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Amusement (film)
Encyclopedia
Amusement is an American 2009 horror film
directed by John Simpson and starring Katheryn Winnick
, Laura Breckenridge
and Jessica Lucas
. The film went direct-to-video
in January 2009. It is the last film to be distributed by Picturehouse Entertainment.
After they are on the road again, Shelby sees the same girl put a "Help Me" sign in the back window of the semi. The girl eventually jumps from the semi and lands on their car. The two cars stop and the driver of the Jeep along with Rob and Shelby get out to help the girl. The semi keeps on driving. Rob gets back in his car and chases the semi to get his plates. The driver ends up cornering Rob and then taking off back down the hill. When Rob gets back to where the others are, the driver of the Jeep says that the semi driver took the girls. They get in the guy's Jeep and chase down the semi to an old house. When they arrive, the driver of the Jeep says he wants to go first to try and stop the semi driver.
Meanwhile, Rob waits in the Jeep and hears a noise. He finds a cb-radio in the center console, and hears another noise in the back seat. He turns and sees movement under a tarp. He removes the tarp only to find the two girls bound and gagged. Then, after bashing the skull of the semi driver, the driver of the Jeep comes back laughing and breaks the window of the Jeep and attacks Rob.
After that, Tabitha goes into the guest bedroom upstairs and sees that the entire room is decorated with clown
toys. She looks around and sees a life-size one that she finds a bit creepy. She goes to bed, but the thunderstorm wakes her up. Still spooked by the clown, she turns around with the back of her head facing the it so she will not be able to see. Unbeknownst to her after she had turned away, the clown's head turns to see her. Later, the phone rings. Tabitha walks to answer, not knowing that the clown had been watching her all along. The caller is her aunt, checking on the children. Tabitha tells her that she 'likes' her new house but admits that she is a bit spooked by the clown - the big one. Her aunt states that she does not own any life-sized clown toy. Tabitha looks in the room and sees the empty rocking-chair moving. Terrified, she slips into the boys room and locks it. Tabitha whispering to them to wake up and tells them to hide, as a very bad man is in the house. The boys say that it is just Owen, wanting to play.
After the older boy says that Owen just wants to have fun, triple-blade spikes go through the door several times and misses stabbing Tabitha by inches. She pulls their dresser against the door, and gets the boys out by the window and tells them to go to their neighbor's house and get help. The clown breaks the dresser and reaches out for Tabitha. She throws a lamp at him and climbs out of the window. The clown stands up and attempt to stab her but misses. Tabitha falls down and runs to the shed. She opens a closet where she finds the babysitter's corpse. As the dead body falls pinning her down, the clown enters the room laughing with a knife and the scene ends.
The scene cuts to Tabitha in a police interrogation room, appearing disoriented and in shock. A therapist comes in to talk with her. She asks her about her friends; Lisa. Tabitha then starts having flashbacks to memories of her friends when they were still kids. The girls were showing off their art out of a shoebox with a peephole. In the interior, their creative decoration varied. Tabitha's was a circus, Shelby's was a farm with a 65 km/ph speed limit road sign, and Lisa's was a sleepover with three dolls. The young Tabitha then looks at the boy's art, and sees a rat being chained up, with its skin open. The boy states, "It's funny, right?" To which she replied, "No.... it isn't."
After dark and many unanswered calls, Lisa impatiently sneaks in the house and goes in a room with beds. She meets a man who is deaf who appears to help her. She finds dead bodies confined in the beds, and her friend Cat, who is still alive. While trying to free Cat, the deaf man turns out to be the killer and subdues her.
They try to make a run together. But the killer stabs Lisa when she opens the wrong door. Tabitha and Shelby run away. They begin climbing a ladder with the killer in pursuit. He climbs up behind them and grabs hold of Shelby's ankle. Both fall down to the basement floor. Tabitha continues to climb, saddened by what she saw. Once at ground level, she is caged. Soon an elevator comes on and she realizes the killer is coming up. She hides in what she thinks is a closet. She finds the clown mask, costume, and the dead bodies of other people the Killer had murdered for making fun of him when he was a child each with their initials carved in their skulls. The killer surprises her as he looks through the peep hole and locks her in the room. She realizes she's in the back of a truck. The truck does not make it far from the house (which is the same house from the beginning of the movie). Tabitha takes hold one of the spiked handles and waits. Taking a last look, he laughs while looking through the peep hole again. Tabitha stabs him through the eye, killing him, and she makes the remark: "Now that was funny."
