I was looking forward to this episode,
because it was one that stood out well in my memory. I wish I'd
remembered how insanely depressing it was. It's an awesome episode,
that makes the most hardened horror fan want to break down in tears.
It's definitely not what I was expecting from Tom Holland, director
of Child's Play.
The premise of the story is that a
group of kids played a cruel prank on an ice cream-selling clown
named Buster (William Forsythe). Their intention is to distract him,
and release the breaks on his truck so that it rolls down hill. The
kids don't seem to have any real comprehension of how dangerous a
run-away vehicle is, and with the exception of Virgil (Samuel Patrick
Chu as a child, Colin Cunningham as an adult), they're all horrified
when the truck hits and kills Buster.
Years later, Buster's ghost returns for
revenge. He has the obvious powers for an ice cream clown ghost. He
can mind-control children, freeze anything in his vicinity, and
create voodoo ice cream that causes the victim to melt when eaten.
So, Buster feeds the ice-cream to the children of the boys, now men,
responsible for his death.
In the climax of the episode Buster is
killed when one of the children eats ice cream created to destroy
him, so apparently feeding it to those specific children was just for
added punishment. Alternatively, it could be to give the parents
least likely to produce bad children a chance at survival. Either
way, the ice cream seems to be effective regardless of who eat is.Our
hero, Layne (Lee Tergesen), survives mainly because he's apparently
the only one aware enough of his children to stop them from randomly
wandering outside in the middle of the night. Virgil, on the other
other hand, is unaware of his child-by-rape, and thus has absolutely
no protection.
All of this sounds like it should be a
horror-comedy, which actually makes the episode more effective. It
completely subverts that expectation. Buster is played as a
completely realistic clown. He has a stutter, and tries to hide his
fury when Virgil taunts him, and rips off his clown nose revealing
that his real nose was lost in some sort of accident. He's a guy
who's great with kids, but is still running a business, and is trying
to not let one kid ruin the experience for everyone else.
As a ghost, though, William Forsythe
does a great job of making him legitimately intimidating. He isn't
the Joker. He's a guy with a job who has had enough. He makes a few
jokes, but for the most part has taken off the kid gloves.
It seems to be a minor plot-point that
the children have to want revenge on their fathers for some reason,
but this element goes nowhere. It's made pretty clear that Buster
can control the children based on even the most insanely minor fault
in their parents. So, this is an element the episode would probably
have been better off without, especially since the children seem to
be in a trance, and constantly assert that Buster's ice cream is “the
best ice cream in the whole world.”
Ultimately, this episode boils down to
a great tragedy. You feel for both Buster, and for the men being
punished for something stupid they did as kids. There is no good
answer, nor easy solution. I recommend it, certainly, but only if
you're in the mood for tears.
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