10 Scariest Movie & TV Clowns

Coulrophobia, or fear of clowns is said to be one of the most common fears. It has been theorised that people are typically frightened by things which are familiar but wrong. Clowns are hiding their faces, and by implication, their intentions, making them potential threats in disguise.

Clowns have existed as entertainment in some form or another way back through history, but their unsettling appearance makes them ideal for horror film and television characters. McDonald's retired Ronald McDonald in 2016, partly due to criticism that he was helping to advertise fast food to children, but also due to the connotations with the spate of creepy clown sightings popping up in the US around that time.

There are several cases in of film and television heroes being suddenly paralysed with fear when faced with clowns. Columbus in Zombieland shoots down zombies but is terrified when faced with a clown. Sam Winchester from Supernatural also has his fear of clowns used against him, despite having no trouble destroying all manner of monsters in the show.

Let’s take a look at 10 of the scariest clowns portrayed in film and television.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space centres around a group of evil aliens who look like grotesque circus clowns and come to Earth to capture and eat humans. The film takes the clown metaphor and runs with it, with circus tent spaceship and the kills all being clown-themed, such as a carnivorous shadow puppet and an aggressive balloon dog.

It takes a bit of an ‘Alien’-type direction, as the captive people are encased in cotton candy cocoons that dissolve their bodies so that the Klowns can suck their blood through them via straws. Popcorn is shot at people and eventually turns into scary clown worm creatures.

There are some pretty gruesome scenes, including when the police chief is killed and turned into a clown ventriloquist dummy. There is also a security guard killed with flesh-dissolving cream pies, and when the teenagers first break open the candy cocoons, the bloody face of the victim is quite horrifying.

The amount of deaths and the drinking people’s blood make the film sound as if it should be very disturbing to watch, but the Klowns and the special effects are so over the top that it is hard for it to be particularly frightening. Even the ending is given a jokey edge when the exploding spaceship results in everyone below being covered with custard pies!