Latest / Weeknight Mysteries Podcast / Ep. 87 | 10 Cursed MODERN Horror Movies & Killer Clown Craze

Transcript

Ep. 87 | 10 Cursed MODERN Horror Movies & Killer Clown Craze · Weeknight Mysteries Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of you have heard about cursed
0:02
Speaker 1: horror movies. Most of them seem to come from the
0:05
Speaker 1: 70s and 80s. Around about this time horror films started
0:10
Speaker 1: to incorporate a lot more satanic and occult imagery. Perhaps
0:14
Speaker 1: this is why strange things started happening to the film
0:17
Speaker 1: crew while they were recording them. Either they would experience
0:20
Speaker 1: real paranormal phenomena or people would start dying and having
0:24
Speaker 1: accidents in mysterious ways. The most famous examples of cursed
0:29
Speaker 1: movies are The Exorcist, The Poltergeist movies, Rosemary's Baby, and
0:33
Speaker 1: The Omen. There are already a million places online talking
0:37
Speaker 1: about these classic films so I wanted to explore modern
0:40
Speaker 1: horror and see if there were any recent movies that
0:43
Speaker 1: carry a similar curse. For the purposes of this story,
0:47
Speaker 1: I count anything made since the year 2000 as modern horror.
0:51
Speaker 1: Although some of these films are now over 10 years old,
0:54
Speaker 1: I still consider them recent enough to be called modern.
0:58
Speaker 1: I'll begin with the 2014 movie Annabelle. Based on true events,
1:03
Speaker 1: it concerns a doll which becomes possessed after satanic cultists
1:07
Speaker 1: summoned a malevolent entity. Director John Leonetti believed the movie
1:11
Speaker 1: itself to be cursed. We were unexplainable things being experienced
1:16
Speaker 1: by the cast members during filming. At one point, during
1:20
Speaker 1: a full moon, Three claw marks appeared in dust on
1:23
Speaker 1: a window which was too high up for anybody to reach.
1:27
Speaker 1: This was made extra creepy by the fact that the
1:29
Speaker 1: demon in the movie has three fingers. It was as
1:33
Speaker 1: if the beast itself had made the marks. Another odd
1:36
Speaker 1: occurrence happened, the first time the actor playing the demon
1:39
Speaker 1: appeared on set in full makeup. As he passed a corridor,
1:44
Speaker 1: a light fixture fell on the head of the actor
1:46
Speaker 1: playing the janitor. This freaked the crew out because in
1:49
Speaker 1: the movie, the demon kills the janitor in that exact
1:52
Speaker 1: same corridor. The doll in the movie is based on
1:56
Speaker 1: the real-life Annabelle doll and that is on display in
1:59
Speaker 1: an occult museum owned by Ed and Lorraine Warren. The
2:02
Speaker 1: real thing is actually a Raggedy Ann type of doll
2:05
Speaker 1: and its original owners reported that it would move around
2:08
Speaker 1: when he weren't looking. Sometimes they would go out for
2:11
Speaker 1: the day, only to find it was in a different
2:13
Speaker 1: room of the house when they returned. On other occasions,
2:17
Speaker 1: They would find handwritten notes near the doll, written as
2:20
Speaker 1: if by a small child, the note said, help me.
2:24
Speaker 1: The activity around the doll increased until a family member
2:27
Speaker 1: was attacked and was left with scratch marks on his body.
2:31
Speaker 1: The doll is now kept in a glass cabinet and
2:34
Speaker 1: visitors to the museum are not permitted to touch it.
2:37
Speaker 1: Perhaps the entity inhabiting the doll was unhappy with the
2:40
Speaker 1: way it was being portrayed in the movie and decided
2:43
Speaker 1: to let its presence be known. Annabelle is a prequel
2:46
Speaker 1: spin-off for the movie The Conduring and this movie was
2:49
Speaker 1: also played by Paranormal Occurrences. The script writers consulted Ed
2:54
Speaker 1: and Lorraine Warren on the real-life events to inspire the movie,
2:57
Speaker 1: but during their phone calls they would experience static, strange
3:00
Speaker 1: noises and phone calls being cut off halfway through. It
3:04
Speaker 1: was as if something didn't want this movie to be made.
