KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE

Mike (Grant Cramer) and Debbie (Suzanne Snyder) are busy necking one night in their car at a popular make-out point when a blinding light flashes across the sky. Believing it to be a comet, Debbie excitedly urges Mike to go with her and check it out. Begrudgingly, he complies.

Meanwhile an old Hillbilly and his dog have also seen what they think is a shooting star whiz by and land in the nearby woods. They investigate further and find a circus tent illuminated in the woods. Their curiosity is their downfall when a grotesque grinning clown confronts them.

Moments later Mike and Debbie pull up in their car and run into the woods on foot. They too find their way to the huge tent and decide to enter it. Inside, the psychedelic colours and peculiar art décor are akin to the interior of Willy Wonka's original chocolate factory. Puzzled as to what this place could actually be, they delve deeper - inadvertently stumbling across the nerve centre of what they soon realise is a spaceship.

While hiding from a clown-like alien, our heroic lovers discover a room filled with large bundles of candyfloss. Looking closer, they discover humans trapped within the cotton candy coated cocoons. Eventually Mike and Debbie make their escape, chased through the woods by malevolent clowns brandishing popcorn-firing guns.

Debbie suggests they go and tell police deputy Dave (John Allen Nelson) about the clowns. Mike can't imagine the police swallowing their crazy story, but Debbie's sure Dave will go for it. She should know, she used to be his girlfriend.

Although sceptical, Dave does indeed agree to go out to the woods and check out the amorous couple's story. His cynical older colleague Moody (John Vernon) overhears the story and insists it's nonsense - he hates kids and assumes these two are playing a prank. Moody by name, moody by nature.

Meanwhile, the clowns make their way on foot to the sleepy little town of Crescent Cove and begin zapping the odd local, turning them into huge globs of candyfloss. As people start to panic they ring their local police station for help. The bad news is there are only two lawmen on duty: Dave's gone to the woods with Mike, and Moody won't answer the phones because he suspects the whole town is playing a massive practical joke on him.

In time though, both Dave and Moody learn that killer clowns from outer space really are invading their little town.

Yeah, it's pretty silly stuff. KILLER KLOWNS relishes in it's concept of clowns being nasty, pouring on the vignettes with verve as everything traditionally associated with the funny-faced beggars is brought to the fray: flowers that squirt water; large comedy mallets; a surreal hand shadow performance that ends fatally for it's human audience.

Shot with an agreeable energy, the film is short and fast-paced fun. It has no pretensions about being anything other than a daft homage to the banal B-movies of the 1950s. Although with its bad 80s fashion and power-pop soundtrack, it feels a lot more like GHOSTBUSTERS or GREMLINS in execution. Or rather, it would if it had the brains or budget of either of those two films. Perhaps GHOULIES is a closer approximation.

The jokes are dumb and it's debatable as to who would feasibly laugh aloud at this lame material. But it's all delivered with such naïve charm that you can't help but enjoy the film by the time those end credits roll.

Vernon is the obvious standout cast-wise, clearly loving every minute of his grouchy cop character. He gets the single "fuck" expletive in the script (the only possible reason this anaemic affair could warrant a 12 rating). Dave and Mike are nothing more than immature jocks but come across as likeable anyway, while Debbie is perhaps the least interesting character - perhaps writers Charles and Edward Chiodo struggled to get to grips with their feminine sides.

The FX are cheap and cheesy looking, with laser zaps being guilty of possessing that bargain basement effect seen on the likes of "Power Rangers". As for the clowns, they do look admittedly menacing (let's face it, clowns are scary entities anyway) but Stephen Chiodo's direction makes them sources of amusement rather than terror. That is, save for one disturbing scene where a young girl is enticed away from a party by one of the clowns.

The most enduring impression left by KILLER KLOWNS is it's generous use of comic book-style colours. It's a visual feast created on a very obviously tight budget. Check out those reds and greens though, from the clown's garish costumes to the spaceship's acid bomb interiors: the art design department have excelled themselves. Or taken some serious drugs.

The film is presented uncut in a reasonably clean 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. Some images are soft and night scenes - of which there are many - don't hold up as well as lighter moments. But grain is minimal and colours come across well.

The English 2.0 audio was a little flat but did it's job sufficiently all the same.

Static menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 8 chapters.

The only extra on the disc is a rather enjoyably trashy theatrical trailer.

KILLER KLOWNS is an agreeably trite comedy that never really elicits laughs, an entertaining horror minus the scares or gore. But it does have John Vernon, a winning enthusiasm and wonderful art design. Oh, it also serves as a reminder as to how bad fashion and music were in the 1980s.

Review by Stuart Willis