Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Saw Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The film is about a group of malevolent aliens who happen to resemble monstrous clowns. Their UFO is a big top, their tracking devices are popcorn kernels, and their seed-pods and giants bales of cotton candy. The theory that the evil clowns (or klowns, as the credits call them) visited our forefathers is floated at one point, but only by the comic relief who is immediately told to shut up. And that was exactly my attitude. Shut up, comic relief. This explanation for this movie's plot is clearly "because it's funny." There is no logic beyond that. This is a pure parody of sci-fi creature-features.

I thought the premise did sound hilarious and there are brilliant moments scattered throughout, such as when a bunch of clowns go door-to-door, scaring the populace, or when the heroes are being chased through the clowns' ship, only to be impeded by a corridor full of balloons. The ideas here are pretty great, but I wouldn't say, in the end, that it's really a great movie.

I felt a little underwhelmed due to inconsistent characterization and not enough, well, fun. One of the first scenes is a boy and a girl at makeout point and she is obviously only interested in checking out those lights they saw flashing in the woods but he only wants to make out. Fine, but why, in this boilerplate scene of conflict, is she constantly giggling? I know she's supposed to be a desirable and therefore (via movie-logic) agreeable, but surely not manic. Perhaps she is another, lady-shaped, alien come to study the unsuspecting humans? I suppose if I were in a more receptive frame of mind, I might chalk this up to the B-movie experience and in some of the early scenes I assumed it was making fun of the poorly-written women in the likes of Friday the 13th and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but the film never dwells on or makes a point of her bad writing (which is never really comically bad in any case) so I think the filmmakers (a team of three brothers) really just can't write all that well. Also, whenever they're writing comic dialogue (the comic relief, the boyfriend's early-movie clowning) it's horrendous.

So the writing is a bit weak and I was gluttonously left wanting even more excesses (the title is Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Feel free to take it to the limit, won't you?) but the concept is inspired and a few scenes here and there are great little moments. The connective tissue of the 30-year-old teens trying to save the day is pretty grating and this (for me) is what stops it being a really great film. A cult classic, I guess.