Horny the Clown

"Fast food kills, f-cker!"

- Horny the Clown's famous catchphrase.

Horny the Clown is the main villain of the 2007 comedy-horror movie Drive-Thru and is a twisted parody of clown mascots such as Ronald McDonald as well as serial-killers in fiction. In life, Horny was a nerdy boy who was bullied relentlessly by his peers, climaxing in a tragic death when he was set on fire on his Birthday - thus he returned from the grave as a vengeful demon, taking the persona of Horny the Clown and murdering everyone who ventured too near the fast-food diner he used to work at. Horny the Clown was immortal and almost invincible but had some vulnerabilities that allowed the evil clown to be defeated in the end - though at the very end of the movie Horny the Clown suddenly reappears in the typical fashion of other slasher-killers such as Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees.

He was portrayed by Van De La Plante and voiced by Gordon Clapp.

Personality
Not much is known about Archie Benjamin's personality prior to his death. He was described by Marcia as having no friends and being 'an extremely strange boy'. Even though he was constantly tormented by Marcia and her friends, Archie was obsessed with Marcia, something that she and her boyfriend at the time was aware of.

After being revived as Horny, Archie's personality is much more darker and twisted. As Horny the Clown, Archie is incredibly vengeful, hunting down the children of his murderers and killing them off. Even outside of vengeance, Horny is still murderous, as he still murders others that have no relation to his past tormentors. Similarly, when Jack is found by Detective Chase, he voices fears that Archie is going to kill him, despite being his dad. Horny is brutal and cruel with his murders, often hacking his victims to death with his meat cleaver, and even when he doesn't rely on his cleaver, he still kills his victims in twisted ways, such as putting their face into a deep fryer, and he ultimately planned on killing Mackenzie by burning her alive. Horny is also rather sadistic, taking enjoyment as he terrorises Mackenzie throughout the film.

Despite his twisted nature, Horny shows a fondness for cheesy one-liners, often making them before, during and after killing his victims - and even makes them casually as he is tormenting and attacking his victims. Horny's penchant for these one-liners is most likely influenced by his awkward life and claim to fame from starring in cheesy Hella Burger commercials.

Befitting his name, Horny seems to have a bit of a dirty sense of humour, as he makes a few sex jokes on occasion throughout the film. Horny also tends to swear multiple times.

Overall, Horny is psychotic, sadistic and maniacal, laughing madly and relishing in the fear, terror and pain that he brings on his victims, even if they aren't related to his past killers.

Appearance
As Horny the Clown, Archie wears a darker version of the titular clown costume. Horny's body is covered by a tight, black suit with hot rod flames painted on the legs and arms. He wears black boots that are slightly stilted with various spikes around them. Horny also wears a pair of white gloves, which seems to have small tears on them, showing burnt skin. Horny also wears a large collar that goes over his shoulders and covers most of his neck.

Horny's head is covered by a clown mask. The clown mask is white with fake ears, a large red nose, two fake horns protruding from his temple, fake fiery red hair and a fake red goatee on his chin. Perhaps the most iconic part of his clown mask is the mouth, which is an intercom that takes the shape of a large, ear to ear smile. There are also red, blood-like markings around the edge of the mask's mouth. The brow of the mask is furrowed, giving it an evil expression.

Very little of Horny's face is shown without the mask, though what is seen, from the back of the head, is heavily burned and bald, no doubt from Archie's death.

Background
Archie Benjamin was the son of Jack Benjamin, the owner of a fast food restaurant chain named 'Hella Burger', based in Orange County, California.

Some time eventually (most likely in his teens), Archie began to work as Horny the Clown, the mascot of Hella Burger, and starred in many cheesy commercials for Hella Burger. Archie began to have a claim to fame as Horny the Clown, which became his identity.

Archie was a strange boy, and thus had no friends. Eventually, Archie dropped out of school and began working as Horny full-time. Because of this, he was constantly tormented and bullied by Marcia Johnson and her friends. Despite all the torment, Archie was in love with Marcia, even though she already had a boyfriend.

