Content Advisory: Excessive or gratuitous violence
Best known for playing Art the Clown in the Terrifier series, David Howard Thornton gets to play another famous clown villain in the Batman fan film Joker’s Wild. In this 13-minute horror short film written and directed by Aaron Bennett, The Joker (Thornton) has Jason Todd (Joel LeBlanc), aka Robin, prisoner and proceeds to torture him while waiting for Batman (Hunter G. Williams) to attempt to save the day. This is of course inspired by the 1988 “Death in the Family” storyline in the Batman comics, where Jason Todd was killed off by the Joker.
With Art the Clown being a silent character benefiting from David Howard Thornton’s background as a mime, Joker’s Wild helps to demonstrate that Thornton has quite a charismatic personality and he is quite convincing playing the Clown Prince of Crime. The only issue I have is that, like Art the Clown, David Howard Thornton’s Joker make-up is based around a prosthetic mask, with exaggerated facial features, particularly an elongated chin. While this succeeds in making Thornton look like the comic book iteration of The Joker, it also results in a certain stiffness when he speaks. However, this can be forgiven by the fact that this is a low-budget fan film.
While I’m not sure about the legalities surrounding fan films, Joker’s Wild might arguably be even an even more controversial unauthorized use of the DC/Warner Bros. character than The People’s Joker. Joker’s Wild is very much a horror short film, which takes extremely gory liberties with the comic storyline it is based on. The Joker, and his sadistic torture, is very much the protagonist of this short, with Jason Todd having zero dialogue, with a very graphic reason why, and Batman only makes a brief off-camera cameo towards the end. Fans of David Howard Thornton’s work in the Terrifier films should dig Joker’s Wild, though it’s probably best that hardcore Batman fans stay away from this rewriting of comics history.
Watch Joker’s Wild on YouTube
Warning: This short contains violence and gore