{2jtab: Movie Review}

Imagine if Freddy Krueger took the night off from his familiar Elm Street haunts and called in a favor to his good friend Stitches the Clown to get some revenge killing done.  Stitches is that movie. Comedic and imaginative with its scares and death scenes, Stitches is a wise-cracking riot echoing the anarchy and debauchery of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil and Piranha 3D.  It seems there’s still a bit of gasoline in the horror/comedy yank after all.  Leave it to the Irish to fire it up.

Stitches (played by longtime comedian Ross Noble) is not unlike Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons.  He smokes.  He drinks.  He makes sexy time – still in his clown face - for the ladies.  He’s usually late for a kid’s birthday party, too.  Upon arriving to his latest gig – after a series of high octane edits of him “prepping” for the show – he pretty much gets the royal “screw you” from the children.  His gags don’t work and, as his frustration grows, so does the general impatience from the children.  In a last ditch effort for true entertainment, they tie the shoelaces of his big clown shoes together and watch him fall backwards.  The prank results in his freakishly funny – we’re talking knife through the skull – death.

But a pissed off clown cannot be silenced for long.  He will have his revenge on the kids who caused his untimely passing…even if it takes six years to happen.  Tom (Tommy Knight) and his asshole friends are going to throw a real birthday party.  There hasn’t been a party for poor Tommy since the death of Stitches and now, doped up on anxiety medication, seems like the best time to put all those bad memories to rest.

An undead Stitches the clown is the last person he’d expect to show up to help him celebrate.

Directed and written by Conor McMahon (Shrooms), Stitches is a murderously hysterical romp for anyone tortured in their youth by clowns and their big red noses.  Tim Curry’s Pennywise this is not; there’s nothing serious about Stitches as a character but Noble makes it all work.   Not all of his jokes work but most of Stitches will have you in, well, stitches.

The dark humor is all clown-based and – as much of the on-screen kills are gore heavy – so are the kills.  Stitches takes out the problem teenagers one by one and each hilarious kill tops the next one.  One kid is turned into a balloon.  One gets his skull hollowed out and served as if he were made of ice cream.  Another gets balloon animals made from his intestines.

Stitches is a ballsy and earnest production full of great practical effects and good make-up effects.  It definitely brings back the fun of the horror/comedy genre.  The bizarre idea gets the full First-Class treatment.  Co-written by David O’Brien, the film is certainly next level entertainment.  McMahon never eases up on the blood spatter and gooey stuff and – because he knows he’s feeding all the starved gorehounds out there – keeps things consistently sticky and very, very outrageously red.

The uninspired and Saw-like stained cover art may make you think the movie just isn’t your thing but if Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 is your favorite film, Stitches might just be your new second.

{2jtab: Film Details}

MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence and gore, sexual content, language, drug and alcohol use - all involving teens.
Runtime: 86 mins.
Director: Conor McMahon
Writer: Conor McMahon, David O'Brien
Cast: Ross Noble; Tommy Knight; Gemma-Leah Devereux; Shane Murray Corcoran
Genre: Horror | Comedy
Tagline: Stitches
Memorable Movie Quote: "Everybody happy?"
Distributor: Dark Sky Films
Official Site: http://stitchesmovie.com/
Release Date: No theatrical release
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: April 2, 2013

Synopsis: Jaded Richard "Stitches" Grindle (Ross Noble) is the sleaziest clown working the children's party circuit in Ireland. Arriving late to one birthday, his timing is off, the bratty kids a nightmare and a prank goes horribly wrong -- he falls on a kitchen knife and goes to that Big Top in the sky. Years later the same nasty kids attend another more grown up bash. Little do they know, thanks to a black magic clown cult, Stitches will be the uninvited guest of honor seeking revenge on those responsible for his untimely death.

{2jtab: Blu-ray Review}

Component Grades Movie Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - April 2, 2013
Screen Formats: 1.78:1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit); English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Discs: 25GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

Stitches carves its way to Blu-ray framed at 1.78:1 in a strong 1080p transfer.  McMahon filmed Stitches with HD cameras and the gloss goes a long way to make up for its low budget.  There’s no grain in the picture but there is deep clarity to every scene. Details are sharp and gore is effectively gross.  Colors are deep and blacks are inky but never run. While banding is a minute blink and you’ll miss it affair, the sound – presented here with a 5.1 DTS-Master Audio track – makes decent use of LFE here and there with the surrounds adding some life to the birthday party scenes.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• Yes!  As hysterical as the movie, the outrageous commentary – provided by Noble and McMahon – is certainly a treat.  Funny and informative, this is one special feature that shouldn’t be missed.

Special Features:

The special features offer only a bit more than you’d expect, with a 20 minute “Making of” as the best offering. It is second only to the good time commentary.  The only other features are a trailer for the film and a “Bloopers” reel that is nowhere near as funny as the film itself. It’s just a brief collection of outtakes and general nonsense clowning around from the cast.

• Making Of (20 min)
• Bloopers (4 min)
• Trailer (2 min)

{2jtab: Trailer}

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