Stitches, 2012 - ★★★★½

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So being a clown is less a job and more a cult?

Some time ago, the not so funny clown Stitches (Ross Noble) had a job on a kids birthday. The kids don't like him and, accidentally, kill him.
Six years later, Birthday kid Tom (Tommy Knight) celebrates his first Birthday since that incident. And Stitches comes back from the dead.

After only 10 minutes I already noted that it's a really good mix between scary, gory and funny. And that mix stayed/got even better untill the end.

The characters are all pretty good, of course a little stereotypical, but put well, it wasn't annoying. I actually started liking and caring about some of the characters, which doesn't happen that often these days.
Also, the acting is great, especially for a low budget movie.
The best character is Stitches though, who is also perfectly acted by Ross Noble.

After the Birthday Party scene at the beginning the movie feels a bit like a teenage school comedy with bullies and all that, but even those bullies are pretty good.

I like that they chose to only slowly reveal the undead clown, we always see more and more of him before we get a full body and face shot.

I loved the editing, one sex scene is beautifully interspliced with a killing scene in another room and there are some other pretty cool edited scenes.

The best part of this movie are the kills though. They are creative and interesting kills, but most of all funny as hell. I actually laughed out loud multiple times, not only because of the kills but also because of the commentary uttered by Sitches. Delivering these lines with such a straight face, I dare to say he is better than Freddy Krüger when it comes to line delivery.
Also it's an almost perfect use of practical effects mixed with some CGI. Of course it's a low budget movie from Ireland, so especially the CGI parts still look a little fake, but the practical stuff is awesome.

I really enjoyed this movie a lot and if it wasn't for the bad cgi in a few scenes it would have gotten 5 stars. So glad I caught this. By the way, just as in Puppetmaster I didn't know the featured Ross Noble, and also not Tommy Knight, so it shows it's really low budget.