Howlingween 2: Clarry the Clown

Synopsis

Miridicci Resort Island is nothing less than spectacular. Situated off the coast of India, people from around the world come to truly get away from it all. It boasts a large lagoon pool, a six-court tennis facility, a nine-hole golf course and "zero carbon footprint", not to name all the wonders.

Among the arrivals are the Forrans: Thomas, Sandra and daughters Belle and Tracy. The parents wish to put behind them their nightmarish encounters with traders in human organs and a huge savage wolf.

The girls enjoy swimming and exploring free-flying butterflies in a fascinating greenhouse.

But not all is as it should be.

In the jungle next to the resort, Professor Wyndham has transplanted Clarry the Crying Clown's brain into a mechanical construct (a humanoid). In two previous years, Clarry, a victim of unceasing bullying, has gate-crashed Halloween parties killing many.

He was killed – or thought to have been killed – by detective Chester O'Grady, who also happens to be visiting the island.

The professor's goal is to replace soldiers with humanoids, thus saving many young American lives in times of war. He also intends to make a fortune from the US military establishment. When warned about using the brain of a crazed killer, the professor retorts: "Would you use Mahatma Gandhi's brain or Martin Luther King's?"

As a subplot, the other-worldly Tracy has negative vibes about tourist Hudson Bayne. She and her half-sister investigate: they suspect he is a serial child-killer. They tell their parents and Thomas rushes to save the latest would-be victim, but fails to arrive in time.

It is Clarry the Clown who apparently saves the intended victim by killing Hudson. This action wins him Tracy's loyalty.

But Clarry the Clown is not about saving lives. Soon many more people are killed.

A severe electrical storm destroys the one ferry to the island, leaving tourists and staff trapped – and at the mercy of Clarry.

The survivors’ only hope lies with Tracy, whose other father is a huge spirit wolf (Wolf), but she holds strongly to the belief that Clarry kills only "very bad people". Her loyalty reaches extreme lengths when she replies to the sister of an innocent teenager killed by Clarry with "[your brother] must have been ... very bad".

Even her human-parents fail to convince her to call forth her savage, but unpredictable, wolf-father.

However, Clarry the Clown makes the mistake of attempting to kill Tracy's human-father, which naturally off-sides her. When the misanthropic and vengeful Wolf materialises it holds back the humanoid but it too seeks to exterminate the survivors, for it blames humans for wiping out its pack in Montana in 1891.

It takes some convincing before Tracy focuses her wolf-father's attention on the one enemy, ensuring the climactic battle takes place between supernatural Wolf and humanoid Clarry the Clown.

Howlingween is the first in a quadrilogy of stories. Howlingween 2: Clarry the Clown is the sequel, which takes the Forran family from regional Australia to an exotic Indian island to battle a murderous clown. In Howlingween 3: Red River County, the hapless Forrans are happy to have an eventless, even boring, holiday in Florida – alas, it is not to be. But, having survived killer Jack O’Beggar and upon leaving Red River County, the hapless family meets its greatest challenge in Howlingween 4: Beastly Mist … an intelligent swarm of voracious flying mites. It appears the fourth instalment may be the final as Wolf becomes mortal, a normal sized wolf, who joins a pack of wolves in Montana, where his story had begun back in 1891. We’ve come full-circle.