Jul 20, 2018
Welcome back to Film Buff Fridays!
We’re going from one 80s cult classic to another, this time in the horror genre. Once I saw it was available on streaming services, I figured it was time to check it out again. And I know at least one of our regular listeners will enjoy this film. Casey. Got any cult classics from the 1980s you want me to review? Head on over to onemoviepunch.com and let us know!
And now...
Today’s movie is “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” (1988), the cult comedy horror classic directed by Stephen Chiodo and written for the screen in collaboration with Charles Chiodo and Edward Chiodo. The film follows Mike Tobacco (Grant Cramer) and Debbie Stone (Suzanne Snyder) who follow a shooting star to a mysterious big top in the forest, only to realize it is an alien invasion intent on harvesting humans for food. With the help of Officer Dave Hansen (John Allen Nelson), and two ice cream truck operators, they try to stop them before they can escape. It is also the greatest film to ever include a gigantic crazy straw.
Spoilers ahead.
Hollywood is still mostly driven by the pitch. For those who aren’t familiar, the pitch is when a group of folks bring an idea to producers with money, attempting to secure funding, with only an idea. It has lead to some of the greatest movies ever made and it has rejected a number of ideas which would go on to be some of the greatest movies ever made. It generally only validates a particular producer’s biases, but it also gets around having to read 200+ scripts a week from hungry screenwriters. The pitch can also lead to some films like today’s film, a pure concept film turned into a low-budget, but influential production.
Can you imagine the pitch for “Killer Klowns from Outer Space”? The Chiodo brothers filing into a room and telling them about a crazy idea, explaining the story arc and looking for funding to turn something that should have been flatly rejected into one of the most influential films of the late 1980s? Killer alien clowns that come to Earth, that somehow know all about clowns, to harvest the townspeople. As a comedy. It seems highly implausible, which is exactly how the script was formed as well. It’s as if when they were writing this, they would stop at times and ask “Is this believable?” and only proceeding if the answer is “No.”. I would also hate to be heading back to the same producers after it did poorly at the theaters.
However, take any film and make it available in syndication during the 1990s, and it found its audience. I can’t count the number of times this film was playing on television, and how many times I thought this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen, and yet, after thirty years, I start to realize how original the film actually is, even while containing all the tropes of comedy and horror from the 1980s. The costumes are insanely well detailed, and the sets are exactly what you would expect from the concept. Sure, the special effects are categorically awful, but still loveable. The montage of short scenes involving the townspeople are actually quite great at demonstrating the mayhem within the town as the clowns invade. The dialogue is also poorly written, but it still moves the story along. Even the ending is campy, not only because our “heroes” (for lack of a better word) survive, but because the entire frigging town was captured and killed in the ensuing alien ship explosion. There is so much to tear apart, and yet, I can’t help but love it because it is what it is, and that’s a rare beast in film-making.
“Killer Klowns from Outer Space” (1988) is a campy horror comedy that puts absolutely no pretension into itself, taking a silly concept from start to finish, and earning an odd, but enjoyable milestone in the history of film-making. It has its many problems, but it also has very surprising strengths which will be appreciated for years to come. If you like comedy horror films, or clowns, or clowns in comedy horror films, or some truly amazing costume work, then this film is for you. Just be ready to groan. A lot.
Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Metacritic: NR
One Movie Punch: 7.2/10
“Killer Klowns from Outer Space” (1988) is rated PG-13 and is currently playing on Hulu and Epix.