If your response to a clown approaching you is to immediately locate the nearest exit, R.L. Stine’s next horror movie probably won’t change your mind.
Tubi has announced R.L. Stine’s Afraid of Clowns, a new original horror film premiering on the platform in 2027. The cast includes Frankie Honey, Ava Ferrer, Azriel Dalman, Joe Moore, and Jimbo, the Canada’s Drag Race alum and winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 8.
Drag excellence and sinister circus business in the same movie? Consider our curiosity piqued.
The story unfolds in Redhaven, where Ringmaster Rollo and his mysterious clown troupe arrive with what sounds like considerably more baggage than face paint and oversized shoes. A girl named Frankie discovers that their visit may be connected to a child who disappeared years earlier. When she becomes convinced that her little brother is their next target, she must persuade her friends to help uncover the truth before he vanishes with the troupe for good.
Apparently, keeping your siblings out of trouble now includes investigating potentially murderous circus performers. Being the big sister really is a full-time job.
The premise has the ingredients for a classic Stine nightmare: young people recognizing a threat, a disturbing mystery lurking beneath an ordinary town, and something supposedly entertaining becoming deeply unsettling. For those of us who grew up devouring Goosebumps and Fear Street, that combination has a familiar appeal. Stine knows how to take something you might encounter in everyday life and make you question whether you should ever go near it again.
“Clowns have been scaring kids long before I ever got to them,” Stine said. “I just gave them a reason to be afraid of the ones in Redhaven.”
Fair enough. Some of us were already convinced, but additional evidence is welcome.
Afraid of Clowns marks the third title in Tubi’s growing R.L. Stine collection. It follows R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead, which premiered exclusively on Tubi in October 2025, and R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2, arriving October 9, 2026. The new film reunites the creative team behind both Pumpkinhead movies, with Jem Garrard writing and directing.
For Tubi, the expanding collection connects longtime Stine readers with a horror audience that, according to the platform, streams more than 53 million hours of the genre each month. The movie will also join “Terror on Tubi,” the service’s year-round horror hub. Because some of us do not put our scary movies away when the Halloween decorations come down.
Tubi Chief Content Officer Adam Lewinson described Stine’s work as an introduction to horror for generations of fans, with the collection offering familiar thrills to established readers while bringing new viewers into the fold.
That generational connection is part of the appeal. Plenty of adult horror fans can trace their obsession back to a Stine paperback, a flashlight, and a bedtime they absolutely ignored. A new adaptation offers another opportunity to see how those early scares translate to the screen.
Produced by Front Street Pictures, Afraid of Clowns is executive produced by James Mattagne, Joan Waricha, Harvey Kahn, Yvonne Bernard, Dan Bernard, Jem Garrard, Allen Lewis, and Rama Diallo.
An exact premiere date has not yet been announced. Until then, we have questions about Ringmaster Rollo, Jimbo’s role, and just how much nightmare fuel this troupe is bringing to Redhaven.
Whatever they’re selling at that circus, we’ll be keeping an eye on the exits.
