KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE REVIEW

Grimey

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COULROPHOBIA – extreme or irrational fear of clowns. While not a common fear, about 7.8% of people in America “totally get it” says an article at Healthline dot com. It’s said that most individuals who are afraid of clowns have had an unsettling traumatic experience at an early age with clowns portrayed in horror films; I can’t help but wonder how many of these first traumatic experiences started with Killer Klowns from Outer Space. On May 27th, 1988, (4 days over a year before my birth date) the Chiodos brothers unleashed the 2 million dollar budgeted PG-13 B movie cult classic that either made you love clowns or hate them all together. Killer Klowns might not have been my introduction to horror, but it has left a lasting impression that keeps me coming back as if it were my first experience.

CHARLES CHIODO, EDWARD CHIODO, and STEPHEN CHIODO in KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988)

DISCLAIMER: this movie is old as fuck. It’s a year older than me. I assume most people who would watch this film have by now. However, in the case that someone reading this hasn’t seen it yet (the fucks wrong with you?), tread lightly from here on unless you enjoy spoiling movies for yourself…. then go ahead and keep reading. I’ll be breaking this review down into categories including plot, visuals, SFX, gore factor, soundtrack, acting, merchandise, sequel and overall enjoyment.

THE PLOT

On a Friday night in Crescent Cove, California during a make-out session, a group of teens are interrupted by a blindingly bright “shooting star” which crash lands in the woods nearby. Mike and Debbie (Grant Cramer and Suzanne Snyder) decide to investigate the strange event only to discover a peculiar circus tent full of dead bodies cocooned in cotton candy operated by killer alien clowns in the middle of the woods. After being chased by a clown, Mike and Deb flee the scene to notify the authorities who are in disbelief and assume their story is a prank. While the police neglect to investigate further, the clowns continue to harvest humans for food using various weapons and instruments including but not limited to cotton candy cocoon and balloon ray guns, popcorn bazookas, acid pies and balloon animals. When Debbie is taken, officer Dave Hanson (John Allen Nelson) aka Debbie’s Ex, and Mike Tobacco work together to end the clowny chaos and rescue their friend.

VISUALS

For a movie this old, the visuals are exceptional. With brightly colored sets and set pieces, costumes, makeup and animatronic characters; there is always something to appreciate from Killer Klowns visually. Right away a spot I’d like to highlight in specific, when Mike and Deb first walk into the big top space ship and see the ships power source. Just as Mike describes it in the film, it truly does look like a nuclear power plant with an endless pit beneath it. It sets the tone quite nicely and lets us know these aren’t just regular clowns and something otherworldly is about to happen. The space ship is like an endless maze. When the teens enter it, they press these buttons that kind of resemble clown noses and end up in a different room. Each room is extremely loud and wild colored; it’s like the 80’s threw up all over the walls…. in the best way possible. Since its a clown movie, this is probably to be expected but they did a great job at keeping that vibe through the entire film.

SFX

It is said that the movie could not have been done without the SFX expertise of Gene Warren Jr. Specifically in the beginning with the landing of the space craft and the end climax blowing up of the space craft all came from Gene’s team. The chase scene with the clown ice cream truck was also Gene’s studios work. They had to optically speed up this chase scene due to public transportation laws to make the scene look like an actual chase. Another classic scene is the battle in the arena between Klownzilla and the ice cream truck. While this film is relatively aware that its not supposed to be taken serious, it all seems to work in favor of the SFX which all work fairly well for the time of this films recording.

GORE FACTOR / FAVORITE KILLS

To be 100% honest, KKFOS is very low on the gore scale and rightfully so as it’s a PG-13 rated film. With only one scene really showing any significant amount of blood (albeit drank through a silly straw), what it lacks in gore it makes up for with interesting death scenes (or, at least what I assume ends in death.) Between drenching someone in acid pies and melting him into a pile of human whipped cream complete with a cherry on top, getting pulled into a dumpster and being eaten, and a shadow puppet in the shape of a t-rex gulping up an entire group of people; it’s scenes like these that really set this movie apart from others. My personal favorite kills are the acid pie scene, the classic “knock my block off” scene where Shorty gets pissed at a biker for trashing his bike and literally punches the dudes head clean off his shoulders and (of course) the puppet scene where Fatso uses Officer Mooney’s’ body as a hand puppet. Could these kills be improved with messy blood splatters? Absolutely. Then again, I’ve always enjoyed watching them regardless.

