If you’ve spent any time digging through the bargain bins of independent horror, you know that clown movies are usually a dime a dozen. Most of them rely on a scary mask and some greasepaint to do the heavy lifting. But every once in a while, a movie comes along that decides to swap the greasepaint for five-gallon buckets of stage blood.

Enter Marcus Koch’s 2007 splatter-fest, 100 Tears.

Gurdy (Jack Amos) was just an average, introverted circus clown until a false accusation of rape led to a brutal beating by the circus strongman. Gurdy didn’t take the turn the other cheek approach; instead, he took the strangle everyone and start a cross-country massacre way. 

Fast forward, and Gurdy is now the Teardrop Killer, an urban legend following the circus from town to town, leaving behind a trail of bodies and a signature teardrop drawn in blood. When two reporters, Mark Webb (Joe Davison, who also wrote the script) and Jennifer Stevenson (Georgia Chris), start sniffing around the trail of bodies, they find themselves trapped in a warehouse of horrors.

But this isn’t just a “kill-the-intruders” flick. Gurdy finds his long-lost daughter, Christine (Raine Brown), and instead of a heartwarming reunion, they decide to make mass murder a family business.

If you know Marcus Koch, you know he’s an effects wizard first and a director second. The budget here was a mere $75,000, but every cent is on the screen in the form of viscera. We’re talking giant meat cleavers, decapitations, and a halfway house massacre that sets the tone early: this movie wants to make you lose your lunch.

100 Tears is the definition of a cult film. It’s rough around the edges, the acting can be “theatrical” (it is a circus movie, after all), and the plot logic occasionally takes a back seat to the next practical effect.

Extras include two commentaries—one with director Marcus Koch and a second with Koch and Stephen Biro; an interview with Koch; a making-of; behind-the-scenes; outtakes; Koch’s childhood shorts; and a trailer. You can get this from MVD.