Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

(1988) **

"What in the blue blazes is the circus doing here in these parts?"

Teenagers are necking on lookout point. Watching the stars overhead, they see a bright light flash by. It lands not too far away, and rather than continue to make out, they go investigate. An old codger (see quote above) has already been to visit the site of the "comet" landing and discovers a circus tent. Said circus tent is packed full of aliens who resemble large, creepy clowns. The Klowns' mission: cocoon humans in cotton candy and keep the corpses on board ship as delicious, straw-ready smoothies. Yum!

Killer Klowns from Outer Space was not scary at all, at all! Hardly any blood, no gore, not even any nudity. The acting and dialogue were rotten. The special effects were mediocre. The 80s styles were hideous. Leg warmers? Check. Cosby sweaters? Check. Oversized glasses? Check. Bad, large hair? Check. On the plus side, I liked the clowns. I giggled once or twice. Meanwhile, husband was rolling on the floor laughing, especially after the end of the credits, at which point we were treated to the music video. No lie. I added a half star for the music video, even though it is not technically (or in any sense, even) part of the movie proper. So goes another cult classic that (at least this viewing) failed to impress.

6 comments:

DKC said...

I was actually thinking of trying this one! Thank heavens I know better now.

Love the list of 80's accoutrement! (That's my $5 word for the day.)

AC said...

to be fair, husband thinks it is at least a 3 star movie.

Octopunk said...

While I can't argue about this movie's quality, I've always liked it. Mainly because the people in the movie see the hideous aliens and think "oh, clowns!" and never realize that the heads beneath the makeup are horribly, horribly mishapen.

JPX said...

I was going to watch this one too! I think we used to show portions of this film to patients at the Center For Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University who had Coulrophobia (fear of clowns).

Those are creepy f'ing clowns.

DKC said...

Forgive my ignorance Boom Boom, I know there are some therapies that try to make phobics confront their fears, but couldn't they show them some normal, non-alien clowns?!?!

JPX said...

Actually you're right. It wouldn't make much sense to take their fear and make it worse with actual scary clowns. A better approach would be to have them confront normal clowns repeatedly until they habituate to the feared stimulus.

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...