Remember when we were all inexplicably haunted by clowns popping out onto roads in the middle of the night? Well, that was ten years ago now, if you can believe it, and Hulu’s got a brand-new documentary coming that explores the bizarre phenomenon. FANGORIA is excited to debut an exclusive clip from Clown Panic, premiering on the streamer this coming Monday.
Clown Panic is directed by Ed Perkins, who previously worked on documentaries like The Princess, about the late Princess Diana, and the 2018 Netflix project Tell Me Who I Am. The film’s synopsis is as follows:
When children in a small South Carolina community report seeing clowns hiding in the woods in 2016, few believe them. But as sightings spread across the country, panic escalates into school lockdowns, police investigations and a nationwide media frenzy.
Featuring chilling archive footage, viral internet videos and revealing interviews with witnesses, law enforcement, clowns and cultural commentators, “Clown Panic” examines the collision of fear, social media and modern America at a moment of deep national anxiety. Darkly funny, unsettling and unexpectedly emotional, the film uncovers how a bizarre urban legend spiraled into a global moral panic that has echoes that resonate today.
“The story behind Clown Panic was plain weird on one level, but also very revealing about human psychology and politics. It's the story of how something quite small can develop into a full-blown moral panic. It's not a new phenomenon; it goes back through the McCarthy era ‘reds under the bed' and all the way to the Salem witch trials and beyond,” says producer Jonathan Chinn. “But what made this perhaps the first modern era moral panic was the use of social media in particular, and the circular way it interacted with local news to really blow up into something big – not just in the US but globally. Chinn continues, “In the US, it took place around the same time as the Trump-Clinton election campaign, the North Korea nuclear crisis, race riots, and, of course, following the huge success of Stephen King's It. All these things came together, and when society starts to freak out, it tends to find a scapegoat. In this case, it was a group you would never have expected: clowns. “
Clown Panic is produced by Jonathan and Simon Chinn, with Suzanne Lavery executive producing. The film joins a hefty lineup of documentaries on Hulu, including Devil in the Family, Death in Apartment 603, and Friends Like These, as well as more lighthearted pop culture pieces like Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.
Clown Panic premieres on Hulu on October 12.
