Clowns. I hate them. With their big shiny noses, and their creepy smiling faces. They always look off kilter to me- designed to give you a fake happy. Like one of those re-occurring nightmares, where you are dreaming , everything around you seems perfectly fine. In fact, you don't even know that you are dreaming, it seems that perfect. Until you get that sense of ''oddness''where something is just not quiet right.. the scene suddenly feels 'off'. Then everything around you just melts away.
We are obviously not born with clown syndrome (coulrophobia) -( yes , even got it's own name). From a kids eyes they seemed great to me , nothing to fear. But as I got older I began to question why they obscure their face with paint?, covering their features , what's there to hide? .
Their unnatural and devilish smiles are supposed to make you laugh,it's all just forced joy. Maybe psychologically there is more to it ,I wonder if the brain signals a fear mechanism ''what if I don't laugh, what happens then?''
So the opposite happens. The fear of the clown itself.
Or Maybe horror movies have a part to play in that suspicion. Consider the likes of Pennywise (IT) and other masked killers in The Purge, Scream, Halloween, Friday the 13th and Phantom of the Opera. - Imagine any of those in the dark, nothing but the moonlight reflecting?
whoever came up with the idea that a white pasty face concealed of it's true identity luring kids with bright colors and plastic balloons is normal?
To me they are just a pleasant reminder that their are monsters lurking in the shadows....