Crew
Directors – Asif Akbar & Lance Kawas, Screenplay – Christopher Malone & James Tamburino, Story – Alexander Nistratov, Producer – Bernard Salzman, Photography – Istvan Lettang & Hugo Will, Music – Martell Nicholas Rivera, Makeup Effects – Jim Bineke, Production Design – Garrison Clough & Daniel Flores. Production Company – VMI Worldwide/Bulldog Bros. Pictures/Tadross Media Group.
Cast
Doreen Calderon (Ana Perez), Tobin Bell (Mr Wilson), Juliana DeStefano (Alma Perez), Richard Grieco (Stewart), Randy Couture (Cranston), Romeo Miller (Louis), James Chhalke (The Chindi), Robert Laenen (Charlie), Bleona (Brooke), Jonathan Camp (Mike Hardy), Wil L. Jackson (Sloan), Lindsey Pelas (Cocktail Waitress)
Plot
Ana Perez signs in to the Clown Motel in Nevada. She tells the owner Wilson that she would like to go down to the basement to look for records that prove that hotel is built on Gracewood Indian land, but he refuses. At the same time, a group of bankers arrive in possible discussions to buy the motel. Ana manages to sneak down into the basement. A ritual sword has been placed there for her to find. This causes the awakening of The Chindi, a warrior spirit that defends the Indians, who comes to kill the intruders.
The Clown Motel is an existing location in Tonopah, Nevada, a town with a population of only around 3000. The motel’s novelty feature is that it is filled with hundreds of clown dolls. The motel was built in 1985 by a brother and sister in honour of their late father who collected clown statuettes. The motel has passed through several owners since then. The website for the Clown Motel bills itself with the dubious claim of being ‘America’s Scariest Motel’. An earlier film has been made set around the location with Clown Motel (2019), which has spawned two sequels. Confusingly, this film is also called Clown Motel on some prints – it was retitled The Curse of the Clown Motel to avoid confusion, although the two films are not related beyond their use of the title location.
The Curse of the Clown Motel was the tenth film for Asif Akbar, who has elsewhere made mostly action films and thrillers. I had previously encountered Akbar as director of the painfully bad alien visitors film Astro (2018). In genre material, Akbar has also made the horror films Skeletons in the Closet (2024) and Cemeterio (2024) and an episode of the anthology Morbid Stories (2019). In addition, he has also produced Clown Fear (2020) and Kill Giggles (2020). Co-director Lance Kawas has also made a number of action and crime films, as well as the horror films The Retreat (2005), Fractured (2015), Demon Pit (2022) and Project Legion (2022).
Despite my misgivings about Asif Akbar on the basis of Astro, The Curse of the Clown Motel starts really well. The prologue takes place in a stereotypical Western saloon as the assorted tough guy patrons are abruptly interrupted by a bare-chested Indian brave – an unearthly figure who is sparking electricity from his sword and has a mouth that is painted blue and seems lit by a fire from inside as he proceeds to slaughter all of the men present.
In actuality, the film has very little interest in the Clown Motel and far more interest in the theme of American Indian spirits wreaking vengeance against people who have built the motel on their land, targeting in particular the bankers who seek to buy the motel (although apparently not Tobin Bell’s motel owner). For all that the current owners of the Clown Motel are happy to lease their locale out to filmmakers, surely the claim it is built on stolen Indian land is not one that is going to promote them in any good way.
Apart from the opening scene, the rest of the scenes dedicated to the fight for the land rights and the doings of the Indian cult are largely uninteresting. It makes for a forgettable film. The only thing that perks up interest is a couple of novelty deaths – seeing Randy Couture being scalped and Romeo Miller lying back as waitress Lindsey Pelas does a striptease for him before the Chindi guts him from beneath the bed and then emerges by tearing its way out of his body. The Chindi also makes a memorable surprise reappearance in the final scene.
There is an undeniably interesting cast line-up. Tobin Bell, aka John ‘Jigsaw’ Kramer from Saw (2004) and sequels, turns up in a surprisingly ordinary performance as the motel’s owner. Top-billed is actually MMA fighter Randy Couture who has a supporting role as one of the bankers. There’s also 1980s teenage heartthrob Richard Grieco, unrecognisable all in black and beneath a steeple hat, lurking around with sinister intent and a minimum of dialogue.
Trailer here