Killers Klowns From Outer Space (1988)

Getting deja vu?

This will hopefully be my first and last repost.

The thing is, this movie is the first review I posted. In that first post it is used as an example to help explain the scoring system. I feel it deserves it’s own article, so here it is again, written just as it was then with no edits.

Hope that makes sense!

By Niclas Mortensen - @monkeymouthart

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Total Score: 19/23.

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Frankly, this film is batshit, balls-to-the-wall nuts. It is full of excellent ideas, genuinely creepy moments, and a healthy amount of mayhem. It’s surprisingly nasty, despite the lack of onscreen gore, because of its implications. Think Batman - The Animated Series and Goosebumps. Here are a couple of call outs for standout moments:

• Anything with the cotton candy sacks. ESPECIALLY in the police station. Super inventive - and a little bit Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).

• The blood sucking (with a crazy straw)

• Popcorn monsters

• Luring the child at the pizza party.

• The acid pie murder.

• The shadow puppet scene (absolutely inspired)

• The giant circus tent spaceship

There are lots more - feel free to comment your favourite bits!

Now, the effects are really enjoyable (love the clowns exploding into fireworks and confetti), and the costumes even more so, but what also makes this film so watchable is the acting. John Allen Nelson, Suzanne Snyder, Grant Cramer are a likeable and attractive trio who react with appropriate disgust, perturbation and fear to all the wild stuff they see. I also enjoyed the performance of John Vernon as sneering policeman Curtis Mooney.

Now, before I’m done, I have to mention it: The giant clown monster is, while silly, a fun climax to the film. It’s camp, it’s ridiculous, and it sends everything off with a bang.

My final notes are, the score is fantastic - particularly the main theme, and I was pleasantly surprised by how (relatively) non-gratuitous it all was.

Thanks for reading,

Until next time,

H.E.

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