 Thanks for checking out this movie review. So we're going to be talking about the 1988 release Killer Clowns from Outer Space, which basically is just an alien invasion film, which there have been a lot done, but it does its own thing. It has its own twist on it, which when you're reusing something that's been used a lot, you kind of have to have your own twist on it to make it something interesting. Make no mistakes. This film is very light on plot. There really isn't much. I mean, there's a little plot to it. It's the whole guy and girl, you know, love triangle situation that's thrown in there that just feels very, very minimal. Nobody cares about it. Who's watching this film? You're here for the clowns and rightfully so, and that's how the film plays. So spoilers. I'm going to be talking about all spoilers on this. So if you haven't seen the film and you're watching this turnaround, go watch it. Come back. It's worth it if you're just looking for a fun time. This isn't a serious film. You're not going to see this and be like, Oh my God, it's amazing. Practical effects wise, you may say, Oh my God, it's amazing because the practical effects still all these years later looks so good in my opinion. Practical effects. That's why it's important that people do that. So this film, which I have on DVD because I bought it that long ago, has a fun tag line of in space, no one can eat ice cream. As you can see right there, it's a good film for fun. Like I said, it's not, it's not, there's no plot. There's no plot. So let's, let's start breaking this down. This was done by the Kyoto brothers, Charles Steven and Edward Kyoto are the guys who mainly did this. Now they're mainly known in Hollywood, well, we're mainly known back then in Hollywood for doing practical effects. They did some practical effects on this film, as you would assume, but a lot of it was done by other people just because they were focusing so much on actually directing and making the film. They wrote the script together, so it's written and directed by the Kyoto brothers, which is cool, I like it when when the people who are directing actually also wrote the script because it means that what was on paper is more likely to translate better to the screen in my opinion. So what they did do practical effects wise was the final scene with Jojo the clown Zilla, that whole scene, they wanted to handle that, so they did that. And overall, like what they did and what everyone else did, the practical effects, like I said, are outstanding. One of the big things with this film is it's just a lot of fun to see what's next with the practical effects. What are they going to pull out next? What kind of like clown gag is next, you know? So two of the clown masks from this actually don't exist anymore, at least two, because I was reading up. They were repurposed and used as base masks to make troll masks for the movie Ernest Scared Stupid, which to be honest, I actually think Ernest Scared Stupid is kind of a fun movie as well. I was about to say I might like it close to as much as Killer Clowns from Outer Space, but you also have to go into it understanding that it's more of like a kid-friendly horror film. Although the trolls in that do look pretty horrifying, like the clowns in Killer Clowns from Outer Space. I love how they have a theme song for this film, by the way. The theme song is great. It's by a punk band called the Dickies, and it's a lot of fun. When you first hear it, you're just kind of like, that's ridiculous, that's crazy, and then when you hear it at the end of the film, after going through the whole adventure, you're like, this is fun, I like this song. But then after that, it's like a lot of kind of like hokey carnival-esque music. A lot of it's done on keyboards, and that doesn't hold up. But the theme song holds up in my opinion. I like it early on in this, how they have like the typical hillbilly dude who goes out with his dog and his shotgun to inspect when the big top circus spaceship settles in the middle of the woods. And that's one of the big things is this guy, along with the kids who show up, who were originally making out on like Make Out Point. I'm just going to call it. It was called something else, but I can't remember at the moment. Why do they think it's OK to go into and investigate this circus tent literally in the middle of nowhere in the woods? Like, that should be a huge indicator that this definitely doesn't look like it belongs here. We shouldn't do anything with this, which the main female character, Deb, actually says that, which I was happy because a lot of these movies, they would just go with it. But the fact that there was one character who's just like, I don't like this. This doesn't look right. We shouldn't do this is more true to life. Because if you found some weird big top circus tent in the middle of the woods somewhere, you would not go into it. I guarantee that. I know I wouldn't. I would just be like turning around, getting out of here. It's good that they don't waste any time in this film. They get straight to the clowns pretty much. And that's one of the great things about it is they get to the clowns and they stick with the clowns. The clowns stay stay there. Since it is led on plot, they don't take a whole lot of time to develop characters all that much or develop what the little bit of plot there is to it. They keep it with the clowns. They keep throwing out these clown gags, these cool special effects, and just like the clever comedic clown puns and otherwise that they throw into this film, which is always fun to see because it feels like they just kind of keep one upping, one