A throwback to the gore filled horrors of the 80's, Stiches finds comedian Ross Noble as the titular clown, whose act and attitude to his job leave a lot to be desired. When Stiches dies horribly at Tom's (Tommy Knight) 10th birthday party, the boy is traumatised, refusing to have another party. When he is stronged armed by his friends to hold a bash six years after the tragedy, Stictches rises up from his grave to seek revenge. So it's an Irish splatter flick with the killer being basically Freddy Krueger in clown make-up? It's a great idea, but sadly fails miserably in the execution.
Despite a great opening scene, which Noble absolutely owns, the film quickly goes down hill when the focus switches to the poorly written, and unlikeable, with the the exception of Knight and love interest Gemma-Leah Deavereaux, fodder for Stitches rampage. The script is very tongue in cheek (how else would you explain one the kids getting out of a scrape by remembering those immortal words "righty tighty, left loosey"), but the movie is played poker straight, with some juvenile humour thrown in now and then. It doesn't pick up until about an hour in when Stitches crawls from the grave. The movie goes into overdrive with the gore, giving us some inventive but, thanks to the low budget, entirely unconvincing deaths, from popping heads with an air pump to eyeballs skewed with umbrellas. Noble is the films one saving grace, having great fun with the character (the scene with the cat being a stand out), but again, he plays it too straight, going for menacing when maybe something a bit more psychotic would have been welcome.
Shot through with a bit more sly humour and letting Noble's stage persona off the leash a bit, this could have been a lot better than it is. One for the gorehounds only.
