DIRECTOR Conor McMahon WRITER Conor McMahon; David O’Brien STARS Ross Noble; Tommy Knight; Eoghan McQuinn CINEMA 26 October
The commonness of coulrophobia makes it a fear ripe for exploitation, and to play on the funniness of the object of dread ought to be an easy balance for a talented screenwriter. Nevertheless, the lacklustre Stitches features little by way of horror or indeed comedy, relying on thinly spread visual gags over real thought. When considering that the titular role of killer-clown-back-from-the-dead-for-revenge is played by comic Ross Noble, this is a missed opportunity.
It may be that director and co-writer Conor McMahon believed Noble’s presence a trump card in itself, but giving the man such predictable one-liners — again, thinly spread — to regurgitate highlights a very clear lack of direction that stumbles between gross-out effects that, admittedly, are done very well. Regardless, Stitches is summed up best as simply a waste of time.