The truck drives away, with Tabitha talking about how she and her friends had laughed at him when they were kids. Thinking that he was a joke. And that after he was sent away, they had forgotten him - but he never did. The film ends with her remarking that even though it's all over, she still cannot get his laugh out of her head. And his laugh is heard, again.
and Picturehouse Entertainment.
ultimately decided to release it direct-to-video
on January 20, 2009. It was released on DVD
in Australia
on February 5, 2009 and on March 23, 2009 in the United Kingdom
.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by John Simpson and starring Katheryn Winnick
Katheryn Winnick
Katheryn Winnick is a Canadian film and television actress.-Life and career:Etobicoke-born Winnick, who is of Ukrainian descent and speaks fluent Ukrainian, has appeared in numerous studio films including Paramount's Failure to Launch and New Line's Amusement.She has guest starred in multiple...
, Laura Breckenridge
Laura Breckenridge
Laura Breckenridge is an American actress born in Flourtown, Pennsylvania, most noted for her portrayal of 19-year-old college student Rose Sorelli on The WB's Related as a young woman who switches her major from pre-med to experimental theater...
and Jessica Lucas
Jessica Lucas
Jessica Lucas is a Canadian actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in Melrose Place, She's the Man and Cloverfield.-Early life:...
. The film went direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
in January 2009. It is the last film to be distributed by Picturehouse Entertainment.
Plot
In the opening credits, the audience are shown still pictures of three girls when they were children, as adolescent, and as young adults. The girls are Tabitha Wright, Lisa Swan and Shelby Leds. These girls have great potential- "to succeed, be famous, and shine" respectively, according to their senior class yearbooks. It also shows a young unnamed boy who is very psychologically disturbed as it clearly states in his psychiatric report, and that he is extremely dangerous and currently detained.Shelby
Shelby and her boyfriend Rob are on the highway headed to Cincinnati. On the way there, they join a convoy of vehicles. The convoy decides to pull over for gas. Rob meets the drivers of the two vehicles in the convoy. The driver of the semi tells them that the highway ahead has bad traffic and he can show them an alternate route. While at the car, Shelby sees a woman in the window of the semi who looks scared.After they are on the road again, Shelby sees the same girl put a "Help Me" sign in the back window of the semi. The girl eventually jumps from the semi and lands on their car. The two cars stop and the driver of the Jeep along with Rob and Shelby get out to help the girl. The semi keeps on driving. Rob gets back in his car and chases the semi to get his plates. The driver ends up cornering Rob and then taking off back down the hill. When Rob gets back to where the others are, the driver of the Jeep says that the semi driver took the girls. They get in the guy's Jeep and chase down the semi to an old house. When they arrive, the driver of the Jeep says he wants to go first to try and stop the semi driver.
Meanwhile, Rob waits in the Jeep and hears a noise. He finds a cb-radio in the center console, and hears another noise in the back seat. He turns and sees movement under a tarp. He removes the tarp only to find the two girls bound and gagged. Then, after bashing the skull of the semi driver, the driver of the Jeep comes back laughing and breaks the window of the Jeep and attacks Rob.
