good@pixar.UUCP (Craig Good) (08/02/89)
KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE
A film review by Craig Good
Copyright 1989 Craig Good
Last night I spotted an unusual title on the "horror" rack of my
neighborhood video rental place, and decided to give it a whirl. KILLER KLOWNS
FROM OUTER SPACE turns out to be a real kick. It's really much more than you'd
expect from a low budget horror/comedy.
The Chiodo brothers serve up some original, eye-catching art direction in
this wonderfully twisted flesh-eating aliens story. The character design of
the malevolent bozos is a hoot. I like the spacecraft that looks just like a
circus tent. I like the gun that shoots popcorn. I like the cotton candy
cocoons in which they encase their victims.
Sure the acting is bad. So's a lot of the dialogue. (Although I do like
the line the punk in jail gets after watching an incarcerated klown dispatch a
pesky cop: "So. What're you in for?") The important thing is that what little
money there was went into the right places. The pace is pretty good once it
gets going, and the whole thing seems remarkably fresh. A lot of imagination
went into figuring out new ways for the grotesque gang to take their victims.
And you get all of this in a PG-13 package with no nudity and no buckets of
blood. KILLER kLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE is rather refreshing, in its own
perverse way.
Check it out.
--Craig
...{ucbvax,sun}!pixar!good