SOUNDTRACK

Where to begin with this stupendous soundtrack? To say the least, it is the most downright 80s soundtrack you could ever ask for. Between the synth bass lines, piano strings, edgy guitar riffs and cheesy vocals it’s both perfect and atrocious at the same time in all the right ways. The beginning of the film sets it all off with this cascade of demonic laughter and atmospheric droning and warps into this 80s guitar that sounds like its straight out of a carnival with vocals from American punk band The Dickies. Its all very circus like and silly but also somewhat dark and serious. If you’ve ever wanted to hear the soundtrack in better quality, check out Killer Klowns from Outer Space Reimagined on youtube. Varése Sarabande are released the entire soundtrack with composer John Massari and performed by the 30-piece Hollywood Chamber Orchestra, with a special guest appearance by composer Bear McCreary. The Dickies also laid down some vocals on a new version of the theme song.

ACTING

What we have to remember is that KKFOS is a b movie. It is the most b movie of all b movies. The acting obviously isn’t the best but that’s sort of the point. It’s silly and at some points the facial expressions or tones in voice don’t always fit the scene perfectly. In specific, the arguments between Officer Mooney and Officer Hansen. One minute Hansen seems like a complete pushover and the next he’s giving Mooney the smack down. Another famous quote “what are you gonna do with those pies, boys?” moments before being drenched in acidic pies. There is another random scene where the clowns pretend they’re a pizza delivery and the girl who answers the door simply says “hmph… Pizza, huh?” then gets blasted with a cotton candy ray gun. It’s a lot of really cheesy acting but it fits really well for this film.

MERCHANDISE

For a film with this big of a cult following, one would assumed that would warrant a slew of merchandising to follow but, truth be told, there isn’t a lot. There is some and in recent years we’ve seen the clowns at Halloween Horror Nights in 2019 where there was KKFOS pop corn, candy bars (cotton candy flavored with jelly beans to be exact), cotton candy, pins and drink glasses. We’ve also seen a few (four, to be specific) Pop vinyl figures as well. Before all this, we’ve seen various KKFOS action figures, masks and t-shirts. Some clothing featuring the clowns is still being made (check out Cavity Colors for a whole line of Killer Klowns clothing items). So, it’s not like there is no merch at all but I’d love to see more! I think if companies like Neca or Super7 stepped in and made figures it could bump things up a lot since the figures that have been made before are relatively rare, no longer being made and cost an arm and a leg on the second hand market. I’m not kidding you…. one look on eBay and you’ll understand. Most franchises have statues and all kinds of prop replicas. I can tell you right now if there was a Shorty statue or a popcorn blaster replica, I’d be all over it and I assume others would be as well.

SEQUEL

There has been talks of a sequel since the release of the original film and Stephen Chiodo has been trying for many years to make this happen to no avail with “THE RETURN OF THE KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE IN 3D.” In October 2018, SyFy was in talks of making a sequel. Unfortunately, 20th Century Fox secretly bought the rights and refused to sell them to SyFy. While 20th Century Fox did intend on making a sequel themselves, after being bought out by Disney however this changed the future of the project as Disney blocked Fox’s involvement in said project. I know, a lot of people are against the making of newer sequels for older films but man…. I’ve been hoping for a sequel since the first time I watched this movie. Questions that come to my mind when I think of a Killer Klowns sequel: where did these clowns come from and what is their planet like, do they eat just humans, why do they know what popcorn, cotton candy and circus tents are, did they run out of food in their home planet, and did Dave, Mike and Deb melt after they got pied at the end of the first film? All burning questions that I need answered asap!

OVERALL ENJOYMENT / CONCLUSION

I can’t even lie. This has to be in my top 5 greatest of all time horror movies. It has a little bit of everything; it’s creepy, dark but also funny and goofy with an equally as goofy yet dark soundtrack. The characters are beautiful as well as the little animatronic pieces. It’s a great introduction movie to anyone who is interested in getting a taste of horror but isn’t willing to jump into something that’s a little more on the gory and heart racing side. It’s a beautiful looking movie for being over 30 years old and it also leaves a lot to the imagination knowing that there will probably never be a sequel. In my opinion, it’s such an underrated classic and deserves more merchandising and hopefully we will see that eventually. Thanks for reading!