Tabitha
Tabitha is in front of a big house which is later revealed as her aunt's. She goes in and finds her two cousins; Max and Danny. She asks the boys where the babysitter is and they say that she had already left. Later that evening, once the boys are in bed, Tabitha hears a knock on the door. She heads over to see who it is, but does not know as the person is wearing a hooded-raincoat. Tabitha asks who he is and the man tells her that he is the babysitter's boyfriend, Owen, and that she missed cheerleading practice and is growing worried. Tabitha admits that the babysitter had already left, but that she knows nothing else.After that, Tabitha goes into the guest bedroom upstairs and sees that the entire room is decorated with clown
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
toys. She looks around and sees a life-size one that she finds a bit creepy. She goes to bed, but the thunderstorm wakes her up. Still spooked by the clown, she turns around with the back of her head facing the it so she will not be able to see. Unbeknownst to her after she had turned away, the clown's head turns to see her. Later, the phone rings. Tabitha walks to answer, not knowing that the clown had been watching her all along. The caller is her aunt, checking on the children. Tabitha tells her that she 'likes' her new house but admits that she is a bit spooked by the clown - the big one. Her aunt states that she does not own any life-sized clown toy. Tabitha looks in the room and sees the empty rocking-chair moving. Terrified, she slips into the boys room and locks it. Tabitha whispering to them to wake up and tells them to hide, as a very bad man is in the house. The boys say that it is just Owen, wanting to play.
After the older boy says that Owen just wants to have fun, triple-blade spikes go through the door several times and misses stabbing Tabitha by inches. She pulls their dresser against the door, and gets the boys out by the window and tells them to go to their neighbor's house and get help. The clown breaks the dresser and reaches out for Tabitha. She throws a lamp at him and climbs out of the window. The clown stands up and attempt to stab her but misses. Tabitha falls down and runs to the shed. She opens a closet where she finds the babysitter's corpse. As the dead body falls pinning her down, the clown enters the room laughing with a knife and the scene ends.
The scene cuts to Tabitha in a police interrogation room, appearing disoriented and in shock. A therapist comes in to talk with her. She asks her about her friends; Lisa. Tabitha then starts having flashbacks to memories of her friends when they were still kids. The girls were showing off their art out of a shoebox with a peephole. In the interior, their creative decoration varied. Tabitha's was a circus, Shelby's was a farm with a 65 km/ph speed limit road sign, and Lisa's was a sleepover with three dolls. The young Tabitha then looks at the boy's art, and sees a rat being chained up, with its skin open. The boy states, "It's funny, right?" To which she replied, "No.... it isn't."
Lisa
Lisa is with her boyfriend Dan looking for her roommate, Cat, who had disappeared the night before. They go to an old hotel that Cat said she will be at. Lisa tries to get in but failed. She then goes to her Dan and asks if he can make up something to get in. He says that he is a health inspector. He then goes in the place and finds a music player. The man says that there is a surprise in the end, which is a knife flying out of the speakers, stabbing him in the eye.After dark and many unanswered calls, Lisa impatiently sneaks in the house and goes in a room with beds. She meets a man who is deaf who appears to help her. She finds dead bodies confined in the beds, and her friend Cat, who is still alive. While trying to free Cat, the deaf man turns out to be the killer and subdues her.
The Briar Hills Connection: The Final Confrontation
Back at the police station, Tabitha is being grilled by the therapist who asks her about her friend Shelby. Tabitha says that they were all good friends at school but have not met in years. Tabitha seemed puzzled and asks how she knows about her hometown of Briar Hills. She tells Tabby about a young boy she had as a patient. Before she walks out of the room she tells Tabitha that Lisa and Shelby are also here, and to sit tight because she will be back after she finds "a phone that works." The therapist has an uneasy feeling and quickly leaves the room. The door opens and shuts. Tabitha, still puzzled and scared, walks out of the room after opening the unlocked door and soon understands why the therapist left in a hurry, it turns out they are not at the police station after all. At the end of the hallway she sees the therapist lying on the floor. She goes to the body and then sees the officer approaching. Tabitha realizes he's not a cop when he begins his trademark maniac laugh - he is the killer. He chases her around and down the basement. Eventually Tabby is trapped and pinned in between two glass walls. When the lights come on behind Tabby sees Lisa and then Shelby, both are chained up and their skin opened. The killer comes in, initially taunting them all but then shows Tabitha that the two girls are virtually unharmed, and that 'their opened-skin' is a trick. Realizing now, he will harm Shelby for real she pretends to laugh. As he comes to her, Tabitha stabs him in the neck with a scalpel she had hid in her hand. Eventually she is able to help her friends break free.They try to make a run together. But the killer stabs Lisa when she opens the wrong door. Tabitha and Shelby run away. They begin climbing a ladder with the killer in pursuit. He climbs up behind them and grabs hold of Shelby's ankle. Both fall down to the basement floor. Tabitha continues to climb, saddened by what she saw. Once at ground level, she is caged. Soon an elevator comes on and she realizes the killer is coming up. She hides in what she thinks is a closet. She finds the clown mask, costume, and the dead bodies of other people the Killer had murdered for making fun of him when he was a child each with their initials carved in their skulls. The killer surprises her as he looks through the peep hole and locks her in the room. She realizes she's in the back of a truck. The truck does not make it far from the house (which is the same house from the beginning of the movie). Tabitha takes hold one of the spiked handles and waits. Taking a last look, he laughs while looking through the peep hole again. Tabitha stabs him through the eye, killing him, and she makes the remark: "Now that was funny."
