The new Tubi horror movie brings a mysterious circus to Redhaven following the events of R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2.
Tubi is staying in Redhaven for another nightmare. R.L. Stine’s Afraid of Clowns is officially coming to Tubi in 2027, expanding the horror world established through R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead and its upcoming sequel, Pumpkinhead 2. Writer and director Jem Garrard who also helmed Buzzkill, is returning behind the camera for the new movie, which will trade cursed pumpkins for a mysterious circus filled with clowns.
The project stars Frankie Honey, Ava Ferrer, Azriel Dalman, Joe Moore, and Jimbo, the RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 8 winner and Canada’s Drag Race alum.
While the movie has now been formally revealed, audiences paying close attention to Pumpkinhead 2 may already have an idea that something else is lurking around the corner.
Afraid of Clowns Was Teased in Pumpkinhead 2
Afraid of Clowns is teased at the end of R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2, signaling that Tubi’s adventures in Redhaven are not ending with the latest Pumpkinhead curse.
During a conversation with Nerdtropolis, Garrard confirmed that the tease was very much real.
Garrard explained that after spending two movies establishing the small town of Redhaven, expanding its strange history with another horror story felt natural. Moving from the Pumpkinhead mythology into clowns offered a fitting way to explore another creepy corner of the town without simply repeating what came before.
That makes Afraid of Clowns feel less like an unrelated follow-up and more like another chapter in Redhaven’s increasingly bizarre supernatural history.
Instead of leaving the setting behind after Pumpkinhead 2, Garrard and Tubi now have an opportunity to make the town itself the connective tissue between different R.L. Stine stories.
What Is R.L. Stine’s Afraid of Clowns About?
The new movie introduces Ringmaster Rollo and a mysterious troupe of clowns who arrive in Redhaven.
Their appearance catches the attention of Frankie, who discovers that the traveling performers may have a connection to a child who mysteriously disappeared years earlier. When Frankie becomes convinced that the clowns have now set their sights on her younger brother, she must convince her friends to help uncover the truth before he disappears with the troupe for good.
The story keeps the youthful mystery and horror formula associated with Stine while opening the door for Redhaven to face an entirely different kind of threat.
“Clowns have been scaring kids long before I ever got to them — I just gave them a reason to be afraid of the ones in Redhaven,” Stine said. “Tubi has been a great home for these stories, and I can’t wait to introduce viewers to Ringmaster Rollo.”
Clowns are already one of horror’s most recognizable sources of nightmare fuel, making them a natural next step after the harvest curses and pumpkin-headed creatures that have defined Garrard’s first two trips to Redhaven.
Jem Garrard Continues Building R.L. Stine’s Tubi Universe
Garrard has quickly become a major creative force behind Tubi’s recent R.L. Stine projects.
The filmmaker wrote and directed R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead, which introduced audiences to Redhaven in 2025. Garrard returned to write and direct Pumpkinhead 2, with the sequel expanding the town’s mythology and bringing horror icon Cassandra Peterson, best known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, into the franchise as the mysterious witch Cassandra.
The sequel follows Sam and Becka as another curse awakens in Redhaven after a forbidden spellbook unleashes the pumpkin-headed children connected to the town’s past sacrifices.
With Afraid of Clowns, Garrard gets to remain inside the world established by those movies while shifting toward a new group of characters and another flavor of horror.
It also gives Redhaven the potential to become something bigger than the setting of the Pumpkinhead movies. The town could function as a home for multiple Stine-inspired nightmares, each capable of introducing different monsters, legends, and young protagonists.
R.L. Stine and Tubi Keep the Scares Going
Afraid of Clowns will be the third title in Tubi’s growing R.L. Stine collection, following R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead and R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2.
The movie also joins Terror on Tubi, the platform’s year-round destination for horror programming. According to Tubi, viewers stream more than 53 million hours of horror content on the platform each month.
Stine has spent decades introducing younger audiences to horror through Goosebumps, Fear Street, The Haunting Hour, and countless other stories. The growing Tubi partnership allows that style of horror to continue with feature-length stories designed around younger heroes facing supernatural threats.
Following two movies filled with cursed pumpkins, ancient magic, and the dark secrets hiding beneath Redhaven, sending in the clowns sounds like the logical next nightmare.
R.L. Stine’s Afraid of Clowns premieres on Tubi in 2027.
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Sean Tajipour
Sean Tajipour is the Founder and Editor of Nerdtropolis and the host of the Moviegoers Society and Reel Insights Podcast. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association. You can follow on Twitter and Instagram @Seantaj.
