It's Friday night in the small town of Crescent Cove and a bunch of teenage couples are parked at the Top of the World, the local lovers' lane. There, the teens see a glowing object resembling a meteorite fall from the sky and impact somewhere nearby. An old man who lives in a cabin in the woods with his hound dog sees it as well and, thinking it's Halley's Comet and excited about the financial possibilities of finding it, goes to look for it. What he finds, however, is what looks like a circus tent, and when he decides to try to see how to get in, both he and his dog fall prey to the figures within. Following that, teenager Debbie Stone talks her boyfriend, Mike Tobacco, into looking for the object themselves and they too find the circus tent. Investigating the inside, they find that, as a colorful as it looks, it's anything but a circus tent, as it has an apparent power reactor in one huge chamber and another room full of what appears to be large, reddish pink-colored masses of cotton candy. Opening one up, they find the old man inside it, his body now like gelatin, and they then discover that they're in a spaceship, with aliens that look like monstrous circus clowns. The two of them just barely manage to escape, although they unknowingly lead the Klowns to the road that takes them to Crescent Cove. Heading to the local police station, they try to tell Dave Hanson, one of the deputies on duty, as well as Debbie's ex-boyfriend, what happened. Despite being, understandably, a tad bit incredulous of what they tell him, Dave still decides to check it out, which he gets mocked for by his partner, Curtis Mooney, a hot-headed, older man who has it out for teenagers in general. After taking Debbie home, Dave and Mike head out to the site, only to find no sign of a circus tent, which prompts Dave to handcuff Mike. However, while bringing him in, they come upon the now abandoned lover's lane, the cars now covered in the cotton candy-like substance. This is all it takes for Dave to believe Mike but, when he radios Mooney to call in the state police, he refuses to do so, having gotten a bunch of calls about clowns attacking the town and thinking everybody's trying to get at him. Little does he know that the Klowns have invaded and are killing and capturing everyone they see in order to take them back to their tent-like ship in order to feast on their blood. With no help coming any time soon, and with the Klowns having captured Debbie, Mike and Dave have no choice but to combat the threat themselves, with some very unusual assistance from a couple of town idiots.
If you've seen The Blob, you know that Farmer Gene is this movie's version of Olin Howlin's old man character there and is one of a number of references to that film. In addition to the dynamics of the two cops, there's also the notion of teenagers being the main characters, their trying to convince the authorities that there are otherworldly monsters about but have a hard time doing so, the lead getting some of his friends to help warn people, and how the story takes place all in one night, as a small town becomes besieged by the threat. The Blob is the film that's referenced the most but, in actuality, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, like Night of the Creeps before it, is a sort of send-up of those types of 50's B-movies in general, especially the ones that involved teenagers. This influence can definitely be seen in how the basic premise is just as ridiculous as those of some of those movies, like I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Robot Monster, and all those alien invasion movies, and how the acting and lines from the characters, especially the teens, feel more than a little exaggerated, such as how, upon seeing the glowing object in the sky, Mike and Debbie have this exchange: "Did you see that?" "Yeah, I saw that. That was incredible!" Or, for instance, when they're exploring the inside of the "tent" and Mike says, "Isn't this place great or what? It looks like it was decorated by Clowns R Us." Rather caricatured, but I think that was the point. Also, like Night of the Creeps, it mixes these tropes with the aesthetics of the teen-oriented horror films of the 80's. Although the Chiodos decided not to simply call it Killer Klowns because they didn't want people to think that it was a slasher movie, and being PG-13, it never gets really violent or gory, it does have a bit of that sprinkled in, mostly when the one Klown literally knocks the biker's block off (akin to what Jason would do to Julius in Jason Takes Manhattan the following year), as well as when another Klown uses Mooney's body as a ventriloquist dummy. Plus, I can't help but think of slasher movies whenever teenage girls are being terrorized. Speaking of which, you do get to see some nice-looking girls in fairly skimpy clothes, and Debbie has a shower scene, though you don't see much, again, due to the rating.
The setting is another thing that kind of hearkens back to all those 50's movies, as well as the movies of the 80's, as they often took place in little towns like this that are just slices of Americana (if you're curious, it was filmed mainly in Watsonville, California, with some other location work being done at Santa Cruz Beach). It has everything you'd expect: the tree-lined streets dotted with houses, the quaint main street, the local police station where the cops are frustrated with the local teens' antics, the burger joints and small parks, the local lover's lane, the woods that surround the town, and the nearby, seaside amusement park and boardwalk. Add to that all the teens who are either up to mischief or looking to get laid in any way they can, like the Terenzi brothers, and you've got the ideal locale for this type of movie. I don't know why but it just feels right for the citizens of little towns to run into this kind of stuff than those living in the big city, don't you think? I guess, like The Blob, I just like the notion of people going about their everyday lives in these quaint, rural communities, thinking that everything is ordered and predictable, and then, without warning, they get blindsided by something as weird as this. It's that notion that, after this encounter, things will never be the same for those who survive. This movie may not be preoccupied with that at all but, still, I think you get what I mean.
