Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Sadly, Killer Klowns From Outer Space is where my fear of clowns started when I was younger. When I was a kid I saw the VHS cover for the movie and just HAD to watch it. I mean, clowns? Who doesn’t like clowns? Well, after watching this movie, I don’t like clowns! Yes this movie is a horror comedy, but as a kid it was scary. On a side note, my teenager saw me watch this and reminded me that he watched it with me when he was about 7 and said he had nightmares after watching it. (Yes, I kind of feel bad about it. He’s fine now, mostly.)
Released: May 27, 1988
Runtime: 88 mins
Director: Stephen Chiodo
Writer: Charles Chiodo, Stephen Chiodo, Edward Chiodo
Actors: Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson
PLOT
Aliens crash near a small town. They take the form of clowns and proceed to capture the townspeople for food. Can a ragtag group save themselves and the town?
MY THOUGHTS
With kills, I would say there are roughly 40-50 deaths. All the people put into the cotton candy pods, the 5 people eaten by a shadow dinosaur, and probably other ways that we don’t see. Oh, and I should mention there is a dog who dies at the very beginning. You don’t see/hear it but one of the clowns puts him in a net and we don’t see him anymore. There are a few actual kills. The best is Officer Mooney (John Vernon) who is slammed against the bars of a jail cell, and then turned into a human puppet. Also, a security guard is melted by acidic pies. As far as the clowns, you just have to shoot or hit something on their face.
Acting is as good as you would expect from an 80’s horror comedy. Grant Kramer and Suzanne Snyder play Mike and Debbie, a couple who stumble upon the Carnival Tent and discover the clown's true nature. Of course they are the main couple and her ex boyfriend will be the cop who helps them.
John Vernon plays Mooney, the cop who goes out of his way to be a jackass. John Allen Nelson plays Officer Hansen, the only person to believe them at first. He also plays one side of the love triangle along with Debbie and Mike.
Now, I have to mention the Terenzi brothers, Rich and Paul (played by Michael S. Siegel and Peter Licassi). Not the greatest acting but they are the comedic relief. They play brothers, and Mike’s best friends, who are riding around in an ice cream truck trying to sell ice cream and pick up girls. The movie wouldn’t be the same without them involved.
One night a meteor hits near a small town. An old man and his dog go and check it out. Meanwhile, a couple are making out at the local make out spot when they see the meteor and decide to go see it. They sneak into the tent and soon discover it’s bigger on the inside (Doctor Who and the Tardis?) and that it’s a spaceship. They see these pods hanging up that look like cotton candy. But it’s not cotton candy. It’s humans. They escape and go to the police station.
Obviously the police don’t believe them but Hansen is willing to check it out because of Debbie. They drop Debbie at her house and then go where the tent was. But it’s gone. So the cop doesn’t believe them until they see a truck where there’s all this cotton candy stuff and when they come back to the town they see some strange stuff. They see one of the clowns do a shadow puppet of a dinosaur and eat some people!
Meanwhile, at the station, Mooney arrests one of the clowns, but he is able to kill Mooney and turn him into a puppet. Through the puppet, the aliens tell Hansen they want to kill them. Fortunately this is how Hansen figures out how to kill them by shooting the clown in the nose.
At Debbie’s house the clowns capture her but they don’t put her in cotton candy. They enclose her in a balloon. The movie doesn’t explain why she was in a balloon, but my theory is that maybe to turn her into a female clown to procreate? There were at least a couple of female clowns. I don’t know. It was just a guess.
Mike finds his friends, the Terenzi brothers, along with Hansen, and they follow the clowns. A big fight ensues, including a huge King Klown! Just as the police from another town arrive, the crew is able to defeat the aliens. Unfortunately the townspeople are not saved.
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Photo Credit: Chiodo Brothers Productions
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Now I have to mention the awkwardness at the end. Hansen, Mike, and Debbie are running away from the explosion. Debbie is holding on to Hansen, her ex, instead of her current boyfriend Mike. Okay, they are running for their lives, I’ll let it go. But at the end and they see the explosions, Hansen is holding onto Debbie and she’s holding onto him. Mike seems oblivious. Not cool. I know, it doesn’t really matter but I thought it was a little odd.
Overall Killer Klowns From Outer Space is a fun movie that shouldn’t be taken seriously. If you have about an hour and a half to kill, and you like (or maybe not like) clowns, watch this with some friends.
And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:
Horrorcore rap group, the Insane Clown Posse sampled dialogue from this film for "The Staleness" on their 2002 album Joker's Card "The Wraith: Shangri-La.
The King Klown at the end, was called Klownzilla by the Chiodo brothers, and was actually played by Charles Chiodo.
The movie originally ended with the Terenzi brothers as the survivors of the exploding spaceship while Dave perished after killing the giant Klown, but since the executive needed a upbeat ending, the Chiodo brothers filmed a second ending that is in all the versions where Dave and the Terenzi brothers survive the exploding spaceship by hiding in the clown car.
Check out my other reviews here: Forever Final Girl
Let’s get into the rankings:
Kills/Blood/Gore: 3/5
Sex/Nudity: 0/5
Scare factor: 2/5
Enjoyment factor: 10/10
My Rank: 3.75/5
IMDB: 6.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 7.6/10 audience: 6/10
Letterboxd: 3.3/5