Archie sent Marica an invitation to his eighteenth birthday party, at one of the Hella Burger restaurants. Marcia and her friends laughed off the invitation and used it to roll joints, but Marcia's boyfriend, Charlie, (who already hated Archie because of his crush on Marcia) became jealous and convinced them that they should play a prank on Archie, on his birthday.

One night, Archie sits alone at a table in a Hella Burger restaurant, looking miserable. He suddenly hears a knock at the door (which is closed and locked) and sees Marica there.

Elated to see her, Archie gets up and goes to the door to let Marcia in. Unbeknownst to Archie, Charlie and his friends managed to sneak in from the backdoor. Charlie quietly sneaks around the counter, holding a meat cleaver and putting on a Horny the Clown mask.

As Archie is about the unlock the door, Charlie makes a loud sound behind Archie, scaring the teen and causing him to run away, causing him to knock into the table and fall down, unconscious.

Having had their fun, Charlie and friends begin to leave, unaware that the flame from Archie's birthday candles are beginning to spread around. Marica notices and tries get her friends to notice by knocking on the door, but to no avail as they have already left. As the flames continued to spread around the unconscious Archie, Marcia flees in terror.

Archie is burned to death inside the Hella Burger restaurant. Because they were terrified of getting into trouble (and because they wanted to believe that Archie's death wasn't their fault), neither Marcia nor her friends tell anyone, so the police believe that Archie's death was an accident.

Sometime between his death and the events of the movie, Archie inexplicably come back to life as a darker and more sinister version of Horny the Clown.

Drive-Thru
Brandon Meeks and his friend, Tony, and their girlfriends, Brittany and Tiffany, arrive at the drive-thru of one of the Hella Burger restaurants. Horny, using a normal voice, greets the teens over the intercom, and asks them what they would like to order. Brandon mouths off to Horny, causing the clown to continuously mouth off the group. This angers Tony to the point where he exits Brandon's vehicle and sneak in through the back door.

Wielding a gun (due to pretending to be a gangster), Tony searches around the Hella Burger to find Horny, only to find the restaurant to be empty. Tony eventually comes across a walk-in cooler, where he is disgusted upon seeing a rat. Tony decides to leave, only to be attacked by Horny.

Brandon soon enters, looking for Tony (and angry that he didn't get his drive-thru order). The teen enters the kitchen, where he sees Tony laying his face in the deep fryer. Brandon initially thinks that Tony is playing some sort of prank on him, but he soon freaks out as he realises that his friend is murdered. As Brandon is screaming in terror, Horny suddenly appears and pins him to a table. Brandon desperately begs and bribes Horny to spare him, but Horny openly expresses disinterest and kills him anyways.

Meanwhile, Mackenzie Carpenter, the daughter of Marcia Johnson, now Marcia Carpenter, is having a house party with her boyfriend, Fisher Kent, and her other friends, Val, Starfire and Van, though some of the people at the house party aren't friends with Mackenzie. Some time after the party, Mackenzie's friends find an Ouija board, which belonged to her parents.

Mackenzie, Fisher, Val, Star and Van play around with the Ouija board for a bit before the latter three leave. As Mackenzie and Fisher are alone, they contemplate their future, as they're going to different colleges. Mackenzie jokingly asks the Ouija board to tell her and Fisher's future, only for the planchette to move on its own, much to the couple's surprise. As the planchette seemingly moves on its own, it continuously spells out 'N1KLPL8' numerous times before flying off the board.

As this is happening, Brittany and Tiffany wake up inside Brandon's van, only for the latter to begin to scream in terror as she sees Brandon and Tony's dead bodies in the back. Brittany tries to calm Tiffany down, but she is killed as Horny strikes her in the back of the head with his meat cleaver from behind the car door window. Tiffany, covered in Brittany's blood screams in terror as Horny stares at her before she is killed off-screen.

The next day, Mackenzie and her friends watch a news report, where they find out that the mysterious number from the Ouija board is the license plate of Brandon's vehicle.

Though there is blood and Hella Burger bags found inside the vehicle, none of the bodies are found.

Mackenzie thinks that they should let the police know about the message from the Ouija board, but Fisher doubts that the police would believe them or think that they're innocent, so Mackenzie decides that they should just keep it a secret.

