In October, 2016, a video from South Carolina was uploaded featuring a creepy clown hiding in the woods near someone’s house. This started a trend that would plague the media, where people dressed as spooky clowns would sneak up on unknowing victims and scare them for kicks. It was all fun and games at the beginning, but began growing darker and more dangerous as the clowns started using different methods to scare people in order get hits on YouTube.

Clowns began haunting people in garages, streets, and one article published by the DailyMail showed a man dressed in a clown costume attempting to break into someone’s house. The scare became so notorious that some police departments began banning the act of dressing as a clown to scare people.

AAHS had even banned dressing up as a clown at school for the 2016 Halloween due to the massive scare that had risen from this trend. Some areas of Colorado even had reports of clowns threatening to shoot up schools in the state. 

The trend, luckily, died rather rapidly. For what started out as clowns threatening people had quickly turned into police trying to stop civilians from beating up killer clowns. That’s right, the reign of rainbow-wigged monsters came to a brutal end because people started attacking the clowns. It is possible to do a quick search of “People Fighting Clowns” and be directed to entire YouTube compilations of people beating up clowns. For a while, it seemed the horrid trend had been put to rest.

In 2018, however, it appears they may be returning for vengeance. As we move deeper into October and Halloween draws near, it seems to be a great time to don a creepy clown costume and look for unsuspecting people to scare. Yet, the panic of clowns has not ceased since 2016, and people are still horrified by the makeup-clad characters.

“I vote no,” said Elli Kuhn, an AAHS Junior. “That was a spooky time. It was an actual thing, it was an issue.”

There are new YouTube videos being posted showing sightings of killer clowns, and some people have even reported being chased down or threatened by people trying to scare them.

Only last month, two boys claimed they were chased by a clown with a knife, according to the Mirror. They said that, while being chased, the clown was laughing and screaming “run and die!” after them.

Two other boys claimed being chased by a clown wielding a baseball bat, who began banging it on the floor while laughing hysterically.

Naturally, people are going to dress up as scary entities this month, as our Halloween traditions deem appropriate. However, it’s unclear whether this will be something worth getting worked up over, or simply a passing fad.

“I think it’s just another trend that people are trying to get in on, and trying to scare people with,” said Aidan Kennedy, an AAHS senior. “If you threaten a clown, they’re just going to run away as fast as humanly possible.”

While it may be a pointless trend, evidence suggests that this “Killer Clown” craze has been prominent for a longer time period than we believe.

Recently, a woman named Sheila Keen was arrested for first degree murder which she had committed in 1990. Keen had dressed up in a full clown costume and drove to the residence of Marlene Warren. Warren was greeted kindly, handed a bunch of flowers, and then shot to death by Keen. Keen had managed to avoid suspicion until last year, though she committed the crime nearly 28 years ago.

If the killer clown craze has been prominent in our society for so long, and is apparently growing worse as time passes, then it may be very possible that it will make a return this Halloween. Fortunately for us, there have been no sightings in Colorado yet of clowns deliberately scaring people.