Lets start with a brief synopsis…
Aliens who look like clowns come from outer space and terrorize a small town.
This film is fantastic. It’s silly of course, but that’s the point to this film. The spaceship is a big top, there’s killer popcorn and they make a balloon animal sniffer dog, then there’s the shadow puppetry. Think Gremlins 2 but on a whole new level. The film makes good use of taking everything you associate with clowns and putting a dark twist to them.
Never taking itself too seriously but never becoming a shambles the Chiodo brothers never let the jokes become cheap and there for the sake of having a joke. It’s humour isn’t in the dialogue so don’t expect too many one liners.
The film is restrained in the gore department as well so don’t expect buckets of blood but this film doesn’t need that to get a reaction out of you.
It has clowns. Now I’m not scared of clowns. I never have been which is a shame as I’d love to experience the terror other, lesser beings get at the mere mention of Bubbles the clown, but plenty of people are.
I don’t get myself.
I will admit Pennywise did have an effect on me as a child.
As for the Klowns in this film…
The Chiodo brothers did a great job here. They are wrinkled and look dirty with horrible shark like teeth yet everyone is willing to stand there and be entertained by them. I guess this town doesn’t have clowns at their children’s parties or they would know the difference between your average middle aged man in face paint doing magic tricks and a 7ft Mr. Snuggles. (YouTube it)
If you suffer from Coulrophobia you probably wont want to watch this film.
Most of the humour comes in how the Klowns hunt their food, think soylent green, and as I don’t want to give too much away I’ll say my personal favourite is the bikers scene.
As slapstick and 80’s this film is it does have some creepy moments to it (like the clown trying to entice the little girl out of the diner) but top of the list is John Vernons “ventriloquist” scene.
What could’ve been ridiculous is a success because of Johns performance.
The cast do a good enough job and you might recognise Suzanne Snyder from Return of the Living Dead 2. All the standard characters are here. The boy, the girl, the ex-boyfriend, the comic foils though I think when finishing the film they forgot who was dating who in the first 30mins. The special effects are good, especially for the budget given how most of it went into production cost, but given that the directors started in visual effects that’s no surprise.
I love it. This is my type of film. A great 80’s B-movie gem that fans of all things from that decade should check out and just like every good B-movie (I’m talking about the original Blob) it has it’s own theme song
Why don’t films have their own theme songs anymore?
News is there’s a sequel coming out next year
Directed by Stephen Chiodo
Written by Charles Chiodo and Stephen Chiodo
Starring Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson and john Vernon
Whatya gonna do? Knock my block off?
