Killer Klowns from Outer Space is a 1988 sci-fi horror comedy by the Chiodo Brothers about alien clowns harvesting a small town.
At a Glance
- Director: Stephen Chiodo
- Writers: Charles Chiodo and Stephen Chiodo
- Producers: Charles, Edward and Stephen Chiodo
- Cast: Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson, John Vernon, Royal Dano, Michael Siegel, Peter Licassi
- Release: May 27, 1988 (United States)
- Runtime: 88 minutes
- Studio: Sarlui/Diamant and Chiodo Bros. Productions; distributed by Trans World Entertainment
- Budget: about $1.8 million
- Music: John Massari, with a title song by punk band The Dickies
Overview
The Chiodo Brothers were effects artists before they were filmmakers, and Killer Klowns from Outer Space is essentially a showcase of their craft: a monster movie in which every gag is a circus gag and every weapon is a toy. The premise is pure 1950s drive-in, aliens land near a small town and start collecting people, filtered through the excess of 1980s creature effects. Critics were mixed in 1988, but video rental, late-night television and the enduring appeal of its rubbery, grinning monsters turned it into one of the great cult films of the decade. Fans of clown horror from Pennywise to Art the Clown tend to trace the modern evil-clown boom back through it.
Plot
Outside the small town of Crescent Cove, Mike Tobacco and his girlfriend Debbie Stone are parked at the local lovers’ lane when a glowing object streaks across the sky. A farmer who thinks it is Halley’s Comet goes looking and finds a giant circus tent in the woods, where he is captured. Mike and Debbie follow and discover that the tent is a spaceship full of bizarre rooms. Inside they find the farmer’s body wrapped in a cocoon of cotton candy, and a Klown chases them off with a popcorn bazooka.
They run to the police, where Debbie’s ex-boyfriend, Officer Dave Hanson, half believes them, and his bitter partner, Curtis Mooney, does not believe them at all. The Klowns move through town with ray guns that spin people into cocoons, shrink a crowd at a bus stop using shadow puppets, and use balloon animals as bloodhounds. Popcorn from their guns turns out to be larvae that hatch into new Klowns. In one of the film’s most famous scenes, a Klown uses the dead Mooney as a ventriloquist’s dummy. Dave discovers the weak spot when he shoots a Klown in the nose and it bursts into confetti.
Spoiler: The Ending
The Klowns kidnap Debbie in a balloon and take her to their ship, now parked at the town’s amusement park. Mike and Dave break in, rescue her and are surrounded, while the Terenzi brothers try to draw the aliens away in their ice cream truck. The giant Klown leader, Jojo the Klownzilla, crushes the truck. Staying behind, Dave smashes Jojo’s nose with his badge, destroying the leader and the ship. The ship’s clown car falls from the sky and Dave climbs out alive, followed by the Terenzis, who hid in the truck’s freezer. As the survivors watch fireworks from the wreckage, cream pies rain down on their faces.
Production
The words “from Outer Space” were nearly dropped from the title, but kept so audiences would not mistake it for a slasher film. Shooting took place in Watsonville, California, and at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Although the Chiodos were known for effects, much of the creature work was handed to other artists so the brothers could concentrate on directing and producing; they personally built the miniature set for the Klownzilla finale. The popcorn gun, rigged with a compressor so it actually fired popcorn, cost about $7,000 and took six weeks to build, making it the production’s most expensive prop.
Themes
The film’s joke is that everything children love about the circus can be turned into a weapon: candy, balloons, pies and slapstick. Its small-town setting and skeptical police echo 1950s invasion movies, but its tone is affectionate rather than paranoid, and the comic violence never becomes truly cruel. It belongs in a lineage of practical-effects creature comedies alongside Gremlins and Critters.
Trivia
- Comedian Christopher Titus made his film debut in a small role.
- The latex-coated legs of the balloon dog kept it from popping on the pine needles during filming.
- Most cars in the film were rentals that could not be damaged, though two were damaged by accident.
- The Dickies’ title song became a punk favorite of its own.
- A multiplayer video game, Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game, was released in 2024.
- Sequels have been discussed for decades, and Stephen Chiodo said in 2016 that he hoped to make three more films or a series.