When Mike (Grant Cramer) and his girlfriend, Debbie (Suzanne Snyder), turn up at the local police station warning that a gang of homicidal alien clowns have arrived in the town of Crescent Grove, California, the cops are naturally sceptical.
Talk of popcorn-firing guns and a spaceship shaped like a circus tent out in the woods hardly helps to convince them.
Before long, however, reports start coming in from anxious locals reporting similar run-ins with the colourfully-dressed, large shoe-wearing assailants, who intend to cocoon the local population in candy floss (cotton candy) and suck out their life juices through crazy straws.
The Klowns wreak murderous mischief upon the town, laughing all the way. Their weapons are unique – a balloon animal that turns into a bloodhound, ray guns that look like toys and, best of all, a shadow puppet of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that devours unsuspecting people waiting at a bus stop.
Combining inspired amateur brashness, delightful Loony Tunes design, and a winningly bizarre unreality, this engagingly cheap affair from effects wizards Stephen, Edward, and Charles Chiodo is an infantile and vicious delight that plays on the deep-seated fear most of us have of clowns and carnival folk.
The acting is mostly dreadful, with the exceptions of veteran performers John Vernon as Sergeant Mooney and Royal Dano as a hapless farmer who becomes the first victim of the Klowns.
Mooney is ultimately strangled by one of the Klowns and turned, post-mortem, into a ventriloquist’s puppet, complete with face paint.
The film is hampered by an obviously low budget ($2 million dollars), but the designs of the Klowns are so imaginative and individual set-pieces are so clever that Killer Klowns From Outer Space is an enjoyable romp, almost in spite of itself.
The movie became an instant cult classic and raked in over ten times its budget within six months of release.
Mike
Grant Cramer Debbie
Suzanne Snyder Officer Dave Hanson
John Allen Nelson Farmer Green
Royal Dano Officer Mooney
John Vernon Rich
Michael Siegel Paul
Pete Licassi
Director
Stephen Chiodo
Video
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Talk of popcorn-firing guns and a spaceship shaped like a circus tent out in the woods hardly helps to convince them.
The acting is mostly dreadful, with the exceptions of veteran performers John Vernon as Sergeant Mooney and Royal Dano as a hapless farmer who becomes the first victim of the Klowns.
