The most depressed man in all of Spain, who once watched his father die violently in a prison camp during the Spanish Civil War, is the new sad clown in a circus where he falls in love with the beautiful trapeze girl and tries to save her from her savage, woman-beating lover. Sounds like a comedy to me. Writer/director Alex de la Iglesia holds nothing back here. Every joke comes laced with poison and its serious moments will chase the faint-of-heart clear out of the room. It’s harrowing to most all sensibilities, from its face-slicing violence to its emotionally wrecked characters to de la Iglesia’s nutty decision to cap it off with a frantic Hollywood-style action climax. Perhaps the oddest thing here is that de la Iglesia maintains a real heart during the carnage. He likes these characters even when they’re repulsive, sadistic and self-destructive. It’s a beautiful movie to look it, as well, with a dash of Expressionism and heaps of weirdo carnival vibes. It’s a rudely outrageous blossom from the same soil from which Tod Browning once made The Unknown and Freaks. Next to this, Shakes the Clown is a kid’s movie.