The Gist:
Aliens that look like, act like, and dress like clowns descend upon a small town to turn people into candy floss.
The Review:
As you can tell by the title Killer Klowns from Outer Space, this film by Stephen Chiodo from a script by him and his brother, this is a film that does not take itself seriously. It isn’t even the slightest bit scary unless you have that odd fear of clowns which I myself could never even try to understand. So we have our titular teenage heroes, Mike and Debbie who stumble upon the aliens’ tent. It’s your usual horror set up. A small town with an angry sheriff, a redneck type who first discovers the tent like spaceship believing it to be a comet. Pot dealers or ice cream I don’t know.
When the clowns begin their attack there isn’t any horror per se but full on comical gore. They use toy looking guns that turn people into something like candy floss. They punch people’s heads off and so on. The makeup is actually quite effective and creepy. The dialogue is brilliant, ‘Why are they shooting popcorn at us?’ ‘Because they’re clowns.’ Classic.
The filmmakers have embraced the Blu-Ray format and have delivered a disc loaded with special features in a special Steelbook release. There’s a commentary with the brothers. Five featurettes covering the making of, visual effects, scriptwriting and so on. Next are interviews with the cast and crew, deleted scenes, bloopers, auditions, storyboard and image gallery and trailers. I got to say that’s more than a lot of bigger production movies of late. As for the transfer, it isn’t bad, there are some very grainy scenes but that is a minor nitpick.
The Verdict:
Fun dumb and full of nostalgia for some. What we get from the special features is the sense that these guys had a lot of fun making this movie and that is what it is, fun. It’s funny it’s corny, the acting is sub-par but that adds to the fun.
Certificate: 12
Director: Stephen Chiodo
Starring: Grant Cramer, John Allen Nelson, John Vernon, Michael Siegel, Royal Dano, Suzanne Snyder
Running Time: 83 minutes
Release Date: 15 September 2014
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