So first off this movie is not serious at all. The Chiodo's brothers know that they are filming this parody, goofy, slapstick horror movie and we are fine with that. Just knowing that stuff alone lets this movie get a pass in our book when looking at say, the Acting, the Story, the Character arcs. What we have here is a movie that was made just so that the brothers Chiodo's could showcase their Special Effects work.
So right off the bat we know that the Brothers, who are responsible for the movie, don't necessarily have a film making background. They are effects guys, and you have seen their stuff other places too like Critters & Team America. The acting in this movie is atrocious, but I think that it adds to the charm of the film. The movie itself harks back to the 50's monster movies, where a small town has to deal with an antagonist from space. This time the small town is Santa Cruz, and the antagonists aren't giant Rats, or Robots, or Plants that want to invade. They are clowns that are surrounded in bad puns. They fly through space in a giant circus tent type UFO. They shoot popcorn, encase victims in giant balloons and cotton candy wraps.
This all sounds fun and good but that's not to say that the movie doesn't have a creepy vibe to it. The special effects for the Clown outfits themselves are incredibly scary, especially if you don't like clowns. The movie has all sorts of deaths, most of which are funny parody's of themselves. The movie still delivers where it needs to though just candy coated, again pun intended. For example, a victim is encased in this cotton candy type substance. When discovered by another character, the exposed faces are obviously dead and covered in blood.
The movie doesn't really have any resolution, evil is supposedly defeated. It is assumed that everyone who was attacked by the clowns are dead since the end of the movie doesn't actually touch on the carnage that was left. Though there are like 20 or maybe more dead from the clowns, just in this town alone, the movie ends on a high note with the fleeing clowns throwing pies at our heroes. This of course leads into the awesome music that rolls over the credits compliments of The Dickies.
That leads me to the soundtrack, the movie spawned a pretty awesome song entitled Killer Klowns (From Outer Space) which is sung by punk band The Dickies. The song plays over the credits and is awesome, it might be one of the best songs over credits for a long time. The movie also has this creepy random generic altered circus music that actually sets a really creepy tone for a lot of scenes. The soundtrack, I believe, is one of the best in horror movie history.
Although this movie isn't really scary and isn't really that amazing of a film. I think that it deserves a spot on the 1001 horror movies to see before you die. The movie, at least for me, was a staple and I really enjoyed it growing up. I am going to give the movie a number score of 6 of 10. If you haven't seen Killer Klowns from Outer Space you need to go out and see this! I'm not joking, it comes on TV like all the time, its free on Hulu right now, at least at the time this was written. Go see it if you haven't because you are missing out on some real retro nostalgia.
I feel like pie
- The movie was shot in Santa Cruz (on the Boardwalk and in town) also Watsonville, CA
- The Chiodo's brothers designed the clowns in this movie, they are supposedly planning a sequel.
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