Season 3 Episode 24 The Horror Pod Class: Gags the Clown and Cosmic Horror
Welcome to the Junior Year Episode 23 of the Horror Pod Class. My name is Tyler, and I am the editor in chief of Signal Horizon a company dedicated to exploring horror in and out of the classroom. When I am not managing signal horizon I am a teacher at a local hs here in KC Missouri. Tonight I am joined by my cohost and monster ambassador here at SH, award-winning writer Orrin Grey.
Tonight we are going to talk about what we have been watching and reading, discuss some free content on the internet and finally conclude with an indepth discussion of the movie Gags the Clown.
Still in quarantine Orrin. I have started to eat my earlobs, not because we ran out of food but because its something different to do. Its the boredom man. What have you been watching or reading to pass your time.
Orrin: The Howling 3 https://www.amazon.com/Howling-III-Barry-Otto/dp/B07KPMPKVZ/
Tyler: Antrum.
Dark Corners of the web.-New Brian Evenson
Memento Mori’s
Essential question: What can Gags the Clown teach us about the concept of Cosmic Horror
Gags the Clown
RT Summary: A small city in Wisconsin is terrorized by a mysterious clown who roams the streets late at night with nothing more than a handful of black balloons. The local news stations scramble to break the story on who he is and what he wants while a group of high schoolers see the clown’s arrival as an excuse to create a little trouble themselves. The police try to maintain order in a city that has gone clown crazy and a conservative podcast host vows to put a stop to the clown known as Gags while broadcasting his “clown hunt” on social media for the world to see.
Two Types of Cosmic Horror
The Sublime
The Hopeless
The Difference Between Cosmic Horror of the Sublime and Dread.
AAU
Aside from the annoying, stereotypical, and completely false portrayal of Conservatives as nutjobs who “lynch gay people and bomb abortion clinics,” the film is way too focused on being funny. First of all, the only gay people being lynched are by Muslims in the Middle East, and I can’t remember the last time an abortion clinic was bombed (May 31st 2009 editors note). Way to alienate half of your audience who loves Horror, too. Secondly, this trend where all modern Horror movies have to be funny needs to die a slow, painful death. GAGS is yet another shining example of this. It clearly wants to be scary, but then it goes over the top in the comedic relief department and completely deflates any tension it had built (which wasn’t much to begin with).The jokes weren’t particularly funny and the characters weren’t particularly likeable, so whenever they tried to lighten the mood it just took me out of the film even more. Hopefully, one day, we can stop trying to make Horror movies funny and woke, and start making them scary, smart, and compelling again. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.
Tyler has been the editor in chief of Signal Horizon since its conception. He is also the Director of Monsters 101 at Truman State University a class that pairs horror movie criticism with survival skills to help middle and high school students learn critical thinking. When he is not watching, teaching or thinking about horror he is the Director of Debate and Forensics at a high school in Kansas City, Missouri.