A trailer for Behind the Sightings takes the great clown scare of last year and turns it into a psychological thriller. Director Tony Cadwell has taken actual footage from the news to weave a horror story out of the phenomenon that first sprang up in North Carolina. The real-life clown scare swept the United Stated, and even parts of Europe, in 2016, dominating headlines in many major US cities and striking fear into lives of children and adults. Schools were alerted to the situation and told to take extra precaution and keep a watchful eye for people dressed as clowns.
Behind the Sightings sets itself up like a Blair Witch Project type of scenario in that the movie is based off of 112 hours of footage recovered from the personal belongings of a husband and wife who go out to investigate the rash of creepy clown sightings that haunted America. The first clown sightings occurred in August of 2016 in Greenville, South Carolina and the "documentary" style movie follows the husband wife trying to crack the case. What the duo finds is far more sinister than initially believed and it is from here that the fear of clowns is intensified.
Deadline reports that Tommy V Films has secured the rights for the movie and have set a release for some time in October 2017. The timing is perfect because a) it's Halloween and b) the IT remake comes out September 8th, 2017. Plus, what's better than some creepy clowns to get people scared? Tommy Vlahopoulos of Tommy V Films explained that.
"Clowns have traditionally been associated with slapstick style performance, comedy or mime, but there has always been a dark side to a clown. This is not fake news, Behind the Sightings is centered around the terrifying clown sightings that shook the world last year, and an eager couple swept up in all the phenomenon. This is a very newsworthy subject, especially with all the continuous clown sightings."
When the initial clown sightings happened in August of 2016 panic set in for some. People dressed as clowns were arrested and in some cases beaten up by vigilantes. It's a classic case of unconfirmed police reports and social media fueling a full scale epidemic for children. Fake Instagram accounts were created by "clowns" who would target a school and say that they were coming for the students. The fake account spread like wildfire, prompting some schools to even go into emergency lockdown procedures after more nefarious threats were made. The controversy even sparked good-natured clowns to form an All Clowns Matter protest.
The release date for Behind the Sightings has not been officially announced just yet, but one can assume that it will be just in time for Halloween. Tying into the irrational (or rational) is nothing new, but this documentary-style movie is in a rare position because of the real-life events that occurred less than a year ago. Whether the timing will help the movie remains to be seen, but it sure does look creepy and pretty well done. Check out the trailer for Behind the Sightings below and see for yourself.