3:08
Speaker 1: The crew reported the creepy feeling of being watched whenever
3:11
Speaker 1: they were on set. Vera Farmiga who played Lorraine Warren
3:15
Speaker 1: in the movie, was terrified that an invisible force was
3:18
Speaker 1: haunting the set, so much so that you refused to
3:21
Speaker 1: take the script home with her at night. Before filming began,
3:25
Speaker 1: she had a Skype conversation with the director about her
3:28
Speaker 1: role in the film. The next morning she noticed three
3:31
Speaker 1: slash marks across her computer screen as if a clawed
3:34
Speaker 1: hand had scratched it. During filming, she awoke every single
3:39
Speaker 1: night at 3 a.m. an occurrence that plays a part
3:41
Speaker 1: in the plot of the movie. On the day that
3:44
Speaker 1: the movie finished filming, Vera Farmiga returned home. The next morning,
3:49
Speaker 1: she awoke to find three claw-length slashes across her thigh.
3:54
Speaker 1: Whatever had been haunting her on the set had now
3:56
Speaker 1: marked her. Other strange occurrences happened during filming. The director's
4:02
Speaker 1: dog would often seem to be barking at nothing. It
4:05
Speaker 1: was as if it could see something that nobody else could.
4:09
Speaker 1: There was also a fire at the hotel where the
4:11
Speaker 1: crew were staying resulting in the building having to be evacuated.
4:16
Speaker 1: The events in the movie were inspired by the real-life
4:18
Speaker 1: haunting of the Perrin family in the 1970s. The Perrin
4:23
Speaker 1: family were invited to the set of The Conjuring and
4:25
Speaker 1: whilst they were walking around, crew members said that the
4:28
Speaker 1: family seemed to be followed by what felt like a
4:30
Speaker 1: strong gust of cold air. Upon returning home, Caroline Perrin
4:35
Speaker 1: was injured when she was pushed to the ground by
4:37
Speaker 1: this same cold force. Whatever was haunting the set of
4:41
Speaker 1: The Conjuring, it seemed to like following people home. There
4:45
Speaker 1: are a few films on this list that are modern-day
4:48
Speaker 1: remakes of classic cursed movies. The first one is the
4:53
Speaker 1: 2015 Poltergeist remake. Since the original was made in 1982,
4:58
Speaker 1: a number of mysterious events have occurred in connection with
5:01
Speaker 1: the film and its sequels. It is believed that one
5:04
Speaker 1: of the reasons for this is that the original movie
5:06
Speaker 1: used real human skeletons in some of the special effects.
5:10
Speaker 1: When the remake went into production 33 years later, they
5:14
Speaker 1: thought that the curse had finally been laid to rest.
5:17
Speaker 1: During a Reddit AMA thread, directed Gail Kennan described some
5:21
Speaker 1: of the scary occurrences that happened during filming. The house
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Speaker 1: used in the movie was picked because it was built
5:27
Speaker 1: near a field that had an airy atmosphere. Whenever the
5:31
Speaker 1: film crew tried to fly camera drones over the field,
5:34
Speaker 1: their GPS system stopped working for no reason. Lights and
5:39
Speaker 1: other electrical equipment would mysteriously break as soon as they
5:42
Speaker 1: entered the house, even though they were working moments before.
