Fellman's Movie Reviews

Red = Spoilers 

Killer Klowns From Outer Space is a B horror movie from 1988 that has achieved cult status because of its surreal premise and rather outrageous effects. The clowns themselves, or Klowns, I should say, aren’t that bad looking when you think about what special effects were like in 1988. Animation was just coming of age. CGI was being born. Practical effects weren’t the limits of what movies and television could do anymore. There was a little bit of that in this movie, with the shadow puppets and the one clown riding an invisible motorcycle. Not to mention some of the clowns, and the spaceship at the end, exploding. That was a CGI effect. But it was 1988, so it wasn’t exactly seamless. You could practically see where they edited the cell with the exploding nose on top of the clown. Green screen technology still hadn’t reached its high mark yet in 1988. 

What’s it about? Killer Klowns is about a guy named Mark and his girlfriend, Debbie. They’re up at the make out spot in town that everyone goes to, to park and make out. When, all of the sudden, everyone sees something come down from the sky and crash in the woods nearby. An old man takes his dog to investigate, and it turns out to be a big circus tent. A big clown comes out and uses a ray gun to wrap the dog and the old man in cotton candy cocoons. Meanwhile, Mark and Debbie decide to go and investigate what it was that crashed and they go and find the circus tent too. They go inside and find a room full of cotton candy cocoons. They see the giant clowns and they escape the circus tent. They head into town to find Debbie’s ex-boyfriend, Dave, who is a cop on the police force. Dave’s partner, Officer Mooney, won’t believe them, and refuses to listen to them. Dave drops Debbie off and takes Mark to where the circus tent was, but it isn’t there anymore. Thinking he’s trying to make a fool out of him, he handcuffs him and puts him in the back of the car. On the way back to the station they come across a bunch of cars that look like they were in an accident. One of the driver’s seats has cotton candy all over it and it makes Dave believe Mark. By now, the clowns are all over town, kidnapping people and putting them in cocoons and taking them back to their spaceship. Mooney is back at the station, refusing to answer the phones, thinking that the entire town is trying to play a trick on him when one of the clowns comes into the station. Dave comes back to find the clown using Mooney as a puppet and imitating his voice. He finds out that you can kill the clowns by shooting them in the nose. Dave, Mark, and the Terenzi Brothers head to the amusement park, which is where the clowns have hidden their spaceship. They break in, free Debbie, who is being held prisoner in a giant balloon, and have to kill who I can only assume is the head Killer Klown to make the spaceship blow up and save humanity. 

What’s good? I mean, it is a B movie, so it’s not necessarily “good” per se. But “good” is really subjective. By what standards is “good”? It was made in 1988. What are 1988’s standards? I think if you can still watch it and go, that was entertaining, it can be considered “good”. 

What’s bad? Once again, there’s certainly a lot to criticize. It’s a B movie. So, it’s not like you have Star Wars type production values, here. And some of the people in a few scenes don’t even have lines, so they’re just standing there, making faces at the camera for a little while. But it’s still fun to watch.  

The acting? The 70s-80s were the era of overacting. Everybody was putting way too much into scenes where they didn’t need to. Kind of like a high school drama class on a national level. Everybody was doing it. The big-name stars were acting that way. Hollywood actors were doing it for years. It didn’t die down until the early 90s.  

The effects? The special effects were new for that time and place. CGI shadow puppets and exploding clowns. Those weren’t traditional special effects. Those were a whole new generation of things. 

The theme song. I like the theme song, but not for its musical credit. Just for the fact that it was sung by that B version, second rate, Rush cover band. I don’t know if they were an actual Rush cover band, but that guy was trying his hardest to sound like Geddy Lee… 

Top of the world. There’s a make out spot where there’s a whole bunch of people parked and making out. Apparently, back in the day, this was a common thing. I don’t know if people still do this anymore. 

Mooney’s problem. What is Mooney’s problem, anyway? He just seems like a pissed off old man for no reason. Like, they never explain why he’s so angry. He just, is… 

Poor Pooh. Oh, the clowns got poor Pooh Bear. That poor dog. I felt so bad for him. I don’t mind when people die in movies, but when they get the dog, it just makes me sad… 

The indian impersonation. You have to wonder if somebody seeing this movie today is going “Well, that’s a racially insensitive impersonation of a Native American he’s making. That’s very offensive. This movie hasn’t aged well at all…” Probably. There’s probably a couple of them out there… 

Trespassing. Mark and Debbie just go trespassing into that circus tent without caring whose it is, and they start pressing all kinds of buttons and opening all kinds of doors without a care in the world. Like, even if it wasn’t a spaceship, shouldn’t they have expected to get caught doing something? 

The Terenzi Brothers. Where’d they get that ice cream truck, anyway? And they’re just driving around at night, trying to sell ice cream? What kind of a business venture is that? Not a very good one. Not too bright, those Terenzi Brothers… 

The guy with the puppet. Why didn’t that guy run when he saw the one puppet vaporize the other puppet? That puppet clearly had a gun that could vaporize things. It’s time to leave. And then the puppet pointed it at him, and he just stood there. It’s kind of his fault that he got turned into a cotton candy cocoon. 

The biker’s a jerk. That biker kind of got what he deserved. He shouldn’t have been picking on that clown like that. He broke his bike. He didn’t need to do that. And then he got his block knocked off. The clown told him to put up his dukes. Once again, the biker’s fault. 

Mooney refuses to act. How many people call Mooney and tell him there’s clowns at their house and he still refuses to act? The guy at the drug store calls him, who Mooney knows personally, and he still refuses. So, when Mooney gets killed by the clown, it once again, is his own fault. 

Leans into the dumpster. The guy at the burger joint hears what can only be described as raccoons in the dumpster, so he goes back to look inside. And he leans down, sticking his entire head and upper body into the dumpster, where strange noises and squeakings were coming from not seconds ago. One more time: completely his fault. 

The nose is the obvious weak point. When you think about it, the nose really is the obvious logical point of attack on the clowns. A big, round, inflated balloon on the front of their face? What could make more sense? 

What are you gonna do with those pies, boys? In what is quite possibly one of the greatest lines in cinema history, Killer Klowns From Outer Space created a scene where five clowns pie a security guard to death. But before they do, he asks them “What are you gonna do with those pies, boys?” with a completely straight face. It’s easily the best scene in the movie.  

The balloon. Why did they put Debbie in the balloon and not in a cotton candy pod like everybody else? What makes her so special? 

Why have that pole? Why do the clowns even have a pole that slides down into a monster’s mouth? What is the purpose of that pole? Except for sliding down into the mouth of a monster? I don’t see any. 

What made the spaceship explode? When Dave killed the giant clown, how come the spaceship explodes? Were they tied together? Was the giant clown part of the ship? Was the ship a part of the giant clown? What happened to the rest of the clowns? They just kind of wandered off.  

Isn’t that pie acidic? Isn’t the pie that fell on them when the ship exploded the same stuff that melted the security guard at the amusement park? Isn’t that stuff acidic? Shouldn’t they be melting right now? Plot holes, plot holes, plot holes… 

So, yeah. Go and see Killer Klowns From Outer Space. It’s the best horror movie about clowns from space that you’ll see anytime soon. Unless there’s some other movie about clowns from space. I don’t know. I haven’t seen it yet. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…