, aliens, ghosts, etc., chances are I’ve seen it.
In addition to horror and sci-fi, I also watched a lot of old comedy (the Marx Brothers, Abbot and Costello) and mystery and noir (I especially liked Humphrey Bogart and anything by Hitchcock). At the time it was somewhat frustrating because on the playground, the guys would tell me how they had witnessed actual exposed boobs in movies like Porky’s or had seen someone cut in half with a chainsaw in a Friday the 13th movie and I’d be like…uh, yeah but have you dudes seen King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)?
My parents were strict even about seeing PG movies when I was younger. If I really wanted to see a movie, like say, Ghostbusters, or Gremlins, and lobbied them succesfully, I would wait until it was out on video, they would watch it by themselves, then the next night I could watch it with them but they would fast-forward through scenes with swear words of anything suggestive.
That means I wouldn’t get lines like “yes sir, it’s true. This man has no dick,” from Ghostbusters until years later, when I re-watched with friends.
Looking back on it, I’m glad though– I feel like I probably got at least a couple of college film history classes in before I even turned 14. And to me, Halloween will always mean old black and white monster movies. What’s your favorite classic horror/sci-fi? Share in the comments!
You can buy my book American Madness from Lion’s Tooth, Quimby’s, Bookshop.org and wherever books are sold. I had the great pleasure this week to talk about the book with Quimby’s Bookstore. We had fun talking about the book and played some conspiracy trivia–see how well you would have fared! You can catch it here:
And just in time for Halloween, you can get signed copies of my book Wisconsin Legends & Lore from the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference Square shop: https://milwaukee-para-con.square.site/product/wisconsin-legends-lore-by-tea-krulos-signed-and-inscribed-/44?cs=true
teakrulos.com 