Movie Spotlight: A Comedy of Horrors Volume 1

A substitute teacher walks into a classroom holding a storybook, and the kids settle in expecting something gentle. What she reads is not that. Clowns roam a town where they might be the only sane people left, a bridal shower spirals into carnage, a puppet develops opinions of its own, and a voodoo priest does not forgive an insult. Four stories, stitched together by one very inappropriate storytime.

Ken Arnold built the anthology with Dan De Luca, and the whole thing started on a film set of their own. In 2015, while the two were producing and shooting their first feature together, The Night Watchmen, clown sightings outside schools were leading local news across the country. Arnold and De Luca started talking about it and landed on a flip: what if the clowns were the normal ones, and the people standing outside the schools were the actual danger? That idea became Clown Town, the short film that opens A Comedy of Horrors, Volume 1.

From a short to a feature

Clown Town started small because the budget was small. Arnold and De Luca liked the idea enough to want more of it, but not enough money existed to expand it on its own, so they kept it a short and went looking for collaborators instead. Jamie Nash, who wrote Lovely Molly and Exists and later the horror-writing guide Save the Cat Writes Horror, signed on. So did Matt Servitto, known to most people from The Sopranos, and Nick Tucker, who directed Tomorrow Is Today. Each brought a segment of their own, and the anthology took shape around whatever they wanted to make.

A witch, a storybook, and four bad ideas

To tie the segments together, Arnold and De Luca invented a framing device: a substitute teacher, actually a witch, reading grim tales to children who have no idea what they are in for. “We wanted wacky, absurd, ridiculous, and of course, scary and gruesome,” Arnold said of the tone they were chasing. The four segments landed on clowns, puppets, a bridal shower, and voodoo, which Arnold describes as bait for kids that turns dark fast. “We felt little kids would love tales about clowns, puppets, princesses, and wizards,” he said. “Little did those children know that those stories would cross the line into age inappropriate evil and mayhem.”

Welcome to Clown Town

The clown segment draws the most attention, and it is easy to see why once the character names show up: Sheriff Skittles, Deputy Dimples, Barber Buttons, Chuckles, Freckles. Arnold leaned into the flipped logic from the start, letting the clowns behave like ordinary townspeople while everyone around them reacts like something is deeply wrong. The makeup did a lot of the work too. “It really sold the clown world, especially in the dramatic scenes,” Arnold said. “You almost feel like you’re watching a clown soap opera. Days of Our Clowns, All My Noses, General Circus.”

No room to get bored

Arnold and De Luca produced with a simple rule: keep it moving. Directors sent in their first cuts, got told to trim them down, then got told to trim them again. Low-budget filmmaking, in Arnold’s view, cannot afford to let an audience get distracted. “We’ve gotten plenty of comments that it moves fast,” he said. “In our opinion that’s a good thing.” The running joke on set became a kind of insurance policy. If a segment isn’t landing for you, another one is already coming.

Same faces, same trust

The cast reads like a reunion: Matt Servitto, Henry Zebrowski, Rain Pryor, Ken Arnold, Dan De Luca, Kathy Searle, Addie Weyrich, and a deep bench of others. Most had worked with Arnold and De Luca before, on other projects, which changed how loose everyone could get on set. “We know what each other is capable of, and we play to each other’s strengths,” Arnold said. “We have great chemistry together and feel relaxed enough to bounce any idea, no matter how crazy or absurd, off each other.”

Volume 2 is already written

The Volume 1 in the title is not a bluff. Arnold says more stories exist already, ready to shoot whenever the money and the schedules line up. “It all comes down to financing and time,” he said. “Can we raise the necessary funds to expand the universe, and can we get people together with everyone’s busy schedule to make it happen. Stories have already been written and are ready to go, not just for one more anthology but for many.”

What to know before you press play

Arnold’s advice for first-time viewers is simple. “Expect the absurd. Have fun with the crazy. And most of all, enjoy the ride,” he said. “This film was created to make you laugh and forget about your day to day for a bit. An escape that made you feel good in some way. If we accomplished that then we’ve done our job as filmmakers.”

Comedy

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Streaming now on Relay.