The 7 Creepiest Clowns in Horror!

Noun.

1. An Abnormal fear of clowns.

What the hell!? That’s a real thing!? Yes, yes it is! And you know what? That sort of makes sense. There are plenty of people in my life that I know who have a serious aversion to anything with red noses, facepaint, and crazy colored afros. And no, I’m not talking about Insane Clown Posse, who are scary, but for much different reasons. Here are some of the creepiest clowns in horror. These are the ones that have kept many people up at night for many years. They’ve terrified people’s nightmares and haunted their waking hours as well. If you’re not scared of clowns right now, maybe you will be after reading this list. At the very least, you’ll have some movies to add to your watchlist.

“Smile!”

The Poltergeist Clown
What kind of parent buys something like that for their child? While it’s not a main character by any means in the movie, and more of a toy than an actual clown, it actually doubles the fear factor for those who hate both clowns and creepy toys. So there. I’ve always stated that much of people’s childhood fears stemming from Poltergeist come from the simple fact that it’s rated a mere “PG”, therefore fooling many people to believe that this movie isn’t actually completely terrifying. Here, we’ve got horrifying subject matter, floating corpses, a face-melting scene (!), and this scary clown doll. Don’t let the MPAA rating fool you, too; the movie is one of the scariest of all time. This little guy is only one of the many reasons for that.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

I’m not one of those people who are particularly scared of clowns, but there’s something about these guys that gives me a weird tingling feeling in my stomach…and not in the good way. There’s something incredibly unsettling about these dementing and crazy looking space clowns that I can’t quite put my finger on, and maybe that’s exactly the reason why it makes me feel so strange. They’re definitely the most unique-looking on this list, and while they may not be as iconic or well-known as the others, they’re definitely someone’s number one pick for scariest clowns ever.

Zombieland’s Clown Zombie

With this guy, you get two for the price of one. A clown that’s also a zombie. Or, a zombie that’s also a clown. Whichever your preference, the thing is still scary as all hell. I have to give the filmmakers serious credit for combining the two in a way that no one has done before. Sure, there have been scary clowns, and there have been zombies that can run as fast as lightning, but the clown zombie in this movie is absolutely in a league of its own.

Captain Spaulding

“Tutti Fucking Frutti!” Sid Haig’s Captain Spaulding character from both House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects isn’t all that creepy in his appearance. It’s more in the overall delivery of the character. In the first film, he was vulgar, crude, violent, and undeniably Sid Haig. His makeup was heavily applied and he at least tried to look like a respectable, hard-working clown who sells fried chicken and just happens to murder people on the side. In his second film, he’s clearly stopped trying. He’s just another psychotic killer who forgot to wipe all of his makeup off. A gritty, dirty old man with a serious penchant for violence…but hey, I’m not complaining.

Kent McCoy

It truly is a shame that Eli Roth’s Clown has still not been given a US theatrical (or even home media) release. A man dons a clown costume and it leads to him doing truly deplorable things to children instead of making them laugh. He’s truly twisted and disgusting, and I can put money on the fact that eating children is not listed in the Circus Clown Handbook. In Italy, posters for the movie were banned because they were thought to be a bit too scary, which, is kind of understandable. That clown freaks me out, too! Oh yeah, and that costume? It’s not really a costume. It shapes into his real skin.

Twisty

Gripe about American Horror Story all you want, but Twisty is one scary dude. He’s a hulking monster with a clown outfit, big enough to take on maybe even Derek Mears. Twisty turns out to be actually somewhat of a tragic character, with his origin story being able to tug at your heart with pity despite the brutal acts of murder that he has committed. If you haven’t seen the show, I won’t spoil it for you, but let me just say this: his story, although twisted and deranged, is horribly sad and pitiful.

Pennywise the Dancing Clown

Did you really think that anything else could even possibly have a shot at landing number one on this list? Pennywise is the classic evil clown; besides the real-life John Wayne Gacy, he’s probably the scariest clown known to mankind. Pennywise is actually an otherworldly entity who is capable of using every child’s worst fears against them to bring about their demise. In the television miniseries It from 1990, we only see him in but a couple of forms, but I think that’s fine enough. It was so beyond scary in his clown form that I really don’t think we need to see anymore in order to prove that It can be terrifying beyond reason. Thank you, Tim Curry, for destroying Ronald McDonald’s career forever.

Still think clowns aren’t scary? Fine. Be that way. As for myself, I’m definitely a little creeped out just by reading over this article. The pictures don’t help in making me feel any less creeped out, either. I may have to change my own stance of not being that scared of clowns after thinking about it. I don’t think I’m ever going to the circus again.