Starring:
Grant Cramer as Mike Tobacco
Suzanne Snyder as Debbie Stone
John Allen Nelson as Dave Hanson
John Vernon as Curtis Mooney
As you may have guessed from the title, this cult 1988 film is very, very silly. The look and feel appear to be a send-up of 1950s 'alien invasion' sci-fi B movies, but despite the B-movie feel, the production values are quite good unlike the original 50s B equivalents. This seems to have been director Stephen Chiodo's only directing effort, which is a shame as it's an enjoyable enough film that you feel you would like to see more from him. He also wrote and produced it.
Teenagers Debbie and Mike are parked in a local make-out beautyspot and are suddenly startled by a strange light that shoots across the sky and appears to land in a field nearby. Going to investigate, they find a big circus tent. They find their way inside and are surprised to see a very eerie interior, containing nothing but strange festively-coloured electronic equipment everywhere. 'This is bizarre! What kind of circus IS this?' Debbie exclaims.
Investigating further, they walk into something that looks like a futuristic Frankenstein's Lab, with yet more of the bright multicoloured equipment and now also huge oblong hanging pink objects that they discover is made of cotton candy, or candy floss. Mike enthusiastically goes over to one and pulls off a piece, only to discover in horror that the cotton candy is a sort of cocoon containing - a dead body! And investigating another 'candy cocoon', they find a second dead body.
Someone enters the room, and Debbie and Mike hide behind a large piece of equipment, to see a giant-sized clown in really creepy-looking full make-up, clown suit and fright wig, all as colourful and festive as the interior of the 'tent'. Scary. I've always been scared of clowns, and this one is certainly no exception. The clown sees them and they flee in panic.
The clown chases them with a big gun that shoots a deadly form of popcorn. Debbie and Mike just manage to elude him and run to the police station, where they are of course not believed as they babble hysterically about killer clowns and dead bodies in cotton candy cocoons. Meanwhile, several clowns make their way out of the 'tent' and head into the town...
This is a really fun send-up of the lurid fifties teenage sci-fi B movie genre. The acting and direction are spot-on, with all the requisite cliched cardboard-cutout characters such as cheesy-acting teenagers, ultra-macho cops (a younger one who comes across as a Clint Eastwood clone and an older guy who is perpetually scathing and sarcastic and swears a lot) and evil alien baddies, here in the form of the Killer Klowns who, as they interact with the townspeople, appear to be just jolly and funny clowns entertaining various people with circus tricks - until they then turn their evil raygun on them that turns them into cotton candy cocoons.
A scene where two Klowns trash the local corner store playing with the products, which are alien to them, is a good exercise in corny silliness - they go through the whole store picking things up one by one, trying them out to see what they do, and when they find the shaving cream, the expected mirth and merriment ensue as they cover each other and their surroundings in the white stringy foam. And there are loads of other equally crazy and funny clowny-goodness scenes throughout.
It's a well-made lively movie that, if you like this type of thing, will keep you amused all the way through. As well as the fun story and characters, the cinematography is punchy and everything is very colourful, very vivid and in gorgeous candy colours, sometimes verging on the psychedelic. The Klown makeup and costumes are superbly done, with great attention to detail and in beautiful bright colours. For those who, like myself, have always found clowns really scary, this may be a distressing film to watch thanks to quite such loving attention to detail!
The soundtrack is a quality electro/hard rock/metal blend, and the special effects are actually very good to a 1980s standard. No CGI-created baddies - these Klowns are all too realistic.
As you may have guessed, despite the clown and circus theme of the movie, this is most likely not one for children as it will probably give them nightmares! Having seen it as an adult, I already feel scarred for life.