Later day, at school, Mackenzie is messing around with a magic 8-ball, when Horny suddenly greets her via the 8-ball. When Mackenzie askes who he his, Horny responds which 'You'll see'. When Mackenzie asks Horny why he is doing this, he responds with 'A broken heart'.

Later on that day, while still at school, Mackenzie calls her friend, Val. Val offers the idea of Mackenzie coming over to her house that night, where she can show Mack her new tattoo (which is a broken heart) before hanging up.

As Val is alone in the locker room, she is soon attacked by Horny after hanging up.

Mackenzie stays at the school late at night to develop pictures in the darkroom. At first the pictures are of her house party, but they eventually began to change to pictures of the four missing teens on the night they disappeared.

Unbeknownst to Mackenzie, Horny appears in the darkroom, spying on her. The terrified teen picks up one last picture, which is of her. Horny then shows himself and attacks Mackenzie.

Mackenzie manages to escape the clown and runs out of the darkroom and into the school hallway, where Horny follows in pursuit, before he suddenly stops.

Mackenzie seemingly escapes Horny as she enters a dark gymnasium, only for one of the lights to turn on, showing Val, tied to a chair with a modified microwave around her head. As the microwave turns on and begins to burn Val's face, Mackenzie tries to free her friend, but Val dies as her eyes explode. Mackenzie is given little time to mourn as Horny seemingly chases her again.

Mackenzie eventually runs to the staff toilet, hoping to find help from Lenny, the school janitor, only to find him hanging dead from a noose.

Mackenzie ends up running into a policeman inside the school. Mackenzie reports Horny's attack to detectives Chase and Crockers, only for them to believe that Lenny did it as a murder-suicide. Furthermore, Val's body is seemingly missing.

The next day, as Mackenzie and Fisher are making out, Horny writes a message on Mack's Etch A Sketch, though it goes unnoticed. Later that night, the couple are working at a haunted house attraction in a carnival. A teen couple, Tina and Chad, enter the attraction. The ride behaves normally, but the lights suddenly go out, and Tina is covered in something wet. The lights turn back on and, to her horror, Tina sees Chad's head to be all but chopped off. As she screams, Tina is grabbed by the neck by Horny and held against a mirror before he murders her with his meat cleaver.

After killing Tina, Horny swings his cleaver at one of the mirrors, showing a weeping and heavily injured Fisher behind the glass. The attraction breaks down and Mackenzie and Star investigate, finding Fisher, who is rushed to the hospital, though Chad and Tina's bodies are nowhere to be seen.

The next day, Mackenzie wakes to find the words on the Etch A Sketch, which were also on the shirt that Tina was wearing before she was killed. At the hospital, Mackenzie argues with Marcia, having overheard that she was friends with the parents of some of the missing kids from the night before. Marcia denies it having anything to do with the reason behind the disappearances, claiming it to be a coincidence.

Mackenzie and Marcia get into a fight, causing the mother to storm out in anger.

Later that day, Mackenzie gets another message from Horny; a small piece of paper that says 'See you at 4:20'.

In her car, Mackenzie and Fisher (who escaped from the hospital) talk about the message, eventually deducing that it's about a group of stoners, one of which being Chuck Taylor, the son of Charlie Taylor, Marica's ex-boyfriend.

As Fisher lays low with Van, Mackenzie believes it's time for Marcia to tell the truth.

Meanwhile, Chuck Taylor and his friend, Spanky, stoned out of their minds, are causing havoc in the Fun Space of a Hella Burger, as their other friend orders food for the three of them. The manager tries to get Chuck and Spanky to exit the Fun Space (as it is for children twelve and under), but it works to no avail.

As their other friend is in the toilet, while the manager and the mascot working at the restaurant disappear behind the kitchen, Horny begins to taunt the two stoners from an intercom inside the Fun Space.

As they decide to insult Horny (unaware of who he is), the sinister version of the Hella Burger mascot rises out of the ball pit. Chuck and Spanky turn around as they hear Horny from behind them. Horny throws his meat cleaver at Spanky, which imbeds into his head, killing him. Chuck looks at his dead friend in horror before looking back at Horny as the clown exits the ball pit. Paralyzed by fear, Chuck begs Horny to not hurt him, but Horny knocks him to the ground and kills him as he screams in terror.