5:46
Speaker 1: At one point, paranormal analyzer Brenda Rose was called in
5:50
Speaker 1: to cleanse the film's set of evil energy. The director
5:53
Speaker 1: was haunted by the apparition of a woman in black
5:56
Speaker 1: that would follow him from the set back to the
5:58
Speaker 1: house he was staying in. He was renting the house
6:01
Speaker 1: to stay in while he directed the movie, but once
6:04
Speaker 1: the filming was done, he moved out and the original
6:06
Speaker 1: owner moved back in. He then received the call from
6:10
Speaker 1: the original house owner, complaining that the house would now
6:13
Speaker 1: be haunted by a female figure dressed in black. It
6:17
Speaker 1: seems that while the film set was cleansed, they forgot
6:20
Speaker 1: to cleanse the house she was staying in too. The
6:24
Speaker 1: 2005 film The Axisism of Emily Rose was based on
6:26
Speaker 1: the true events of Annalise Michel's Axisism. In 1975, Annalise
6:32
Speaker 1: Michel became ill, although initially diagnosed with tuberculosis. her symptoms
6:37
Speaker 1: became increasingly strange. She complained of seeing visions of demonic
6:42
Speaker 1: faces staring at her out of the walls. She also
6:46
Speaker 1: seemed to be thrown violently to the ground and against
6:48
Speaker 1: walls as if by an invisible force. When conventional medicine
6:53
Speaker 1: failed to help, her terrified family called an exorcist. Over
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Speaker 1: the course of one year, she was subjected to 67
7:00
Speaker 1: separate exorcisms. She produced demonic voices and began to be
7:05
Speaker 1: violently thrown against windows and walls. Towards the end of
7:09
Speaker 1: the exorcisms, she began starving herself, believing that by fasting,
7:14
Speaker 1: she would drive away the demons. In 1976, Annalise died
7:19
Speaker 1: of malnutrition and dehydration. Her emaciated body was covered in
7:24
Speaker 1: cuts and bruises. When the film based on her exorcism
7:28
Speaker 1: went into production, It seems either her restless spirit or
7:31
Speaker 1: the demon that had possessed her came back to let
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Speaker 1: its presence be known. Jennifer Carpenter, who played Emily Rose
7:38
Speaker 1: in the movie, was plagued better feeling that she was
7:41
Speaker 1: being followed. The alarm clock radio in her hotel room
7:45
Speaker 1: would malfunction and wake her in the middle of the night.
7:48
Speaker 1: Even more creepy is the fact that it would always
7:51
Speaker 1: play the same song, Pearl Jam's Alive, which reaches the line,
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Speaker 1: I'm still alive, repeated in every chorus. The 2012 movie
8:00
Speaker 1: The Incubus is based on the true ghost stories of
8:03
Speaker 1: the Yankee Peddler Inn, one of New England's most haunted buildings.
8:07
Speaker 1: The only problem was, they decided to film the movie
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Speaker 1: in the building itself. The production of the film was
8:14
Speaker 1: fraught with paranormal events, doors would open in slam and
8:17
Speaker 1: TVs would switch themselves on all by themselves. The director
8:22
Speaker 1: picked the honeymoon suite, the film's certain scenes because the
8:25
Speaker 1: room was big enough for a dolly shot. This was
8:28
Speaker 1: also one of the most haunted rooms in the hotel
8:31
Speaker 1: and the crew found that lights and other equipment would
8:33
Speaker 1: burn out and break when they tried to film in
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Speaker 1: this room. Every cast member was played by terrible vivid
8:39
Speaker 1: nightmares every night during filming. The star of the film,
8:43
Speaker 1: Sarah Paxson, awoke every night thinking that someone was standing
8:47
Speaker 1: in a room watching her sleep. This actually played into
8:51
Speaker 1: the performances in the movie itself. The cast were so
8:55
Speaker 1: jumpy and sleep-deprived that some of their reactions to certain
8:58
Speaker 1: on-screen events were of genuine fear. Here's another remake of
9:02
Speaker 1: a classic cursed movie. The 1976 movie The Omen is
9:07
Speaker 1: another film filled with demonic imagery. Many people who worked
9:11
Speaker 1: on the movie have either died in strange circumstances or
9:14
Speaker 1: have seen horrible tragedy before their family members and loved
9:17
Speaker 1: the movie was released in theaters on June 6, 1976
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Speaker 1: and the number 666 seems to pop up a lot
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Speaker 1: in the tragic events that happened afterwards. For example, special
9:29
Speaker 1: FX man John Richardson was involved in a horrific car
9:32
Speaker 1: crash that killed his girlfriend and severely injured him. When
9:36
Speaker 1: he regained consciousness, the first sign he saw out of
9:39
Speaker 1: his shattered rinse green, read Oman 666, Oman being a
9:44
Speaker 1: Dutch town that was 66.6 kilometers away. The Omen was
9:49
Speaker 1: remade in 2006. It was released in theaters on a
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Speaker 1: 6th as 6th as 6th as 6th and it seemed
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Speaker 1: that the curse came with it. Two days worth of
9:59
Speaker 1: filming was completely destroyed and had to be reshotted after
10:02
Speaker 1: a camera malfunctioned. The camera bore the message, error 666
10:08
Speaker 1: and none other footage could be recovered. The actor Liv
10:11
Speaker 1: Shriver was viciously attacked by a stunt dog. This also
10:16
Speaker 1: occurred in the original movie when the trained dog started
10:18
Speaker 1: to attack actors and had to be dragged away. The
10:22
Speaker 1: strangest occurrence surrounds Pete Possilthwaite who played Father Brennan in
10:26
Speaker 1: the remake. Before filming was finished, Pete's brother suddenly dropped
10:30
Speaker 1: dead during a card game. In his hand he held
10:34
Speaker 1: three a success. There is a film set in Texas
10:38
Speaker 1: owned by Media World Company and is supposed to be haunted.
