Columbia native releases new horror movie “CLOWNTOWN”

Jeff Miller, a graduate of Brookland-Cayce High School and the University of South Carolina’s Media Arts program, has a new horror feature he wrote and produced that is being released just in time for Halloween.

CLOWNTOWN, about a group of friends stranded in a small town who are stalked by a gang of violent psychopaths dressed as clowns, will be released starting Sept. 30 in select theaters and on VOD and DVD on Oct. 4. Amazon, Walmart, and iTunes, among others, will carry the title. A Halloween mask company also recently licensed the clown characters’ likenesses for an upcoming line available next year.

The movie is inspired by the clowns who terrorized Bakersfield, CA in 2014. Tom Nagel directed from a screenplay by Miller.

“If you’re terrified of clowns, don’t see this movie,” said Miller, adding that the movie has nothing to do with the South Carolina clowns who have been in the news lately. Miller wrote and/or produced three features in the Columbia, SC area before moving to Los Angeles in 2001. There he has made several more features, mostly in the horror genre, though he is Executive Producing KILL ‘EM ALL, an action movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme that is currently filming in Mississippi.

“I’d love to come back to South Carolina and make another movie,” said Miller. Keeping some of his South Carolina connections alive, Miller licensed songs for CLOWNTOWN from local band Isabelle’s Gift as well as South Carolina native Hick’ry Hawkins.

CLOWNTOWN stars Brian Nagel (Katy Perry’s music video “Roar”), Lauren Elise (Justin Lin’s “Help”), Katie Keene, Andrew Staton, Jeff Denton, and Greg Violand. David H. Greathouse, Chris Hahn (Paul Bunyan from Miller’s AXE GIANT: THE WRATH OF PAUL BUNYAN, which played at the Nickelodeon theater in Columbia in 2013 before airing on the Syfy Channel),

Ryan Pilz, Beki Ingram, and Alan Tuskes play some of the murderous clowns. Miller’s Millman Productions is producing, along with Nagel brothers’ company, Steel House Productions, and Christopher Lawrence Chapman’s Zorya Films. (Chapman is also a graduate of the University of South Carolina.) Ronnie D. Lee is an executive producer. Robert Kurtzman (FROM DUSK TILL DAWN) is Co-Producer. Greathouse and Ingram (both of SyFy’s “Face/Off”) handled the bulk of the makeup FX work out of Robert Kurtzman’s Creature Corps.

CLOWNTOWN will also be screening in October at the FearNYC fest in New York City and at the Boston TerrorThon.

For more information on CLOWNTOWN, please visit the official website at www.theclowntownmovie.com and at www.facebook.com/clowntownthemovie.