The third stoner eventually leaves the bathroom and screams in terror as she sees the blood-covered Fun Space, though neither Horny nor the dead teenagers are anywhere in sight.

Mackenzie returns home as Marcia watches a report of the recent disappearance. Marcia ends up breaking down, telling Mackenzie about Archie Benjamin and his death, as well as that Brandon, Val, Tina and Chuck are all the kids of her old friends. Mackenzie deduces that Archie is planning on killing her on her eighteenth birthday, much like how her mother killed him on his eighteenth.

Mackenzie, along with Fisher, Van and Starfire, heads to Jack Benjamin's, believing that he might be able to stop Archie.

Mackenzie and Fisher sneak into Jack's house as Van and Starfire sneak in through another. Mackenzie and Fisher come across Archie's old room, where they find a Horny the Clown doll that laughs by itself. Fisher believes that the doll is trying to tell them something, but it says nothing important. The doll suddenly says 'Happy birthday, Mackenzie.', startling the couple as Archie's deranged laughter can be heard from the other side of the house.

Mackenzie checks her watch to find that it's midnight; her eighteenth birthday. The electricity suddenly goes off, followed by a terrified scream from Star.

As Van is checking the basement, he comes across a freezer, which contains Star's body, cut up into pieces. Archie soon kills Van by slicing him in half and stuffs him in the freezer along with Star.

Archie then chases Mackenzie and Fisher around the house, eventually ambushing them. Archie knocks Mackenzie unconscious, though Fisher fights back and ends up pulling the Horny mask off. Fisher sees Archie's face, which causes his eyes to turn blood red before he is thrown out a window door by Archie.

Mackenzie eventually wakes up, finding herself in a Hella Burger restaurant, tied to a chair with duct tape over her mouth. Mackenzie lets out a muffled scream as she sees the dead bodies of Brendon, Val, Chuck and Tina.

Archie soon appears, wearing his mask again, and removes the duct tape around Mackenzie's mouth, mocking her screams.

Archie pours gasoline on to Mackenzie as the teen screams in horror for help. Archie then kneels down next to Mackenzie and takes on of the candles off a cake placed in front of her, planning to burn her like he did.

Fortunately, Marcia arrives and shoots Archie, seemingly knocking him unconscious. Marcia tries to untie her daughter, but Archie soon gets back up and tackles Marcia to the ground. Archie proceeds to strangle Marcia, making her lose consciousness, though he doesn't kill her.

Archie retries his attempt to kill Mackenzie, unaware that she had drunk a flask of whiskey. Mackenzie spits the liquid through the candle's fire, setting Archie aflame once again.

Mackenzie manages to wake her mother up, the mother-daughter duo running out of the Hella Burger as they watch Archie seemingly burn to death once again.

The police later arrive at the Hella Burger with an ambulance. Detective Chase informs Mackenzie that Fisher is still alive, but he's in the hospital and in critical condition, though she still lets Mackenzie go and see him. Mackenzie and Marcia arrive at the hospital, with the former rushing to see her boyfriend.

However, Fisher's bed is empty with his window left wide open. Mackenzie and Marcia look out the window as Mackenzie laments that it's not over.

Detective Crockers pulls up at a Hella Burger drive-thru and makes an order. As he is doing so, Fisher, now completely possessed by Archie and wearing his twisted version of the usual clown suit, passes by him at high speeds, distracting the officer. Horny then threatens Crockers over the intercom, landing on the hood of his car. Horny swings his meat cleaver down on the windshield as Crockers screams in terror, ending the movie and presumably killing the detective.

Trivia

 * "Hurt you? I ain't gonna hurt you, I'm just gonna bash your brains in. I'm gonna bash them RIGHT THE F**K IN!" and "Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in!" are direct quotes from The Shining antagonist Jack Torrance.
 * "All work and no play makes Horny a dull boy" is also from Jack, but just with Horny's name instead of Jack.