The clown sightings that spooked the nation.

The film from director Ed Perkins premieres October 12 as part of Huluween, ten years after the sightings that swept the country.

Hulu has released the official trailer and key art for Clown Panic, a new documentary about the wave of creepy clown sightings that gripped the United States in 2016. The film premieres Monday, October 12, 2026, as part of Hulu’s annual Huluween lineup.

The documentary goes back to where it started: a small community in South Carolina, where children told adults they had seen clowns hiding in the woods. Few people believed them at first. But the reports soon spread from town to town and then across the country. Schools went into lockdown, police opened investigations, and the story set off a media frenzy.

Clown Panic tells that story through archive footage, viral videos from the time, and interviews with witnesses, police, cultural commentators, and working clowns caught up in the backlash. The film looks at how a strange local rumor turned into a global moral panic, fueled by social media during a period of deep national anxiety. Hulu calls the film “darkly funny, unsettling and unexpectedly emotional.” It also argues that the episode still has echoes today.

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Ed Perkins directs the documentary, and Jonathan Chinn and Simon Chinn of Lightbox produce it. Suzanne Lavery is executive producer.

The release marks ten years since the 2016 sightings, and it arrives in the middle of spooky season.

Clown Panic premieres October 12 on Hulu, and on Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers in the U.S. Outside the U.S., it will stream on Disney+.

Check out the trailer below. Let us know what you think of the trailer.

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Source: Hulu