As harsh as that sounds Gingerclown really is that terrible, if not quite so much as to be down there with the worst films ever made. To be honest there wasn't much to expect considering how pretty bad the trailer looked, but when the likes of Brad Dourif, Lance Henriksen and Tim Curry are involved you couldn't help but want to see it for curiosity. As bad though the movie is there was effort put into it, but when the movie tries too hard in paying homage to 80s horror it doesn't look that way, instead of it actually trying too hard it looks like small glimpses of effort in a sea of inept schlock.

The sets do give off some atmosphere and look very like what you would find for an 80s creature feature or horror, hardly house basement quality here. Unfortunately what effort went into the sets did not show in the rest of the production values. The lighting was far too dark a lot of the time(most of the time when the creatures appear you can't even tell which is which and have to rely on the voice to work out),even for an 80s-set horror film at night-time, and the photography and editing managed to look cheaper than the worst-looking 80s horror(it never did give off a nostalgic vibe, all it was was cheap),but it were the special effects and puppetry that were especially bad. The creatures look little more than Halloween costume decorations, exude little personality and move in a way that suggest that they would fall over any minute.

With the music, there was one place where it was done very well and that was in the opening credits. That was some creepy scoring there and gave me the feeling that the movie would not be as bad as the trailer looked. The rest of the movie however was very generic, over-scored stuff with a number of the cues/music choices being wildly inappropriate and too stuck in the 80s. It was the script where Gingerclown falls down hardest on, it's just appalling and should never have been approved. You know that something is wrong when the still face palm-inducing "quack quack quacker..." is the most memorable line of the entire script and movie. The comedic lines and the slapstick are not funny in the slightest, if anything it's immaturity at its worst that was best flushed down the toilet(the big names were most likely secretly wishing they had). Every single one of the one-liners(childish and over-used),irrelevant ramblings and ridiculous over-load of cussing(some of it clearly there with no reason other than for the sake of it) were mind-numbingly annoying and enough to make anybody cringe.

The story is pretty much the same, improving very little over the cringe-worthy plot synopsis. Quite a lot of it is uneventful and randomly structured actually with padded scenes, a lot of rambling and little if any exposition and also consists of all the characters constantly making decisions that don't make any sense and that it never explains the origins of the creatures. What hurts the story even more is the complete lack of atmosphere. The setting made for such a great idea and could have provoked thrills, scares and a glimpse of innocent fun but Gingerclown is not scary at all, the bad visuals are part of the problem but that the movie is never sure where and when to focus on comedy slapstick or on house of horrors. It's too padded out to be thrilling, as well as being so painfully predictable, and while this viewer likes to think themselves as very patient they found themselves looking at the clock before the halfway mark(which has not happened in some time). And it's too crude and structurally and tonally messy to be any fun.

Gingerclown has terrible characters too, the lead trio are so annoying in personality and in their decision making that you wish they'd be done away with quickly. They're horrendously acted too, can't decide which is the worst of the three as they are as bad as each other. Erin Hayes seemed to mistake screaming her lines for acting, Ashley Lloyd whines and whimpers through his role and Michael Cannell-Griffiths' constant yelling is assault on the ears. Which brings us onto the celebrities(Tim Curry, Brad Dourif, Lance Henriksen, Michael Winslow and Sean Young) voicing the creatures. The good news is, their acting is undoubtedly far better than that of the lead trio and there is no problem recognising the voices. The bad news is, they are woefully under-used, no matter how hard all of them tried( the voice acting itself actually is not bad at all) their characters just aren't on screen anywhere near long enough and their material is too awful to properly do anything with it. The most memorable of them- and of the movie in fact- is by far Tim Curry, as the voice of Gingerclown he is genuinely creepy, he's also badly used and has worthless material but he does manage to make it come alive through his menacing delivery. While the script and story are the biggest failings in Gingerclown, it is the waste of these talented celebrities that angers me the most.

Overall, terrible in almost every way apart from the sets, the music in the opening credits and Tim Curry. The script, story, characters, acting and puppetry are all of Z-grade quality, and you'd expect the big names to liven things up. Instead they're saddled with pretty insignificant characters and worthless dialogue which wastes them in what is most likely the worst film for all 5 of them(yes Henriksen's been in a fair few stinkers but at least they utilised him better). Waste of talent is a pet peeve of mine when it comes to films/movies, they deserved much better than this. 1/10 Bethany Cox

I do watch strange movies all the time and this ranks as one of them. Although it does have the added "value" of all those known actors (starting with Tim Curry to Lance Henriksen and some others),lending their talent to this. You might wonder how they got involved, but I reckon it might have been easy money for them.

Clichés aside (Jocks bullying a nerd into going into a haunted place, GF of Jock turning against him and going with the shy "fella" and many more) this has some interesting choices in "monsters". I'm not sure how we're supposed to be scared of them, rather than mildly bemused and completely bewildered. Also completely annoyed ... A strange movie with more than just a clown, though no guarantee you'll have a good time ...

Let me say first, I rarely have had the overwhelming desire to shut off a movie without first 1) giving it the benefit of the doubt 2) watching it long enough to make an informed opinion on the work. With regard to this film; Within 25 minutes, I was completely disinterested in continuing.

I kept looking for any glimmer of hope; some redeeming quality about it, that would bring it to at least the level of "watchable".

Firstly, the special effects & cinematography: Although I did enjoy the simple, creepy, properly-stylized, well-scored opening credits, the rest was very disappointing. I understand it was to be an "80's feel" - but I feel like they literally used 80's technology, 80's specials effects, 80's everything; and for that reason and others, it failed miserably. I am a "child of the 80's" and this movie most certainly did NOT make me feel all "warm and nostalgic".

The bigger problem came when the actors & actresses opened their mouths. At that point, the two biggest (most fatal) flaws of the film were exposed; the bad acting, and the bad script. Tim Curry, you are better than this man! I don't even know why he joined this project (slim pickings elsewhere?) I don't like calling people out by name, but Erin Hayes..She was just terrible in this film. I won't ramble on with flowery adjectives, but we all know poor acting when we see it; it's just awkward and uncomfortable. Yes, it's a given that the script was as, if not more terrible than the acting. And yes, I think most would agree that GOOD actors/actresses with a BAD script, can still pull off a GOOD movie despite bad writing. This is not the case. Although Mr. Ashley Lloyd's performance is better (and easily eclipses) than Ms. Hayes' performance, the fact remains the same; the acting stinks.

The script! AUGH! Someone once told me; people swear out of ignorance, because they have nothing better or more intelligent to say. This seems to be a perfect fit for this film. It would seem that the writers ran out of ideas and substituted those ideas with copious, pointless, annoying, and ultimately distracting amounts of profanity. The rest of the script is like a rapid-fire succession of bad one-liner dialog (ie: "through here!" and "What was that?" and "I'm scared!"). This was so unpleasant to watch.

One can only hope that it was all a matter of budgeting problems or some similar issue. I did not see a stated budget, or a ticket office gross, so one can only guess.

As I myself never rely solely on other people's opinions and prefer to form my own - take it with a grain of salt. But then, if every reviewer says essentially the same thing - you have to wonder.