Killjoy is a horror film franchise which focuses on the titular Killjoy, a demonic clown who is summoned to assist revenge plots in all three films, only to prove too overwhelming for each character who calls him. Produced by Full Moon Features, the series was established in 2000 with the eponymous first installment, starring Ángel Vargas. A sequel, Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil, followed in 2002, which saw Trent Haaga replace Vargas for the role of Killjoy due to Vargas being busy with other projects. In spite of the negative reception of both films, Full Moon filmed a third installment while shooting Puppet Master: Axis of Evil in China, and in 2010 Killjoy 3 was released. Haaga reprised his role for Killjoy 3, eight years after the release of the previous film.
The original film was essentially an effort in the blaxploitation genre, and this was carried over to a lesser extent in Deliverance from Evil. Both of these films consisted of a largely African American cast, however this element was greatly diminished for Killjoy 3, which was presented as something of a teen-slasher film. The titular character, as a clown, makes a number of crude jokes throughout the first two installments, however Killjoy 3 appears to be a genuine effort in black comedy. The third installment was also a first in establishing that Killjoy can be summoned through a blood pact; two different spoken rituals are used in the earlier films. The first film had a significantly more generous budget than its sequel, at a projected $150,000, dwarfing the $30,000 budget of Deliverance from Evil.
Plot[]
Killjoy[]
Initially set in an urban community, the series opens with Michael, a dorky adolescent whose interest in a gang leader's girlfriend gets him in a fight with the group, composed of T-Bone, Baby Boy, and Lorenzo. Lorenzo's girlfriend, Jada, is flattered by Michael's feelings for her, but suggests that he stay away from her for his safety. After Lorenzo's gang attacks him, Michael turns to black magic to summon the personification of an unsettling clown doll he calls Killjoy. Michael's plan is to use Killjoy to take vengeance on Lorenzo and his friends, however before Michael can see his tormentors exterminated, he is killed when Lorenzo, teasing him with a seemingly unloaded gun, fires a live round into his chest. Lorenzo, T-Bone, Baby Boy and even Jada continue with their lives, however Jada does not forget Michael.
One year passes and Jada is now dating a man named Jamal, while Lorenzo is sleeping with Kahara, a woman much like Jada. When Lorenzo leaves his friends to meet with Kahara, T-Bone and Baby Boy follow the sound of an ice cream van, in hopes of satisfying their munchies. The driver, dressed in a clown costume, convinces the two gang members to step into the back of his van with the promise of drugs. T-Bone and Baby Boy are warped into a derelict building, where they are pursued by the clown Killjoy, having materialized one year after his summoning. Baby Boy is ran into a wall by Killjoy's van, while T-Bone is incinerated after puffing on a joint he finds lodged in a fence. After both are slain by Killjoy, their lifeless bodies reappear where Lorenzo left them shortly before they left in search of ice cream, with wounds reminiscent of how they died in Killjoy's world.
Lorenzo is the next target to be chosen by Killjoy. After luring Lorenzo out of his apartment building and into the van, thereby transporting him to Killjoy's world, the clown taunts Lorenzo into firing a number of bullets into his body, which Killjoy then spits back at Lorenzo, effectively shooting him to death. Kahara follows a trail of blood from Lorenzo's apartment to the van outside the building, where she finds his corpse in the back of the vehicle. Killjoy then ambushes her.
Meanwhile one of Jada's friends, Monique, pages her and demands to meet Jada at her apartment. Jamal accompanies her to Monique's home, where Monique's guest, a homeless man who witnessed one of Lorenzo's attacks on Michael, explains that Michael was pressured into summoning Killjoy before his death, and that Jada will be the key to vanquishing Killjoy and the doll used in the ritual that created him. Jada and her friends find and access Killjoy's van, where the clown ambushes them, having turned his victims Lorenzo, T-Bone and Baby Boy into something of a posse. After the gangsters are slain, Killjoy submits and transforms into Michael, who reveals that he still wants Jada to be his girlfriend. Jada feigns interest, and stabs Michael to death when he drops his guard. Killjoy respawns along with Lorenzo, T-Bone and Baby Boy, and the demons chase Jada and her friends into the back of Killjoy's van, where they find themselves transported to Michael's room, left the way it was on the night he summoned Killjoy one year prior.
