Tabloid reporters Jennifer (Georgia Chris) and Mark (Joe Davison, who also wrote the film’s screenplay) are in need of a scoop… and boy do they find one in the case of The Teardrop Killer; a serial killer that has been avoiding capture for two decades.
As fate would have it, ol’ T-Kill strikes again at a local halfway house, and during their investigative journalism-bag, our heroes learn that the killer is, in reality, Gurdy the Clown (Jack Amos)… a wronged circus performer who evened the score, then just couldn’t stop all that killin’!
Will our hard-writin’ heroes be able to end Gurdy’s reign of terror before the body count becomes too high… or more accurately “too much higher than the ridiculous heights it’s already reached”?!!
Look, murderous clowns have been done to death (though in this film’s defense, it came out before the Terrifier series tickled everyone’s taints… ), but stay with me here; 100 Tears is a good ‘un!
Now I could stop right there, but that would make this review rather shitty (and everyone knows I need no help in the “making a shitty review” department… ) so moving on…
Coming from director Marcus Koch (primarily an effects maestro by trade) and the aforementioned Davison, 100 Tears has a lot to leave gorehounds with a smile 666 miles wide on their face, but there’s plenty more on display that make this one a wicked winner!
For one thing, the main cast assembled here has fantastic chemistry making the dark ride a whole hell of a lot of fun to go on. The interaction between Chris and Davison is top-notch, and the duo perfectly capture the characters platonic, banter-filled relationship in a believable manner.
The supporting cast has some stand-out performances as well, with Dante Tomaselli regular Raine Brown (Horror, Satan’s Playground) as Christine, a promiscuous young woman with secrets of her own (which I won’t reveal here of course… but Brown’s performance is filled with both devilish delight and crazed physicality)… and Norberto Santiago as Draga, a circus performer that both hinders and helps our heroes investigations.
Naturally what most of you lascivious lot came to a picture like 100 Tears for is the bloodshed, and I can assure you this flick is packed fat with that indeed! As Gurdy stalks the land, outrageously huge meat cleaver in hand, bodies are torn asunder and turned into so much raw hamburger… all of which is brought to us with a horrifying heap of ichor-drenched practical effects ghoulish goodness… which given Koch’s background, is of little surprise!
As for special features to bring more carny chaos our way on this Blu-ray release from Unearthed Films, we get an audio commentary from Koch and Unearthed head-honcho Stephen Biro, the original cut of the film (less main plot unrelated gore inserts, better flowing narrative), an interview with Koch, a “making of” segment, two behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes & outtakes, a collection of Koch’s childhood short films, and a duo of trailers.
Outrageous, gloriously over-the-top, genuinely humorous, and of course drenched in buckets o’ blood, 100 Tears is a creepy clown flick done right!
