Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1988
	Director: Stephen Chiodo
	Actors: Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson, John Vernon (Dirty Harry, Topaz)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 16.11.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: What looked like a meterorite lands on Earth and takes the shape of a circus tent. Its alien inhabitants look like clowns and start to decimate the population with a pop-corn gun, turning them into cotton-candy (barbapapa).
Review: After The Blob and Basket Case, yet another classic Horror movies from that 80's that I decided to watch in its recent "ultimate" Blu-ray edition. Arrow Entertainment did an excellent job with this one, the images are incredibly sharp, the colors saturated enough to enjoy the variety of the clowns and their accessories (to give you an idea, see the picture at the end of this post), and only the sound is a bit weak (bass missing) but that is also probably due to the original material. As for the beautiful editions of Time Bandits and Knightriders (by the same editor), the extras are numerous: reversible cover (see below), commentary, interviews, making-off and a nice booklet. Now about the movie itself: the basic idea is great (Those E.T.s have actually been on Earth before and this is where humans got the idea to disguise as clown from!) and the choice was taken to make it a parody. Indeed the starting point is similar to the one in The Blob, but you immediately notice the non-seriousness of it all, a feeling reinforced by the very poor play of the actors, and the cheap 80's music and sound effects. Once you accept the movie as a parody,  there are some jewels to be found in it:  the design of the clowns is absolutely scary (Coulrophobia victims stay away!) and their prosthetic masks quite well done for a low budget film of that time. The accessories are also fantastic: pop-corn gun (in which the corns grow to be horrible worms with teeth), cotton-candy cocoons, acid cream pie, carnivorous shadow puppet show, and my favorite: the balloon dog that tracks the scent of the future victims. Everything was so colorful it was a pleasure to watch the movie in this excellent Blu-ray transfer. Unfortunately the pace is quite slow and I cannot recommend the movie to anybody, but it is definitely a classic. I am looking forward to learn more about its genesis when watching the Blu-ray extras, and will follow the development of the announced The Return of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space in 3D.
Rating: 6 /10