Killer clowns are a longstanding part of the horror villain pantheon, but we’re in a particularly ripe moment right now. Clown in a Cornfield was an indie hit earlier this year, Art the Clown’s Terrifier fame continues to grow, It: Welcome to Derry just premiered on HBO, and Hell House LLC: Lineage hits Shudder this week. It’s a terrible time to be clown-phobic, but we know for a fact that Stephen Cognetti, the creator of the Hell House LLC series, does not have that problem whatsoever.
“I love all the clowns you mentioned, Art and Pennywise and Clown in the Cornfield,” Cognetti told io9 in a recent interview when we asked him about being part of the current clown craze.
“I think clown elements stripped down to the most basic—just the pale face, the less-is-more look—are a lot of fun. And if you include that in a Halloween haunted house, I think there’s a lot you can do with it, scare-wise. So that’s why the clown was such a fixture in the original [Hell House LLC movie, about a haunted house attraction gone very awry] and then kept going throughout with more story laid out as we went to subsequent films.”
Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor © ShudderHe gave the look of the Hell House LLC clowns careful consideration. They don’t speak, and they barely move—when they do, prepare to freak out—but they give off an evil aura that’s undeniable, despite their vintage-looking costumes.
“I just love a good clown. I think going into the original 10 years ago, my mindset was, like, ‘I love scary clowns, but I don’t think clowns are that scary anymore.’ What we had seen going into that time was a lot of, like, frizzy hair and big noses, where I think the less is more is more scary when it comes to the clown. Like the ‘20s and ‘30s circus clown kind of vibe, and that’s what I was going for with the Hell House clown.”
“So I just kind of wanted to put my version of a scary clown into the film, but to have it be a smaller piece of the film, not the main thing. Hell House is not really about a killer clown or anything like that; it’s just a smaller fixture of a greater story. But I just thought it was a lot of fun. I enjoy good clown scares.”
With that in mind, Cognetti is particularly excited to see what Pennywise is up to now that HBO is expanding Stephen King’s It story with Welcome to Derry. “I haven’t started the new It series yet, but I can’t wait to [watch],” Cognetti said. “I loved the reboot [movies] and the [miniseries from] the early ‘90s. All of the cinema around It has been fantastic.”
Hell House LLC: Lineage streams on Shudder starting October 30.
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