When Jada attempts to slice apart the Killjoy doll, the figure transforms into Michael, who pleads for another chance with her. Jada relents for a moment, before slaying Michael once again, after which Lorenzo's gang is destroyed once and for all, and Killjoy devours Michael. To celebrate their victory, the trio visit a club where an acquaintance of Jada's is quickly replaced with images of Killjoy, Lorenzo and friends. Jada then wakes up from the nightmare to Jamal, who opts to calm her nerves with oral sex. Jada is once again terrified when the figure underneath the bed covers is Killjoy and not Jamal.
Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil[]
The story of Michael and Killjoy is apparently passed down through certain channels, as a young woman is told the tale by her grandmother to deter her from playing with black magic. The girl, dubbed Ce-Ce, is one of five delinquents en route to a detention center, with Denise Martinez and Harris Redding as their presiding officers. Their trip to Loxahatchee Canyon is cut short however when their van breaks down. While scouting the area for signs of help, Redding, Nic and Ray-Ray find a seemingly empty home. When Ray-Ray breaks inside to search for a telephone however, a redneck girl shoots him in the chest with a shotgun. The woman threatens the two other men, forcing Redding to shoot her to death. He and Nic then carry the dying Ray-Ray back to the van, while Redding stays behind to continue searching the house for a phone. The group as a whole then leave the van in search of a working vehicle or a telephone, and are hopeful when they encounter another house.
The owner of the home, Kadja Boszo, has neither a vehicle nor a phone, but tries to quell Ray-Ray using voodoo magic, to the group's frustration and disbelief. Nic steps outside to gather his wits, and when Ce-Ce joins him he convinces her to summon Killjoy, the spirit her grandmother warned her about. She performs the ritual but Killjoy does not appear to them. Nic and Ce-Ce then have sex in the forest after Nic promises to share any drugs he may be carrying. Realizing Nic lied so she would be more vulnerable, Ce-Ce leaves and stops by an outhouse. Killjoy appears after all, taunting her from outside the outhouse. He then removes his chattering teeth from his mouth and slips them through the door, using them to devour Ce-Ce.
Next Killjoy encounters another delinquent, Eddie, pumping water in the forest. Killjoy telekinetically lifts Eddie off the ground and impales him on the pump, then delightfully pumps his blood. Nic returns to Boszo's house but leaves again before long, after hearing that Ray-Ray has died and Ce-Ce and Eddie are missing. He takes Martinez's gun and wanders into the forest where Killjoy again telekinetically controls Nic into cutting into his face with a pocket knife. Boszo is also slain by Killjoy while performing a ritual to destroy him. The clown finally sets his sights on the house, where Martinez and Charlotte wait in hiding. Martinez is quickly incapacitated while Killjoy taunts Charlotte, condoning her to read aloud from a book Boszo said would protect her. Killjoy loses interest and prepares to kill her, but is briefly deterred when Redding finally returns carrying the redneck's shotgun. Killjoy telekinetically tosses aside the gun, but is distracted long enough for Charlotte to douse his face in holy water, vanquishing Killjoy. A park ranger rescues the survivors at the break of dawn.
Killjoy 3[]
Some time passes and Killjoy is once again called, this time through a blood pact. Immediately he resorts to using the blood spilled by his summoner to create three underlings, which he dubs Punchy, Freakshow and Batty Boop. However the man does not name a victim for Killjoy, leaving the scene without doing so. This causes Killjoy and his posse to vanish and return to their world.
Meanwhile a college student named Sandy is watching over her professor's house while he is gone from town, along with her friends Rojer, Erica and Zilla. While fetching the morning newspaper, Rojer finds a sack on the professor's doorstep. He carries it into the house, however Sandy protests against opening it. They decide to uncover the contents that night when Erica and Zilla return, and doing so, they find an ornate mirror which they hang on the professor's wall. That night Zilla inspects the mirror on his own, whereby he is transported to Killjoy's world. Killjoy stages a boxing match between Zilla and Punchy which nearly kills Zilla, however his friends discover his physical body and successfully resuscitate him, rescuing his consciousness from Killjoy's world. Furthermore, a barrier has been placed over the house, trapping the group indoors.
Erica is the next to fall victim to the mirror, and soon enough Killjoy makes his presence known by communicating with the three students through the mirror, beckoning them to join him in his world. He reveals his plan to dine on Erica, and invites the group to his feast. The professor returns home and is quickly informed of the situation, however he is not surprised, having summoned Killjoy in the first place. Sandy, Rojer, Zilla and the professor enter Killjoy's world through the mirror, and each person faces a different demon. Zilla manages to convince Punchy not to be Killjoy's slave, the professor escapes Freakshow and Rojer is seduced by Batty Boop, while Sandy leads Killjoy on long enough for Boop to jealously confront him. Killjoy berates her for ironically coming onto another man, and then destroys her. The group then fails to save Erica at the dinner, before Killjoy's posse slices her apart on a silver platter. A battle ensues wherein Freakshow is vanquished with salt, and Zilla suggests Punchy take this opportunity to strike back against Killjoy, who slays him for his insolence. Rojer is also killed during the encounter by having his head whacked off with a giant mallet.
