KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
When small town Crescent Cove is invaded by aliens who arrive by a spaceship that looks like a circus tent (smells like candy inside) and are capturing and killing the townspeople, the cops, especially Curtis Moooney (John Vernon) won't takes it seriously - the aliens look like (grotesque) circus clowns. But they don't act like clowns.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
This krazy, kooky movie strings together the creature feature with the alien movie, and pumps it full of dark humour, using that icon of innocent fun, the clown. And as we all know from the movies, there's nothing as scary as an innocent icon gone to the dark side. Like baby dolls that spew dread, or evil kids, the carriers of evil are never as terrifying as when they are in harmless outfits. That's the driver for the premise behind Killer Klowns, which is often a series of sketches; killer klown meets bikie gang; killer klown goes nutsoid in store; killer klown lures little girl outside burger café .... And each incident ends badly for the humans, who end up jellitised inside cocoon sacks.

The klowns are grotesque - their every feature over the top, with really bad teeth and foul breath (yeah, I can tell) and gaudy outfits. One of their weapons is popcorn ... living popcorn.

John Vernon's the best thing in the film - other than the nasty klowns, that is - as the hardheaded cop who likes to read gun magazines and who won't be fooled by a college level gag like killer klowns - until he meets one himself.

The girl in the bathroom routine gets a new twist, with wonderfully awful creature effects - which, like the rest of the klowns, are brilliant creations of excessive kitsch design.

Patchy but mostly fun, the basic clowns/circus/theme park-like fun idea is expanded as far as possible and worked to death - and there is a bloopers bonus as well as commentary to add to the entertainment of this package.

Published February 19, 2009