Clark Burlingame

Clark Burlingame is a supporting character in the Canadian supernatural horror novel Experimental Film.

Character creation
Author Gemma Files wanted to avoid some common horror tropes related to autism, namely the autistic child destroying the relationship of their parents, magical autism, and the autistic character being cured.

Biography
Clark is the only child of Simon Burlingame and Lois Cairns, the latter being the protagonist and narrator of the book. Lois becomes obsessed with the work of Iris Whitcomb, an early Canadian filmmaker who was into the supernatural. Iris also had a disabled son named Hyatt, making Lois and Clark their modern counterparts within the story.

Autism
Clark is referred to with the terms autistic, Asperger's and ASD in the book. He has little functional speech and communicates mostly via echolalia, repeating lines from various movies, series and other audiovisual media like ad jingles.