Killjoy (2000 Film)

''Killjoy'' is a 2000 American fantasy slasher film directed by Craig Ross, starring Ángel Vargas. It follows a young man who's murdered and seeks revenge through a killer demon clown named Killjoy. It is the first entry in the ''Killjoy'' franchise.

Plot

Nerdy high school student Michael asks fellow classmate Jada to go to the homecoming dance with him. Despite Michael's unrequited feelings for her, Jada considers Michael as a friend, and politely rejects him, reminding him that she has a boyfriend, a gangster who has warned Michael off numerous times in the past. Jada's boyfriend Lorenzo arrives to pick the girls up, along with his gangster buddies T-Bone and Baby Boy. They see Michael talking to Jada, and beat Michael up before driving away, all the while a homeless man in a nearby alley watches silently.

That night, Michael brandishes a knife as he uses black magic encircled by candles on a clown doll to bring forth a demon of vengeance known as Killjoy, but seemingly, it does not work. Lorenzo, T-Bone, and Baby Boy abduct Michael outside his house and bring him to a secluded area where they "accidentally" shoot him. They leave his body.

One year later, Lorenzo is at a rundown apartment partying with T-Bone and Baby Boy and leaves to meet Kahara, his new girlfriend. T-Bone and Baby Boy go to get ice cream from an ice cream truck parked outside, where the clown operating the truck claims to sell drugs. Inviting them inside, the clown teleports them to his lair, an abandoned warehouse. Baby Boy is pinned to the wall by the speeding ice cream truck, killing him. T-Bone finds a lit blunt and smokes it, causing him to light and inhale himself, bursting into flames as his body disintegrates. The battered and burned corpses of T-Bone and Baby Boy are then teleported back to their rundown apartment.

Meanwhile, at Kahara's apartment, Lorenzo investigates a noise at the door and sees a clown running away in the distance. He finds the ice cream truck parked outside the apartment building, and the clown pulls him inside and teleports him to his warehouse lair. He shoots the clown over a dozen times, but the clown absorbs the bullets into his body and shoots them out of his mouth, killing Lorenzo. Kahara exits the apartment looking for Lorenzo, finding his body inside the ice cream truck before the clown scares her away.

Meanwhile, Jada has just developed romantic feelings for classmate Jamal, while simultaneously dealing with her feelings for Lorenzo and Michael, especially with the knowledge that Lorenzo was responsible for Michael's death. After eventually sleeping together, Jada is paged by Monique. Jada calls Monique, who tells her to come to her place quick. Jamal accompanies Jada to Monique's apartment. Once there, they find Monique with the homeless man from one year prior, who broke into Monique's apartment earlier that night while she was sleeping.

The homeless man has them all hold hands in a circle, allowing a telepathic link to visualize for them as he explains to the trio about Lorenzo and his friends‘ fate by the hands of Killjoy. Killjoy was brought to life by Michael's desire for revenge one year prior, but his appearance was delayed due to Michael's death. The homeless man tells them that only Jada, the clown's true love, can destroy the evil in its heart. Before leaving, he tells them that they have to destroy the doll, and that the ice cream truck is conveniently parked outside for them to enter and confront the clown in its own lair. He then vanishes in front of them.

Reluctantly, the trio step outside the apartment building, and into the ice cream truck. They are teleported into the clown's warehouse lair, where they are attacked by the clown. They are chased into a room where they are attacked by the clown's new undead accomplices: Lorenzo, Baby Boy, and T-Bone. Jamal manages to kill Lorenzo as Baby Boy knocks Monique down to the ground. Jada manages to kills T-Bone, and Jamal kills Baby Boy. The clown enters the room brandishing Michael's knife, where he is disarmed by Jamal and Monique, dropping the knife to the ground. Jada picks up the knife as the clown knocks Jamal and Monique out.

The clown approaches Jada, and asks for a kiss, which she agrees to, under one condition: that he will leave her world and never come back. But instead of disappearing like they agreed upon, the clown turns into Michael. It's revealed that the clown wasn't the demon Killjoy committing the murders on the deceased Michael's behalf, but rather the resurrected body of Michael himself committing the murders with Killjoy's appearance and powers. The clown and Michael are one and the same; Jada and her friends are in Michael's warehouse lair, not Killjoy's. Michael tells Jada that he did it all for her. Jada stabs Michael repeatedly in the heart, and he fades away.

Jamal and Monique regain consciousness, and the trio exit the warehouse, preparing to enter the ice cream truck again, hoping to be teleported back to their world. Lorenzo, T-Bone, Baby Boy and the clown reappear behind them, as the trio realize they still have to kill the doll. The clown taunts that he can't die in his own world as the trio frantically run back into the ice cream truck with the clown and his undead accomplices on their tail.