10:42
Speaker 1: For years, staff have been reporting seeing the apparition of
10:45
Speaker 1: an unknown man as well as having camera equipment move
10:48
Speaker 1: around when nobody was lucky. One person was even slapped
10:52
Speaker 1: in the face by an invisible hand. So frequent with
10:56
Speaker 1: the ghost sightings that film producer Alan Bajan kept a
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Speaker 1: close record of everything that happened. In 2004, he produced
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Speaker 1: a movie based on these events called The Ghost of
11:06
Speaker 1: Good Nightline and decided to use the actual haunted film
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Speaker 1: set to record the scenes. The casting crew complained of
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Speaker 1: flickering lights throughout filming. Fixius would also fall through a
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Speaker 1: ceiling onto people without warning as if someone was dropping
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Speaker 1: them on purpose. Most frightening of all was the disembodied voice.
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Speaker 1: Cast members would hear their name being called by an
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Speaker 1: unknown person from a disused part of the set when
11:31
Speaker 1: they looked for the source of the voice nobody was there.
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Speaker 1: The last remake on the list is the 2005 movie
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Speaker 1: The Amateurville Horror. The movie is based on a supposedly
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Speaker 1: true story of the Lux family who moved into a
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Speaker 1: house that had previously been the scene of a mass murder.
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Speaker 1: 28 days after moving in, the family fled their home
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Speaker 1: claiming that ghosts and demonic entities were terrorizing the family.
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Speaker 1: On the first day of filming, the dead body of
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Speaker 1: a fisherman washed up on the shore of the set.
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Speaker 1: Whilst he was making the movie, the actor Ryan Reynolds
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Speaker 1: would wake every morning at 3.15 a.m. Reynolds was playing
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Speaker 1: George Lutz, the father of the family. The real George
12:13
Speaker 1: Lutz reported that after moving into the Amateurville house, he
12:16
Speaker 1: would awake every morning at 3.15 a.m. and feel compelled
12:19
Speaker 1: to check the boathouse because he was convinced that there
12:22
Speaker 1: was an intruder there. It's the fact that Reynolds woke
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Speaker 1: up at the same time every night and that the
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Speaker 1: body washed up near the boathouse on a film set.
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Speaker 1: Fixius II event even more creepy. And if all this
12:35
Speaker 1: wasn't weird enough, The real George Lutz dropped dead four
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Speaker 1: weeks before the movie was the premiere. This movie is
12:42
Speaker 1: a 2012 film, The Possession. Once again, the movie is
12:47
Speaker 1: based on true events. It's involved with an object called
12:51
Speaker 1: a Dybbuk box. The real-life Dybbuk box is a wine
12:55
Speaker 1: cabinet that supposedly contains a Dybbuk which in Jewish folklore
12:59
Speaker 1: is an angry spirit that can possess living creatures. The
13:03
Speaker 1: box was sold on eBay after the owner reported poltergeist-like phenomena,
13:07
Speaker 1: a string of bad luck and strange dreams since he
13:10
Speaker 1: acquired it. Since then, every owner of the box has
13:14
Speaker 1: reported the smell of cat's urine invading their home, ill
13:17
Speaker 1: health befalling family members and persistent nightmares of an old hag.
