Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) Review
You see that title, and you instantly know what you’re in
for. Review over.
Just kidding. Here we go.
The movie begins with some teenagers at a make-out point in
the woods spotting something flying through the night sky and landing nearby.
They discover it’s a space ship that looks like a circus tent, and
extraterrestrial clowns have come to cocoon every townsperson in cotton candy
and suck their liquefied remains through crazy straws. The teens try to get help from the
cops, but they are obviously skeptical at first, until more and more clowns
show up and the evidence seems to suggest they actually are a real threat.

The clowns actually do manage to be creepy at points. There
are multiple moments where they’re shown in close-up, laughing, and it’s pretty
disturbing. Mostly, though, they just generate laughs. Nearly every clown-ism
imaginable is addressed—big red noses, flowers that squirt water, and practical
jokes, just to list a few—but their alien-clown tech is inventive and
hilarious, too. They have popcorn guns, which shoot popcorn that eventually
grows into mutated clown/snake monsters, and a balloon animal made into a dog,
which becomes sentient and sniffs out the teens. The Chiodo’s had many
ambitious ideas, and brought them to life in some impressive ways.
Nearly all of the budget was used toward the special
effects, so as a result, some of the other aspects of the movie are lacking,
such as sound mixing and set design. The acting is pretty amateur, except for
John Vernon (you might know him as the dean from Animal House), who is hilarious in every scene he’s in. He thinks
the young punks are always pranking him and trying to get him to quit the
force, so when the calls start coming in about clowns attacking people, his
skepticism increases more and more, as does the comedy. And while the acting
from the teens isn’t great, the dynamic of the girl working with the
ex-boyfriend and current boyfriend to save everyone from the clowns is at least
interesting and different enough to sustain the clown-free scenes.
Killer Klowns from
Outer Space is the kind of low-budget 80’s horror-comedy you just have to
see to believe. If you know anyone who has coulrophobia (fear of clowns) like I
do, find an excuse to get that person to come over for a movie night, and trick
them into watching. It’ll make an already entertaining movie an even more
entertaining experience. Oh yeah, and did I mention there’s a theme song?
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