Evil clowns are no laughing matter
Coulrophobia sufferers are bracing for return of the evil Pennywise
While Jaclyn Andrews can’t rationally explain her fear of clowns, she’s been avoiding them for years.
Walking the midway at local fairs is out of the question, and lately she’s considered double checking with fellow parents before attending kids’ birthday parties. “I’m panicked, can’t breathe, sweaty,” says Andrews, 35, describing how she feels when she sees a clown.
The fear of clowns, known as coulrophobia, is a relatively new phenomenon with very little research behind it. And while it’s not considered an official phobia by the World Health Organization, its sufferers say the experience is very real.
Andrews, a resident of Hamilton, Ont., feels anxious thinking about the days ahead when evil clowns will be a focal point of popular culture and practically impossible to avoid. A remake of Stephen King’s It arrives in theatres Friday and is expected to draw huge audiences intrigued by the titular shape-shifter, also known as Pennywise, who often takes the form of a clown.
And the upcoming sixth season of American Horror Story, which begins airing Tuesday, on FX Canada, is generating buzz for the return of Twisty, a demented clown with a taste for trickery and murder.
For many decades the happygo-lucky personas of modern clowns such as Bozo and Ronald McDonald seemed in style, but a notorious American serial killer is considered to be the inspiration for the advent of the more sinister brand of clowns.
Before he was convicted for the murders of 33 young men in 1980, John Wayne Gacy seemed like a relatively average guy, who sometimes dressed as Pogo the Clown, a character he created while volunteering at children’s hospitals. After he was jailed, Gacy painted portraits of himself in clown costume and the artwork became the focus of exhibitions — and protests.
“People learn to be afraid from the movies they see, and from the news they read — watching other people be afraid,” said Martin Antony, a professor of psychology at Ryerson University.
“Gacy may have triggered certain directors and writers to portray clowns in that way, and that may have exacerbated fear of clowns.”
Two years after Gacy’s conviction, the film Poltergeist featured a scene in which a young boy is dragged under his bed by a toy clown brought to life in the middle of the night. And King’s novel It was released in 1986 and adapted for TV in 1990, with Tim Curry playing the creepy Pennywise.
The fascination with vicious clowns only grew as It became a favourite at video stores during the 1990s and other forgotten films like 1988s Killer Klowns from Outer Space found another life on DVD alongside the clown-like doll used by serial killer Jigsaw in the Saw horror movies.
Much to the dismay of professional clown performers, those portrayals helped take the wholesomeness out of a character once considered a fixture of family entertainment.
Rami Nader, a psychologist at the North Shore Stress and Anxiety Clinic in Vancouver, says some people are leery of clowns because they fear their exaggerated painted smiles obscure their true emotions, which makes them unpredictable.
“You don’t know really what they’re feeling, what they’re thinking or what they’re going to do,” Nader says.
A spate of creepy-clown sightings reported across North America last year didn’t help their negative perception. Perhaps inspired by popular prank videos on YouTube, reports of individuals wandering through neighbourhoods while wearing menacing clown masks began to spread. Frank McAndrew, a professor of psychology at Knox College in Illinois, says he learned how deeply opinions of clowns have eroded after his study of “creepiest occupations.”
Clowns ranked as the creepiest, worse than taxidermists, sex shop owners and funeral directors.
McAndrew says he found the ambiguity of a clown’s performance art seemed to rattle the respondents the most.
“(They said) ‘We don’t know if there’s something to be afraid of, but we have a paralysis about not knowing whether we should be scared,”’ he said.
The professor also discovered some members of the clown community weren’t exactly helping rebuild their reputation as nonthreatening. After his study was published, McAndrew said some clowns began to “stalk” him on social media and called the president of his college in an attempt to get him fired. But McAndrew also found that discussions about his findings online revealed a stark apathy from even those who aren’t afraid of clowns.
“I don’t recall seeing anybody ever saying, ‘You know, I really like clowns,”’ he added.