There is no question that clowns can be a little off-setting with their pasty makeup and overly colorful costumes. Humans have held this subtle yet strong fear of clowns for years and years. Despite their typical association with birthday parties and making kids happy, we've all been creeped out at the circus once or twice by the freaky smile covering up the face behind it. But, for the first time in a while, it seems our worst nightmares and scariest horror stories have started to become reality. People everywhere are hiding, schools are shutting down, and police are on edge from a new clown scare. Is this a cause for serious concern? Or just repeated attempts at a little pre-Halloween fun that's gone too far?

The hysteria of clown horror initiated in late August of 2016. Reports of clowns trying to lure children into the woods terrified the citizens of South Carolina as the police tried to understand what was going on. Since the strange event, hysteria has erupted in more than two dozen states as clown sightings have been reported repeatedly to authorities.

Communities have started to react to the terror. In areas where clown sightings have occurred, grade schools and colleges have closed for the security of their students and faculty. Just this past week, students at Pennsylvania State University carried out a mass clown hunt throughout their campus, searching for the creepy figures. Schools in New Haven, Connecticut have taken to banning clown costumes. People across the country have taken to social media, videotaping clown sightings, both real and fake, to boil the kettle that much further. Even police have tightened up their ships as the scares remain mysterious. In the North, however, there has yet to be any real threat beyond the creepiness of the masks and the stalking-like actions of these freaky clowns. There has been no reporting yet of anyone getting seriously harmed.

Many of these instances, however, have been hoaxes, carried out by people trying to get a little fun off of people's fear. Unfortunately, many of them don't seem to realize the consequences before pulling their little stunts. In Alabama there have been nine arrests regarding clown stunts so far. A freshmen at Trinity Pawling School decided it might be fun to dress up as a clown one night to give his fellow schoolmates a little scare. These people seem to be taking advantage of the fear running through the homes of everyday Americans, not taking into full account the backlash that could have. We are fortunate that police have not been letting this go, but anyone who is thinking about scaring their friends may need to take this fact into consideration a little more before their "fun" prank.

Frequently depicted in horror movies and scary ghost stories around the campfire, there's something about that too-red lipstick and too-big smile so typically portrayed in clowns that throws us off a little bit. Now that these crazed clowns have begun to invade our backyards, people across the country are on edge. It looks like Party City might be selling out of clown Halloween costumes pretty quickly this year.