Killer Klowns from Outer Space Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: I think the title of the film pretty much speaks for itself.

Review: It makes me proud to see this gem become a cult classic, but, not to sound like a pretentious asshole, I was one of those weirdos singing this film's praises before it was cool. What is there really to say about a movie when your title is "Killer Klowns from Outer Space?" Essentially, this is an homage to '50s B movies with that '80s magic touch that always works wonders. The premise is laughably stupid, yet, they are able to make it somehow feel believable. The story doesn't take itself seriously at all and attempts to go balls to walls with nonsensical mischief from the clowns...or are they really called Klowns? Honestly, you should know within the first couple minutes if this movie is going to work for you. Come on, they have a song, with the title, written specifically for the movie--you know I love that shit!

Forget trying to understand the Klowns as they have no rhyme or reason to how they work. They can punch your head clean off, eat you with shadow puppets, blast you with a cotton candy gun, send mutating popcorn after you, lose limbs, get shot, throw acidic pie, jump into the sky, drive invisible cars, still have actual clowns cars, have living balloon animals, pull shit out of their ass seemingly, and all manner of other shenanigans. Sure, having no clear rules is unfair, but it works in the context of the story. We don't even know where the Klowns come from or why they're here--all we know is they want to eat humans; one character speculates the concept of a clown comes from these aliens. The only way to kill these sumbitches is by destroying their noses. The Klowns also have a giant circus tent for a spaceship whereby the inside looks like a cross between a funhouse and a toy factory. The final icing on the cake is an obligatory giant clown monster just because!

Besides the goofball nature of the plot, the film succeeds in excellent pacing. Almost as soon as the movie starts we are getting action that doesn't let up until the end. This roller coaster approach works perfectly to complement the film's ideas regarding a carnival experience. Many of the jokes are admittedly stupid, even by '80s standards, but I can put up with corny bullshit. The acting is over the top in delivery, but I think that's what they were striving for anyway. Speaking of over the top, the ending is nonsensical with everyone miraculously surviving despite being blown up. Hey, can't let something like that slow you down, right? The whole town was killed too, but that's fine...no one will miss them. The nonchalant attitude to everything is great. One more thing I wanted to mention, that was just so dumb, was when characters were running away from the Klowns. Terrible...absolutely terrible...still amusing though.

If you're into movies like "Troll 2" and "The Room" I think you should get a kick out of this one too. Now, this isn't to say it's so bad it's good--since this movie did know what it was doing--but there is that certain appreciation needed to enjoy something like Killer Klowns. I don't think you can really rate this film by how good or bad it is--it's more about the entertainment level which is fairly high. There is talk of this finally getting a sequel in the near future so we shall see about that. In the meantime, I would definitely recommend checking this out if you're even remotely intrigued by the plot. Regardless of whether or not you'll love it or hate it, I can guarantee you won't forget "Killer Klowns from Outer Space!"

Notable Moment: The entire ending sequence. First you have those brothers magically surviving, then the cop somehow lives too, and they all managed to get inside a clown car within the span of seconds? And why did the ship blow up in the first place?! I think tying your spaceship's functions to a big clown's nose is a design flaw...

Final Rating: 6.5/10