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Speaker 1: The movie used a prop box made to look like
13:24
Speaker 1: the real thing, but it seems even the replica of
13:27
Speaker 1: the Dybbuk box could bring the curse of its own.
13:30
Speaker 1: The actors reported a constant eerie feeling of aiding the set.
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Speaker 1: It was as if they were being watched the whole time.
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Speaker 1: Electricals wouldn't work properly with lights exploding for no reason
13:41
Speaker 1: and there was a cold breeze that would pass through
13:43
Speaker 1: the closed set from no apparent source. The weirdest event
13:47
Speaker 1: was the mysterious fire that decimated the warehouse where all
13:51
Speaker 1: the film's props were being held. Even the fake Dybbuk
13:54
Speaker 1: box was destroyed in the blaze. The owner of the
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Speaker 1: real Dybbuk box heard about the fire and offered for
14:00
Speaker 1: it to be used instead of the prop, but by
14:02
Speaker 1: this point the film crew were so freaked out by
14:05
Speaker 1: their paranormal encounters that they refused to let the box
14:08
Speaker 1: onto the set. The idea of a cursed film that
14:11
Speaker 1: affects cast members and production workers is frightening enough, but
14:15
Speaker 1: can a curse also affect the people who watch the movie?
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Speaker 1: As you have seen, I have shown how the Conjuring
14:21
Speaker 1: movie and its spin-off Annabelle both seem to be cursed
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Speaker 1: by a demonic entity. but what about the sequel Conjuring 2?
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Speaker 1: As usual, the filming of the movie was plagued by
14:31
Speaker 1: paranormal events, objects moving, unexplainable sounds, electrical problems, a priest
14:37
Speaker 1: was even called into the blaster set and drive away
14:40
Speaker 1: any malicious entities. But it wasn't until the film was
14:43
Speaker 1: shown in theaters that the real strange events started to occur.
14:48
Speaker 1: During one screening, a man died halfway through the movie.
14:52
Speaker 1: Stranger still, whilst his body was being transported to the morgue,
14:56
Speaker 1: the corpse and the man transporting it disappeared, never to
14:59
Speaker 1: be seen again. One couple survived watching the film in
15:03
Speaker 1: the cinema, but when they returned home, they found a
15:06
Speaker 1: crucifix smudged into the glass of the bathroom mirror. After
15:10
Speaker 1: its home release, many people who bought the movie on
15:13
Speaker 1: disc or streamed it have reported poltergeist activity in their houses.
15:18
Speaker 1: So what do you think? Can a movie really be
15:21
Speaker 1: cursed or could it be a clever marketing ploy? The
15:24
Speaker 1: film is a bit of a lie. As I said,
15:27
Speaker 1: loaded the evil clown video last month, the phenomenon has
15:31
Speaker 1: spread to unprecedented levels. Every day it seems like there
15:35
Speaker 1: are multiple news reports about killer clowns spreading to various
15:38
Speaker 1: parts of the world. The violence involved in these attacks
15:42
Speaker 1: is increasing also. I don't think it's an exaggeration to
15:46
Speaker 1: describe what is happening right now as a clown blood frenzy.
15:50
Speaker 1: As Halloween approaches, I can only expect these clown attacks
15:54
Speaker 1: to increase in number and violence. Here is the latest
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Speaker 1: clown news from around the world. Here in the UK,
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Speaker 1: the number of sightings has got so high that papers
16:04
Speaker 1: are now printing clown maps to show hotspots and danger
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Speaker 1: areas where clown attacks have occurred. An Instagram account calling
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Speaker 1: itself clowns are coming to Essex or loaded a photo
16:14
Speaker 1: taken outside but all apart school above an image of
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Speaker 1: Pennywise the clown with the message, Clowns are coming to
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Speaker 1: Essex next on Wednesday at 230, 20 clowns with a knife.
