Since August, there have been multiple reports of bizarre, creepy, and somewhat disturbing clown sightings. What’s even more unsettling about all of this is that some of these eerie clowns have actually perpetrated acts of violence on unassuming pedestrians, shoppers, and even students. One of these accounts unfolded in Reading, Pennsylvania when an assailant wearing a clown costume stabbed 16-year-old Christian Torres to death. Fortunately, the police found the criminal behind the heinous act; however, threats relating to this disturbing trend have not diminished and have instead increased.

Despite all of this, incidents encompassing acts violence from people dressed as clowns have been extremely rare. For the most part, these clown sightings have consisted of nothing more than individuals partaking in an ever-popular hoax in order to get cheap thrills out of scaring people. As a result, there is currently a myriad of spooky and chilling videos surfacing on the Internet depicting peoples’ run-ins with menacing clowns. Some of these videos capture the sinister looking clowns hanging about in the most random, yet eeriest of places—ranging from fields, closed shops, high schools, and even neighborhoods at midnight.

In addition to these videos, the amount of clown-themed social media pages has also increased significantly since August. On a more serious note, some of these pages have even threatened schools, alarming communities all across the nation. In a local case of the aforementioned, schools in Prince George’s County were stunned with fear by malicious threats on twitter from a page that was claimed to be run by a demented clown. Moreover, the threat was taken so seriously that it prompted Parkdale High School to close in Riverdale, Maryland. However, since the incident occurred, it is important to note that the police have already apprehended the suspect involved behind making the threats. “I think that Parkdale handled the situation well because even though we’re talking about something ridiculous like clowns, all threats should be taken seriously,” expressed Jaden Crutchfield (17’). Conclusively, even though there have been a handful of serious cases pertaining to this “clown epidemic”, the majority of these social media pages appear to be nothing more than typical results of mass hysteria.

Whether these bizarre sightings are stemmed from movie promotions, another cyclical Halloween craze full of tricks and scares, or actual psychopaths giving into their inner desires to become killer clowns, it cannot be denied that it isn’t at least a bit creepy. “All I know is that if I see a clown approaching me, I am going to turn into Ussain Bolt and get the heck out of dodge as quick as I can,” exclaimed Aaron Abshire (17’).