The truck drives away, with Tabitha talking about how she and her friends had laughed at him when they were kids. Thinking that he was a joke. And that after he was sent away, they had forgotten him - but he never did. The film ends with her remarking that even though it's all over, she still cannot get his laugh out of her head. And his laugh is heard, again.
Cast
- Keir O'DonnellKeir O'DonnellKeir O'Donnell is an Australian actor best known for his roles in the comedy films Wedding Crashers and Paul Blart: Mall Cop...
as The Laugh - Katheryn WinnickKatheryn WinnickKatheryn Winnick is a Canadian film and television actress.-Life and career:Etobicoke-born Winnick, who is of Ukrainian descent and speaks fluent Ukrainian, has appeared in numerous studio films including Paramount's Failure to Launch and New Line's Amusement.She has guest starred in multiple...
as Taura Breckenridge]] as Shelby Leds - Jessica LucasJessica LucasJessica Lucas is a Canadian actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in Melrose Place, She's the Man and Cloverfield.-Early life:...
as Lisa Swan - Tad HilgenbrinkTad HilgenbrinkTad M. Hilgenbrinck is an American actor, known for his role as Matt Stifler in American Pie Presents: Band Camp and The Hills Run Red.-Early life and career:...
as Rob - Reid ScottReid ScottReid Scott is a retired lawyer and provincial judge in Canada, and a former New Democratic Party of Member of Parliament for the Danforth electoral district, in Toronto, from 1962 to 1968, leaving federal politics when his riding disappeared due to redistribution...
as Dan - Rena OwenRena OwenRena Owen is a New Zealand actress in film, theatre and television. She is of Maori, Torres Strait Islander and Pakeha descent. Owen is most well known in the lead role of Beth in the cult classic movie Once Were Warriors directed by Lee Tamahori...
as Psychiatrist - Kevin Gage as Tryton
- Brennan BaileyBrennan BaileyBrennan Bailey is an American actor, best known for his role as Danny in 2008 film Amusement. He is the brother of actor Preston Bailey. In 2010, he was nominated for a Young Artist Award for his short role in My Sister's Keeper...
as Danny - Preston BaileyPreston BaileyPreston Bailey is an American child actor who started acting at the age of two. He is probably most known for appearing in the Showtime TV series Dexter and for starring in such as films Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, Children of the Corn, and The Crazies.-Biography:Bailey was born in...
as Max - Shauna Duggins as Woman In Truck
- Fernanda Dorogi as Cat
- Eyad Kurd-Misto as Young Laugh
- Karley Scott Collins as Young Tabitha
- Jadin Gould as Young Shelby
- Alisha Boe as Young Lisa
Production
The film was produced by Macari/Edelstein, New Line CinemaNew Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
and Picturehouse Entertainment.
Release
The film was originally slated to hit theaters in January 2008, but was pushed back to April 25 and then again to September 12. It was pushed back once more to December 26, but Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
ultimately decided to release it direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
on January 20, 2009. It was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on February 5, 2009 and on March 23, 2009 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Release dates
- October 9: ThailandThailandThailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
(Theatrical) - November 7: TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
(Theatrical) - January 20: United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(DVD) - February 5: AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(DVD) - March 23: United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(DVD)