A Creepy Clown Is Terrorising a Scottish Village

It’s 2016 again because there’s a creepy clown terrorising an unsuspecting British village – this time Skelmorlie in Scotland. The self-titled “Skelmorlie Clown” posted a video to Facebook in the early hours of Thursday in which he recites a poem, taunting the police to catch him as he stalks the village.

The clown, wearing a Pennywise-style outfit, has allegedly been leaving red balloons around the North Ayrshire village. Images and video of the clown posing around streets at nighttime have reportedly been posted and then deleted, but the creepy, albeit poetic video remains. 

Pennywise, from Stephen King’s It, kills kids every 27 years or so in the fictional Maine town of Derry. The Skelmorlie Clown has reportedly been doing this every year since 2021. It’s also worth remembering, for balance, that not all clowns are bad, and that, just because someone is wearing a clown costume, it doesn’t make them a true clown. 

The video was posted to a Facebook account set up under the name Cole Deimos. So: What do we learn from the video? The dude is very Scottish, for starters. He’s put his voice through one of those distorter things, but basically the Scotch brogue comes through undiminished. He’s also a little spicy with it: “Do you think that I care?” he asks a commenter saying the police have been informed of the video. “They’d have to catch me first anyway, and yes, that’s a dare.” 

A Police Scotland spokesperson told VICE: “We are aware of videos circulating online and enquiries are being carried out.”

Deimos’ clown mask is also a little fucked up, like one of those scary ones with zero redeeming comedic value. He’s also got at least one accomplice, as evidenced by the camera work.

“This clown doesn’t want fame, glory or gold,” he says in response to journalists writing articles about him. “He just wants to play in this ‘so-called’ sleepy town. So come and join in and learn to fear the ‘Skelmorlie Clown’,” he concludes, the camera operator moving in close to show the clown’s mask. 

The clown’s Facebook profile comes with standardly creepy bio information, like studied at “Clown School”, and how he’s originally from Hell, Massachusetts (not with that accent, buster!). 

The whole creepy clown schtick is arguably passé at this point. There was a spate of clown sitings in the UK and US in 2016, and others since, but surely we long ago reached peak clown.

One other takeaway is that, while the clown is unnerving, it’s probably the clown himself that’s most in danger here. As much as some people might run away, it’s also pretty easy to imagine a proud Scot simply chasing him down and giving him a beating for spooking everyone.

But then you read some of the comments on the video, and you realise maybe he’s actually a local favourite. “Brilliant! Love it every year! Please don’t stop!” reads one. 

So perhaps he’s performing some kind of public service, which, fair enough if that’s the case. Still think he could get his clown costume all messed up and tatty if he tries it on the wrong person, though.