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Speaker 1: Good luck. They also posted that they are going to
16:28
Speaker 1: go to every school in Essex and were looking for
16:31
Speaker 1: suggestions on where to target next. One school had to
16:35
Speaker 1: lock its students indoors over their lunch break because two
16:38
Speaker 1: clowns were seen hiding near the school gates. The Instagram
16:42
Speaker 1: accounts were soon shut down but a wave of nighttime
16:45
Speaker 1: clown sightings has since swept the Essex area. In County Durham,
16:50
Speaker 1: a clown with a knife jumped out at the group
16:52
Speaker 1: of school students and followed them to school. Although the
16:55
Speaker 1: pupils were terrified, they were not harmed but the clown
16:58
Speaker 1: has still not been caught. A man in Plymouth was
17:02
Speaker 1: walking home one night when he was confronted by a
17:04
Speaker 1: clown wielding a hammer. He managed to chase off the
17:08
Speaker 1: clown and record the encounter in this dramatic footage. Alright basically,
17:13
Speaker 1: oh it's not even on me. Basically I've seen this clown.
17:18
Speaker 1: I've just gone and got myself a crater there from
17:21
Speaker 1: Tesco and now I want to walk out but he's
17:23
Speaker 1: standing in the way thinking he's some some sort of joker.
17:26
Speaker 1: Let's open up this tray. Here we do mate. What
17:31
Speaker 1: are we doing? I want to get past. I want
17:35
Speaker 1: to go out. Oh, what the fuck? Come on then. Yeah,
17:41
Speaker 1: fuck off mate. You got your bud with you. It's
17:45
Speaker 1: all good. Perhaps the clown will return when it can
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Speaker 1: find an easier target. Clown sightings have also been reported
17:53
Speaker 1: in Australia and New Zealand. In Halton, New Zealand, a
17:58
Speaker 1: 22-year-old woman was attacked and beaten by two men dressed
18:01
Speaker 1: as clowns. A Brisbane woman was parking her car where
18:05
Speaker 1: clown appeared, he pulled out a knife and ran at
18:07
Speaker 1: her vehicle. She was able to drive off and almost
18:11
Speaker 1: ran over the clown in an effort to get away.
18:14
Speaker 1: In Adelaide, Two 12-year-old girls were terrorized by someone dressed
18:18
Speaker 1: as a clown. He tried to steal one of their
18:21
Speaker 1: phones and kicked the girls but they fought back and
18:24
Speaker 1: were able to escape to a nearby diner. This wave
18:28
Speaker 1: of attacks in Australia and New Zealand has earned itself
18:31
Speaker 1: the name, the Clown Purge. I referenced in a movie
18:35
Speaker 1: the purge in which people don't mask and start the
18:37
Speaker 1: streets committing violent crimes. All over the world, people are
18:41
Speaker 1: fighting back against this Clown Purge. These videos show people
18:46
Speaker 1: attacking creepy clowns in the street and police are actively
18:49
Speaker 1: arresting anyone caught dressing as a clown to scare people.
18:53
Speaker 1: The question is, will this stop the clowns or will
18:56
Speaker 1: it just make them mad? In the run up to Halloween,
19:00
Speaker 1: are we going to see holds of angry clowns stalking
19:02
Speaker 1: the streets out for revenge? Only time will tell. FBI
19:07
Speaker 1: crime statistics tell us that there are between 25 and
19:10
Speaker 1: 50 serial killers operating in the USA at any given time.
19:15
Speaker 1: If you think about it, this clown hysteria would be
19:17
Speaker 1: the perfect time for a bunch of those serial killers
19:20
Speaker 1: to clown up and start killing people at random. There
19:23
Speaker 1: are enough hoax clowns running about trying to spook people
19:26
Speaker 1: that it would be easy to deflect a blame onto
19:29
Speaker 1: one of them and get away with murdering someone. According
19:32
Speaker 1: to this map, I live directly in a killer clown hotspot.
19:36
Speaker 1: I'm going to be keeping a vigilant eye out for
19:39
Speaker 1: any clown attacks in the future, so stay tuned for
19:41
Speaker 1: more clown news.