upping, one upping. And there really is this kind of building crescendo towards the end, mainly driven by what the clowns are doing, their crazy stuff, and the practical effects, how they keep making it bigger and bigger. And the next thing, the next cool thing. Sorry, my cat's yelling in the background. She hated this movie because she does not like clowns. Like a lot of people in the US population very afraid of clowns. And killer clowns from outer space did not help that because those things look scary. Oh, and I do wanna point out the extra touch that they had on the mask of making the lips look wet. It's that extra little touch that adds creep factor to that costuming, and I love that. I think it's particularly gross and it works extremely well in my opinion. So awesome. The guy who played the, I think he was supposed to be the sheriff, Mooney. Was played by a guy named John Vernon. I loved him in that role. He was such a curmudgeony, terrible person. He was just like, he hated the whole town. He especially hated kids. He was trying to do everything he could to not work, to not do his job. He's literally drinking on the job, smoking a cigar and reading his gun magazine, and literally ignoring all the calls coming into the police department because people are having problems. Now granted within the context of the film, it's because he's like, oh, everyone's trying to pull a prank on me saying all these clowns are invading the town and he thinks it's BS, but here's the thing, you gotta answer those calls because one of those calls may be a murder or something. You know, this is the moment of like taking yourself out of what's going on with the actual movie and looking at it from his perspective. Like he actually believes that people are trying to prank him with this clown thing, but he would also have to believe that he still needs to answer that phone because there could be an actual problem somewhere that someone's trying to call in about. So the fact that like all the phones are going crazy, like every line and you see it, like the multiple lines are all blanking on the phone and he's just like kicked back at his desk, smoking a stogie and reading his gun magazine and he's all like, oh, these people in this town. He literally hates everyone and he's like, I'm not gonna help anyone out. It's terrible. Okay, so I already talked about Deb being the smart one who says we shouldn't do this. Love all the gadgets, love the designs. Obviously a lot of people cite the popcorn gun in this film and there's a big reason that they cite the popcorn gun. That's because information came out that that was the most expensive of all the props to make. It was $7,000 to make it because it actually works. They wanted to create a working popcorn gun that would shoot popcorn. You see it used a few times in this and then the popcorn becomes, it's basically like eggs for the baby clowns. It's kind of weird, but cool at the same time. So the, yeah, so that popcorn gun, not only was it $7,000 to make, but it took six weeks to make that thing. That's crazy. I hope somebody still has it somewhere and they're able to take it out on the weekends and shoot some popcorn somewhere because for that amount of money and that amount of time into it, someone's gotta have it still. Probably one of the Kyoto brothers, I would assume. There's clever comedy throughout this, all involving clown and circus related stuff and it is impressive to me that they're able to keep that going throughout the film. Like I was saying, it doesn't really slow down. They keep doing more and more practical effects. There's more and more clever, comedic, clown and circus related stuff that just keeps going and going and going and it just doesn't slow down really until the very end and then they're just like it's over. So pacing is extremely good with this film and I like that. Initially when the clowns start heading out into the town, you're just like, here we go. This is where the fun starts. Even if you haven't seen the movie before, you're like, I know this is where the fun's gonna start because when the aliens, these clown aliens start interacting with people who don't know what they are, that's when the fun starts. And I think one of my favorite, like a lot of people will kind of cite what their favorite kills in this film are. And I think mine might be the shadow puppet one where he's like doing all these shadow puppets for these old people waiting at a bus stop and then it turns into a big T-Rex and then actually eats them. That's a really fun scene and when you're watching it the first time, very unexpected to be honest. But there's a lot of that type of stuff. I also quite like the ventriloquist act with Mooney and after the clown's done with him, how he pulls his hand out and it's covered in blood, he just like flicks all the blood off. Just, they're nice little touches in this film like that and I love it. You become aware pretty early that there is almost no plot in this but you don't care because it's all about the clowns and their antics, this much is true. And if you're watching this and you disagree with that, put a comment down there. Although I think most people probably wouldn't disagree with that. There are, I was already saying there are plenty of alien invasion films. You have to make your mark somehow. Obviously, Killer Clowns From Outer Space made their mark which by the way, the name was originally just gonna be Killer Clowns for the film but they decided to change it to Killer Clowns From Outer Space so people didn't think that it was actually gonna be a slasher film instead so they wanted people to know