The professor finally enacts his plan to say the name Killjoy originally went by in antiquity, in an effort to subdue him. He also reveals himself to be the father of Michael, whose soul Killjoy exploited before destroying. The professor chose not to name a victim while initially summoning Killjoy because the target of his revenge was ultimately Killjoy himself. The clown applauds the professor for his deviousness in using both himself and the students alike to achieve his revenge. Killjoy proclaims that the souls he consumes become a part of him, and the spirit of Michael appears, consoling his father. With the professor's guard down, Killjoy slays him as well by smashing him with the giant mallet. The two survivors, Sandy and Zilla, resort to laughter to quell the clown, but Zilla is killed when Killjoy taunts them while actually trying to be humorous. Sandy continues to laugh at Killjoy while shouting his original name, which incapacitates him long enough for her to return to the mirror and be transported to her world. Killjoy then explodes in a fit of innards. Sandy is shown to be committed for insanity, having not stopped laughing since the ordeal, and under the suspicion of murdering her friends and the professor.
Killjoy Goes to Hell[]
Killjoy is back in the fourth installment of the demonic clown series. This time Killjoy is being accused of not being evil, since he let one of his victims (Sandie) get away. Killjoy must rely on his only chance of proving how evil he really is... get Sandie into hell as his witness. "The bad clown is going down!"
Characters[]
| Characters | Film | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Killjoy | Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil | Killjoy 3 | Killjoy Goes to Hell | |||||||||||||||
| Killjoy | Angel Vargas | Trent Haaga | ||||||||||||||||
| Sandie | Jessica Whitaker | |||||||||||||||||
| Batty Boop | Victoria De Mare | |||||||||||||||||
| Punchy | Al Burke | |||||||||||||||||
| Freakshow | Tai Chan Ngo | |||||||||||||||||
| Michael | Jamal Grimes | Quentin Miles | ||||||||||||||||
| Jada | Vera Yell | |||||||||||||||||
| Lorenzo | William L. Johnson | |||||||||||||||||
| Jamal | Lee Marks | |||||||||||||||||
| Monique | "D" Austin | |||||||||||||||||
| T-Bone | Corey Hampton | |||||||||||||||||
| Baby Boy | Rani Goulant | |||||||||||||||||
| Homeless Man | Arthur Burghardt | |||||||||||||||||
| Kahara | Napiera Danielle Groves | |||||||||||||||||
| Denise Martinez | Debbie Rochon | |||||||||||||||||
| Nic | Charles Austin | |||||||||||||||||
| Charlotte | Olimpia Fernandez | |||||||||||||||||
| Eddie | Jermaine Cheeseborough | |||||||||||||||||
| Ce-Ce | Nicole Pulliam | |||||||||||||||||
| Ray-Ray | Choice Skinner | |||||||||||||||||
| Harris Redding | Logan Alexander | |||||||||||||||||
| Kadja | Rhonda Claerbaut | |||||||||||||||||
| Rojer | Michael Rupnow | |||||||||||||||||
| Zilla | Spiral Jackson | |||||||||||||||||
| Erica | Olivia Dawn York | |||||||||||||||||
| The Professor | Darrow Igus | |||||||||||||||||
| Detective Ericson | Jason Robert Moore | |||||||||||||||||
| Beelzebub | Stephen Cardwell | |||||||||||||||||
| Baliff | Ian Roberts | |||||||||||||||||
| Skid Mark | John Karyus | |||||||||||||||||
| Jezabeth | Aqueela Zoll | |||||||||||||||||
| Scribe | Jim Tavaré | |||||||||||||||||
| Detective Grimley | Cecil Burroughs | |||||||||||||||||
| Dr. Simmons | Randy Mermell | |||||||||||||||||
Films[]
| Film | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Killjoy (2000) | Craig Ross | Carl Washington | Mel Johnson, Jr. |
| Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil (2002) | Tammi Sutton | Charles Band | |
| Killjoy 3 (2010) | John Lechago | Charles Band | |
| Killjoy Goes to Hell (2012) | John Lechago | Charles Band | |