The harlequin character lags far behind the clown – his entertainment competitor – in the film world, and it is particularly true of horror cinema even though it’s the harlequin that has an edge over the clown in using its brain and pursuing goals. Before Stephen King’s 1986 novel IT and its 1990 movie adaptation widely popularized the clown in horror entertainment, the Australian movie Harlequin (1980) by director Simon Wincer placed the harlequin at the center of a weighty plot whose relevance transcends the realm of mystery, horror, and thriller genres. 

Watching the opening scene of the Deputy Governor’s drowning with the knowledge that it is an allusion to the actual disappearance and presumed death of Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt (which happened in 1967) would...

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