upfront is an alien invasion film basically but they're clowns. So you're gonna get what you are being told that's going to be basically. So that was kind of smart. And it actually kind of hit cult status very quickly. I'm pretty sure it never came out in theaters. It was a VHS and DVD release only. I remember when I was a really young kid and I was out on vacation somewhere staying in a hotel. My parents had left the room and my sisters and I were just like flipping channels and it was on TV. And so that was my first like little taste. I didn't see the whole thing but that was my first little taste of Killer Clowns From Outer Space so that later on in my life I was like, what was that movie? I gotta find that and watch it. And I quite liked it. So the ice cream truck driving Tarenzie Brothers in this film are actually pretty annoying. They're kind of three Stooges-esque which I don't really like in this. They're a little over the top and they're a little annoying so less of them would have been nice because you don't need them. You have all those clowns. Like that's the draw. That's what it's all about. When humans are on screen in this film unless they're being killed and or chased, you don't care about them. You're just like, get the humans off the screen. More clowns please. Unless you're afraid of clowns. Okay, so actually my favorite part in the film period is the exploration of the fun house at the very end because it's one of those things where like, what's next? You know, things keep coming. Every room is designed differently. It's a lot of fun to see what they are gonna throw at you and it's just a good time. I like exploration type things in films and this one's particularly good. I also really like when they're in the fun house the crazy straw or as I would call it the super crazy straw because it's very unnecessarily elaborate as a crazy straw when the one clown just like sticks it into that big cotton candy ball where the dead bodies are and just sucks a bunch of blood out. It's a pretty gross moment for people but I think it's really funny and the super crazy straw is a good touch too. And that's what I'm talking about. There's like all these little extra touches that they put into the film that I really appreciate. I really do. Yeah, it feels like it keeps building as it just gets crazier and crazier. There's really not much downtime. Like I was saying, the pacing is so good for this. So in the end, I know a lot of people have probably heard that there was supposed to be a sequel for this. It kind of got stuck in what people call like production hell where you can't find a backer for it. No one wants to take it, blah, blah, blah. So apparently, and actually I remember hearing about a sequel they're gonna be doing a sequel for more than 10 years now. So it's been getting kicked around for a while. There apparently has been a script for it, to be honest. And I've heard that the script is, it has something to do with the main character guy played by Grant Kramer that it's like 30 years later. And he's kind of like the town wacko because no one believes that the clown thing ever happened. And he's training like street performers in the town to take on the clowns when they come back. That's what I read. I don't know if that's true, but it sounds fun and I'd love to see it. But apparently last year, the sci-fi channel came out and said that they were in talks to try and purchase the rights to do either the sequel film or a mini series to air on sci-fi. So I was like, oh, that sounds good. But then I also read something that said just this August in 2019 that Fox had come out and said they had plans to make the sequel movie for Killer Clowns from Outer Space. But then when they were purchased by Disney, Disney canceled it along with like 200 other titles that were in the works. So who knows, you know, we may never get the sequel. I really hope we do because I would really like to see what the Kyoto brothers would do with like more of these clown jokes, more kills, more practical effects. I assume they would still do practical effects in Naka CG, I would really hope so. But yeah, hopefully we get that sequel. But I like this film quite a bit. It's not like a great film, but for a mindless film that's just kind of fun to watch and very visually pleasing, I recommend it. So that leads me to trying to give it a star rating. Okay, so I'm gonna rate it two ways. The first is in the pantheon of all films out of five stars with half stars in play. What do I think it is? It's probably a two-star film in that sense, especially because there's really no story to it. But the practical effects kind of bring it up. There's a lot put into the production of it. So two stars. But when you step back and you're kind of like stupid, mindless, fun type horror invasion film, I'm gonna give it three and a half stars. Because once again, there's not a whole lot of plot to it. It's pretty mindless, but the practical effects get it to that three and a half stars in my opinion. So there you have it. Thanks for checking this out. Hopefully you guys like this review that I've done. Hope you like all my reviews or some of them. Hit that subscribe if you can for me. Really helps me out a lot. Literally takes a second for you. Totally painless, but that's the way you can repay me. Put some comments down there. Tell me your thoughts. Tell me your favorite kills in Killer Clowns from Outer Space or your favorite clown designs, actually, if you wanna do that. Your favorite moment period from Killer Clowns from Outer Space. But let's talk. Thanks for checking this out. And until next time, keep it brutal.