Special Event Screening of Kult Klassic Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Time: March 1, 2010 at 10pm to March 2, 2010 at 2am
Street: 251 S. Main St.
City/Town: Los Angeles
Website or Map: http://www.mondocelluloid.com
Phone: 213.617.1033
KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE
dir. Stephen Chiodo
1988, 35mm, color, 88 min
10pm $10
Attending the screening will be:
Stephen Chiodo - Director
Charles Chiodo - Writer
Edward Chiodo - Writer
Grant Cramer - Actor ("Mike Tobacco")
John Massari - Composer
Christopher Roth - Editor
A small town is invaded by aliens from outer space that appear and behave like clowns. As townspeople begin to disappear and the police dismiss the several distressed phone calls depicting clowns running amuck, a band of teenagers take matters into their own hands. Armed with nothing but an ice cream truck and their youthful spirits, they enter the big ring for an interspecies face-off!
Killer Klown Triva, Trailer and Stats after the jump
The giant "King Klown" from the ending sequence, affectively called "Klownzilla" by the Chiodo brothers, was actually played by one of them (Charles).
The $2 million budget went primarily on production costs. The clowns and visual effects were created almost entirely by the filmmakers at very little cost.
An early version of the restaurant scene was shot showing the Chiodo brothers sitting at a table in the background as extras.
The scene where a Klown rams a car off the road and kills the driver was originally intended to be an opening prologue to the film, and the driver was to be the character Joe Lombardo. For this prologue there was also a scene shot where Joe and his date are kissing on a deserted dark road and after his date rejects him, he angrily drives off alone only to meet his demise with the Klown. However when it was decided to have an opening credit sequence be seen first, the kissing rejection scene ended up on the cutting room floor, and the car crash scene was placed at a later point in the film with the driver not being Joe Lombardo. He ended up being the name of a dead person that Mike and Debbie discover wrapped up in a cotton candy cocoon in the final version.
The scene in which a car is thrown over a cliff was initially intended to be far more spectacular - the car was to fly over the cliff and crash down to the ground. Unfortunately, the sling rope snapped because effects crew members neglected to remove the stoppers from underneath the car's wheels. The result was what is seen in the final film, the car slowly tumbles over the edge and becomes caught on a tree.
The movie originally ended with the Terenzi brothers as the survivors of the exploding spaceship while Dave perished after killing the giant Klown, but since the executive needed a "upbeat ending" the Chiodo brothers filmed a second ending that is in all the versions where Dave and the Terenzi brothers survive the exploding spaceship by hiding in the "klown kar".
The Film
The film begins with two teenagers out for a romantic evening. An army of sadistic extraterrestrial life forms (who resemble clowns) from a futuristic spacefaring civilization land their circus tent ship in the sleepy American town of Crescent Cove (filmed in Santa Cruz, California). Farmer Gene Green and his dog Pooh-Bear go out to find "Haileys Comet" but they are murdered by the Klowns. Mike Tobacco (Cramer) and Debbie Stone (Snyder), the couple out for the romantic evening, spot the newcomers and decide to investigate. They soon encounter the Klowns and barely escape capture, having been shot at by a "popcorn gun." Mike and Debbie rush into town to warn others of the impending danger while the clowns follow them into town.
Naturally, they first try to warn the police. Their warnings are met with scorn by Sgt. Mooney, the police sgt., convinced that the couple are nothing more than kids trying to pull a prank. They are viewed with equal skepticism by another police officer, Dave Hanson (John Allen Nelson). Hanson also happens to be Debbie's ex-boyfriend, and his dislike of Mike is evident.
Meanwhile, the Klown Army advances into Crescent Cove, inflicting a genocide during their occupation. They harvest the unsuspecting population, blasting random victims with a ray gun that cocoons them with cotton candy, with lethal results. The Klown Army uses a variety of seemingly innocent methods to ensnare their victims such as killer shadow puppets, bloodhound-like balloon animals and a ray gun that looks like a child's toy. Since the methods themselves appear whimsical, the townspeople don't know they are in danger until it's too late.
Hanson is taken to the hills where he sees the hole in the ground. Thinking him a liar Hanson places Mike under arrest. Meanwhile a Klown comes to a laughing motorcycle group and one of the thugs, who was apparently looking for trouble, decides to bully the Klown. The Biker destroys the Klowns bicicyle. The Klown punches the Bikers head off, much to the other thugs shock, causing them to flee. A little girl at "Big Top Burger" sees a Klown and is about to go out to the clown but her mother stops her in time much to the clown's anger. Hanson s only to discover Bob McReed's corpse. Joe Lombardo is driving when a Klown in an invisible car knocks him off a bridge (this part was supposed to be the exposition).
One of the Klowns appears inside Mooney's police station. Mooney, thinking the Klown is someone playing a prank on him, arrests it, throws it in a jail cell, and pledges to make the "pranker's" life a living Hell. After striking the Klown with his flashlight from behind, the Klown eerily turns his head around and strangles the police captain with a blow out, killing him.
When Officer Hanson sees a Klown use a Tyrannosaurus rex shadow puppet to capture a group of townspeople waiting for a bus, he is finally convinced of the danger and offers to help Mike and Debbie (who have also recruited the Terenzi brothers, a pair of local goof-offs who drive an ice cream truck). Hanson later arrives at the police station and discovers Mooney dead and being used as a puppet by the Klown that slew him. A horrified Hanson shoots the Klown several times until he discovers that the klown's nose is a weak spot. After shooting the Klown's nose, the Klown dramatically spins around at almost speed of sound , until it eventually explodes, becoming the first Klown to be killed by a human.
While the town is being slaughtered, Debbie is attacked twice and taken away by the Klowns in a balloon.
Debbie is taken back to the Klowns' "Big Top" circus tent-spaceship. Mike, Officer Hanson and the Terenzi brothers pursue them. It is there that they discover why the Klown Army has been capturing people. By cocooning them inside their cotton candy, the Klowns gelatinize the humans' bodies into a liquid that is digestible. Vast numbers of victims (a majority of the town's population) are being stored aboard Big Top. The Klowns insert a crazy straw into the cotton candy, sucking the deceased victims' gelatinized bodies (Revealing that the Klowns are possibly liquivores).
Debbie is eventually freed, and a hole is crashed into Big Top by the Terenzi Brothers' ice cream truck. Rich and Paul Terenzi, using their PA system, pretend to be the Klowns' leader (there's a giant clown's head with a sugar cone-hat on top of the truck). They tell the Klowns to let Mike, Debbie, and Officer Hanson go. The leader of the Klown Army (standing at approx. thirty feet tall) emerges and seemingly kills Rich and Paul. A showdown between Hanson and "Klownzilla" ensues, with Hanson being easily caught by the Klown's clutches. The Klown brings Hanson to his face and in turn is destroyed by Hanson who uses his police badge to penetrate the Klown's nose. It and the alien's spaceship explode. Despite everything, the heroes and the Terenzis survive unscathed, and apparently some of the soldier of the Klown army survive as well.
Quick Stats
| Directed by | Stephen Chiodo |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Charles Chiodo Edward Chiodo Stephen Chiodo |
| Written by | Charles Chiodo Edward Chiodo Stephen Chiodo |
| Starring | John Allen Nelson Grant Cramer Suzanne Snyder John Vernon Michael Siegel Peter Licassi Royal Dano |
| Music by | John Massari |
| Cinematography | Alfred Taylor |
| Editing by | Christopher Roth |
| Distributed by | Trans World Entertainment (TWE) |
| Release date(s) | May 27, 1988 (USA) |
| Running time | 88 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,000,000 (estimated) |
