Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Many times, you might find a filmmaker armed with a low budget who intentionally sets out to make a âcult midnight movieâ, and usually falls flat on their face due to a lack of skill and churns out a pretty shitty result. However, then there is the Chiodo Brothers, who had a long career in the 80s doing special effects and puppet work on different movies, putting their heads together and making a film in 1988 that not only succeeded on its own terms, but still holds up well today even on its meager $2 million budget. Kicking off with a catchy but cool title theme song from the Dickies, it tells the story of aliens from another world whose look and culture are exactly like that of clowns in a circus, who invade a small town and seemingly kill off about 80% of the populace using bizarre techniques such as cotton candy cocoons, flesh melting custard pies, and hand shadow puppets that come to life. The Chiodos certainly should be commended for the creative genius brought to the Klowns in these scenes, and also manage to maintain a good balance between belly laughs and genuine creepy moments as when a Klown tries to lure a little girl away from her family or another uses a dead victim as a ventriloquistâs dummy by sticking their hand in the victimâs neck and manipulating his spinal column. The drawback here is the (possibly intentional) bad acting, as most of the younger actors seem almost listless in their perfomances, from Grant Cramerâs pretty boy hero whose main catchphrase throughout seems to always be âHoly shit!â to John Allen Nelsonâs cop who doesnât even seem concerned when he sees the Klowns killing people to Suzanne Snyderâs (very cute) heroine who survives a Klown attack with the annoyance of someone who had their hairdryer malfunction, to veteran actor Royal Dano overacting to the extreme as the hick farmer who is their first victim (âI want my Pooh Bear!â), but it is a pair of goofball brothers in an ice cream truck (played by the never-made-it 80s stand up comedy team of Licassi and Siegal) who get on the viewerâs nerves the most with a tired comic schtick that wouldnât make a five year old smile. The exception amongst all this is John Vernon (aka The Dean From Animal House) as the fascist bastard cop who refuses to believe any of it, thinking itâs all one big prank and finally just refusing to answer the phone because he just thinks itâs another Klown call, but at least he gives a real performance with some good lines (âI survived Korea, I can get through this bullshit!â). One should also look for Christopher Titus in a pre-stardom role as a nerd as well. In the end, though, itâs the Klowns themselves who carry this show with their mixture of hilarity and fright, and much of the set design is excellent in showing the inside of their big top spaceship, as well as a quick pace that never spends too much time on the human actors, that makes this a must for the cult film crowd and those looking for a more than painless time wasterâŚ
8/10