Christopher Ray

(In French, On Cable TV, October 2022) As far as core-genre horror movies go (those made for horror fans by horror fans, with all the baffling decisions that go with that), Circus Kane has the distinction of being sometimes good in-between much flatter material. It’s almost interesting that a film that lasts a mere 88 minutes can feature no less than three opening sequences before getting to the real meat of the events, as a group of social media influencers are invited to a mysterious house for some kind of contest. Anyone worth their horror-fan creds knows that heads will roll soon enough and indeed that’s where Circus Kane goes—a lurid series of deaths dwindling the number of participants. Coulrophobiacs won’t be pleased to note that most of the deaths are circus-themed, bringing a modicum of interest to an otherwise formulaic film: Killer clown, booby traps and deadly magic tricks are on the menu here, which works better in execution than on paper. Characters, dialogue and banter are not exceptional, but they’re good enough to be more interesting than the usual horror stuff. There’s no doubt that Circus Kane could have been much better—the production isn’t inspired, and it’s easy to point at the film’s choices to opine how it could have been executed more competently. Still, director Christopher Ray seems to have a grasp on the kind of film this is supposed to be. Expectations matter a lot in film reviews, and Circus Kane does a surprisingly good job at lowering them right before (slightly) exceeding them—and I’m not just writing this because the film features a movie blogger targeted for death.