Killer Klowns From Outer Space

Mr. Pat

9 hours ago

4 min read

We have had a very October weekend so far, and it's been wonderful. Yesterday, we set up the projector outside so Lincoln and some of his friends could watch Spirit Halloween. Today we went on a hike at Oak Openings to look at the leaves and tomorrow we'll be carving pumpkins. It doesn't get much better than that! But before all the autumn fun, I watched...

Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)

I very much remember this movie from when I was growing up, and despite my brothers talking about and referencing it many times, I never got around to seeing it. Even as I got older, I'd see it on streaming sites, but never had much of a desire to watch. I can't put my finger on as to why. It got made into a video game, and it looked fun enough, but I haven't been able to get into any asymmetrical horror game since Friday the 13th. For that, I will curse Gun Media until my dying breath. But as I near the end of October, finding quality movies I haven't seen yet is a challenge, so I said screw it and ripped off the band-aid.

Oh 80s camp, how much I love you! We start with a bunch young kids at the old makeout spot. They got beer, champagne and a rubber raft. Eventually, two brothers, who had rented an ice cream truck to pick up ladies, show up in order to sell ice cream to their friends. When they get out of the truck to try and make some sales, they are pelted with an absurd amount of empties in one of the first of many sight gags.

Everything about this scene is extremely silly, but want to know the crazy thing? The makers of the movie, the Chiodo brothers, based the group on friends of theirs. The two brothers in the ice cream truck? Real people who actually did that, and for the same reason. Keeping champagne and a rubber raft in his car for the road game makeout sessions? That's what another one of his friends did.

Anyways, while the kids are doing all the kissing, a meteor shoots across the sky. One of the girls convinces her b/f to go and check it out with her. Begrudgingly, he does so, while an old man and his dog Pooh Bear also go to check it out. At different times, the four of them don't find a meteor, instead, they find a giant circus tent. It doesn't go well for the man and his dog, which put the movie on thin ice for me. The couple, Debbie and Mike, manage to get inside where they find bodies encased in a cotton candy cocoon. That's when they run afoul of the clowns who chase after them with a gun that shoots popcorn and a balloon dog that acts as a tracker. OK movie, I see you, and I'm loving it so far!

From there we follow our heroes, an ex b/f turned cop, an absolute dickhead cop and the clowns as they go about murdering everyone in town in so many silly clown and circusy ways. When you get a movie that's based around a concept, the movie will oftentimes hide it until the end (Ring vs Grudge), or give you enough of a taste throughout before the final act madness (Freddy vs. Jason). But this movie, you get more Killer Klowns From Outer Space than you can shake a stick at, and it's an absolute blast the entire time.

I don't know if I've called a movie brillaint before, but I think this movie is absolutely brilliant. For starters, you can sum up the entire plot just by the title. That is literally all you need to know, and pretty much all you get. The movie doesn't play lip service to its concept, it absolutely revels in it. Every silly thing you can think of for a clown and circus makes its way into the movie. From the popcorn gun, there's people being turned into cotton candy, a woman gets trapped inside a balloon, a shadow pupper that eats people, a clown riding an invisible motorcycle, being hit with water from a flower lappel and getting acid pies thrown at you. You can overstate the levels of silly this movie lobs at you, and each gag is more fun than the last.

Another thing that I want to mention that I thought was really fun: the klowns were built by the filmmakers, and after the movie, they were likely abandoned, because the costumes were reused and repurposed as the trolls from Ernest Scared Stupid, which is one of my favorite Halloween movies of all time. If you're looking for an entertaining movie to just turn your brain off and enjoy, I can't suggest this one enough. Despite the silliness, it never turns to wink at the audience, it's having fun, but it's never getting up in its own joke. You could maybe argue the asshole cop seems like he's acting in an entirely different movie, but it's funny how convinced he is that the whole town is playing a practical joke on him, all at the same time.

To sum it up, the guy who did the music for this movie handed in his work, and people in the legal department told him the movie would be a complete failure and would die a quick death. John Massari wasn't having it; he told them that they don't get it, and there are people who will LOVE the movie. Almost 40 years later, it's safe to say he was 100% spot on for that one.