The ice cream truck teleports the trio into Michael's room with the clown doll on the floor, encircled by candles. The doll transforms into Michael, who constantly begs her for forgiveness and to not kill him, but Jada stabs him in the heart with his own knife one final time, destroying the doll, and putting an end to Michael's revenge. This causes the earth to shake, as the trio struggle to remain in the circle of candles. A portal opens at the warehouse lair, sucking the undead gangsters’ bodies away. The trio hold hands in a circle again, and they telepathically watch as the real Killjoy appears, taunts Michael for failing to succeed, and vaporizes Michael into nothing for good. The group is then teleported back to Jamal's apartment, where the homeless man thanks them and vanishes again.

Sometime later, the trio are out at a club, where they are approached by Ray Jackson and his girlfriend Tamara, both from Jada's English class. Ray says that he gained free access to the club because his brother owns the place. Raymond says his brother's name is Killjoy, begins to laugh maniacally, and transforms into the clown, while Tamara transforms into Lorenzo.

Jada screams at the reappearance of the two men of her past that she has been struggling to emotionally move on from for over a year when she finally wakes up from this nightmare next to Jamal. Jamal tries to comfort her by seductively going under the covers, but when he pops back out from under them, he is now the clown as Jada screams. The films cuts to black, ending on the note that Jada will be struggling to move on from the clown and Lorenzo for a while.

Cast

* Ángel Vargas as Killjoy The Demonic Clown
* Vera Yell as Jada
* Lee Marks as Jamal
* D. Austin as Monique
* Jamal Grimes as Michael
* William L. Johnson as Lorenzo
* Corey Hampton as "T-Bone"
* Rani Goulant as "Baby Boy"
* Napiera Groves as Kahara
* Arthur Burghardt as Homeless Man
* Penny Ford as Singer
* Carl Washington as Ray Jackson
* Dionne Rochelle as Tamara

Production

''Killjoy'' was filmed in Los Angeles on a estimated budget of $150,000. Indoor scenes were primarily filmed at the Lacy Street Production Center, with various locations around the city used for outdoor scenes. Killjoy’s appearance was achieved using plastic prosthetics that took around four to five hours to apply to Angel Vargas’s face, with additional touch-ups later in the filming day to maintain continuity.

''Killjoy'' was director Craig Ross Jr.'s second film after ''Cappuccino'' in 1998. He was given the film by Charles Band after repeatedly writing to Full Moon asking to be involved in any of their projects.

Release

The film was first released on DVD and VHS by Full Moon Home Video in November 2000, then again in 2001. It was also released by Film 2000 on March 12, 2001, on DVD. In 2005 it was included in a 4-DVD Collection titled Casket of Death and featuring 4 Full Moon films: ''The Horrible Doctor Bones'', '' Witchouse'', ''Killjoy'', and ''Vampire Journals''. Then between 2012 and 2017, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment included the film (sometimes with its first two sequels) in at least 10 film collections, either being included with other B-Movie psycho killers or other Full Moon properties. For example, on August 7, 2012, the ''Killjoy'' trilogy was paired with the ''Scarecrow'' trilogy and then on November 6, 2012, paired with 9 of the ''Puppet Master'' films in a 12-film collection. The distributor rereleased the collection in 2017.

Reception

Reception to the film has been generally mixed. ''HorrorNews.net'' gave the film a mixed review, criticizing the film's low-budget set location as "less than desired", and the effectiveness of the title villain, stating: "while somewhat effective as a reoccurring lesser horror icon-style entity, does in fact come across as poor man’s ''Wishmaster''", although asserting that fans of low-budget horror films will likely find it enjoyable.

Chris Summerfield from ''Scared Stiff Reviews.com'' awarded the film a negative score of 4.5 out of 10, criticizing the flatness of several of the film's characters, confusing plot points, and lack of scares.

The YouTube channel “ brutalmoose” uploaded a video review of the film, ultimately recommending it to their viewers despite its flaws. While the majority of the video consists of the reviewers analyzing the film's plot for cohesiveness and pointing out the many inconsistencies they argue that the low budget and the progressively confusing script gives it a “so bad, it’s good” quality with one reviewer even admitting to having watched it twice. They also point out the film's 4 sequels over a nearly 20-year span as evidence of having sustained a fan base of some sort.

''DVDbeaver.com'' made several positive points, despite acknowledging the film's low budget and resulting technical flaws, saying “It’s watchable and interesting enough”. They also commented on how this film could be seen as a response to ''Candyman''—the contrast being this film featuring “Black characters confronting an urban legend without the need of a white audience identification figure”.

Merchandising

A replica of Michael's Killjoy doll was released in 2003 by Shadow Entertainment and Workshop Toys.

Franchise

The film's sequel, '' Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil'' was released in 2002. A second sequel, '' Killjoy 3'' was released in 2010, followed by '' Killjoy Goes to Hell'' in 2012, and '' Killjoy’s Psycho Circus'' in 2016. Trent Hagga took over the role of the Killjoy character in the sequels.

References

External links

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{{Killjoy

2000s slasher films
Killjoy (film series)
2000 films
American slasher films
2000 horror films
Blaxploitation films
Horror films about clowns
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
English-language horror films