As far as horror-comedies go, Killer Klowns is, for the most part, a very light-hearted romp. While there are other meshes of horror and comedy that do get pretty dark, like An American Werewolf in London or even Gremlins, this movie mainly keeps the Klowns' antics as pretty silly and cartoonish. You definitely get the sense that they are the villains and are killing and abducting people in order to drink their blood but, the lack of any real gore, the way their methods of killing and capturing are like macabre takes on circus acts (the puppet show with the ray gun, the acidic pies, the popcorn that sprouts little monsters, and the shadow puppets that gobble up a group of onlookers), the really vibrant colors throughout the movie, and the overall jokey, exaggerated vibe with the characters makes it so entertaining that, by the time it's over, you're liable not to think until afterward that, "Oh, yeah, they were defeated, but they still basically killed every single person in Crescent Cove!" One moment where the movie genuinely gets dark and creepy for me is when one of the Klowns appears outside of a burger place (one that's circus-themed, no less) and gets the attention of a little girl who's there with her family. Unbeknownst to her mother, the Klown goads her to walk out of the place and come to him, as he's holding a big mallet behind his back, ready to whack her. As the girl heads towards him, all sound cuts out, save for the music, which turns really eerie, and she almost makes it out the door to him, when her mother, still not noticing the Klown, stops her and makes her come back to her seat. I had a similar reaction the first time I saw the part in Silent Night, Deadly Night where, are after he's killed her older sister and her date, Billy confronts this innocent little girl who's been waiting for Santa Claus and, when she asks him if he brought her a present, he, in turn, asks her if she's been a good girl; long story short, my heart was pounding. What makes this particular scenario so unsettling is how it mirrors something that could and, sadly, has happened in real life. Forgetting that this clown is really an alien that just happens to look like one, imagine how creepy it is to see an innocent little girl being lured to her death by someone who appears happy and friendly to her. Ugh, it makes my skin crawl, and is the one time where the movie stopped being a comedy and went straight into full-on horror (the scene at the abandoned lover's lane and the aftermath of what happened at the police station are also kind of creepy but this takes the cake by far).
The Klowns are numerous and come in all shapes and sizes: tall and thin, tall and fat, short, pudgy, bloated, and so on. What they all have in common, though, is that they're really ugly, wrinkly, and deformed-looking in the face (so much so that it's a wonder why more people don't take one look at them and realize that there's something off), with sharp teeth, speak in an alien language, and are all out to gather up as many people as they can in order to feed on their blood. The question of where they come from and why exactly they've come to Earth is asked and pondered by the main characters at one point but, in the end, it doesn't matter: they're just here and they have to be stopped. While the Klowns don't have any individual personalities, as they all try to act innocent and playful towards the townspeople to make them let their guard down so they can strike, and they're only vulnerable in their big, red noses, many of them do each have their own unique look and "gags" that they use. There's the tall, frizzy-haired one who first attacks Mike and Debbie when he spots them in the tent and fires popcorn at them from his gun and later, ransacks a drug store, much to the pharmacist's sheer disbelief at what he's seeing. There's this really small clown who comes in riding a tricycle and runs into these biker punks, one of whom trashes his bike. Initially acting sad, the Klown then puts on boxing gloves and proceeds to punch the guy's head off, sending it flying into a nearby garbage can. One really evil-looking Klown is the one who runs a guy off a road while driving an invisible car and puts on a shadow puppet show for a group of people waiting for a bus, amazing them with his utterly outrageous talent, and then, when they least expect it, he forms a T-Rex shadow that swallows them up and he puts them in his bag of "popcorn." He also personally terrorizes Debbie before abducting her. There's a rather pudgy and particularly ugly-looking Klown who shows up at a woman's house, acting like he's going to give her a candy box, and uses the excuse to zap her, and later on, in the ship, a similar one sucks some blood from a cocoon through a silly straw, belching after he does so. The Klown who tries to entice that little girl out of the diner, and then puts the popcorn in its dumpster out back, is also the one who zaps Gene after Pooh is taken and also shows up at the police station later on, moving in this little shuffle walk, to mess with Mooney and kills him when he tries to lock him up. After cocooning up the two guys who are locked up in the back, he uses Mooney's body as a ventriloquist dummy, putting his hand into his hollowed-out back and telling Dave that they're going to kill, before attempting to do so. It's this Klown whose nose Dave first ends up shooting and killing as a result, making him realize their one weak point. The only definite female Klowns that you see are these two who try to entice the Terenzi brothers in the ship, one of whom inflates her breasts until they're bigger than her head! Given how the brothers' clothes are torn up and they're covered with lipstick, these girl Klowns apparently get pretty rough. And finally, there's the big monster Klown who appears in the big top section of their spaceship at the end of the movie (he's the one that Charles Chiodo plays). Given the marionette strings that are bound to him as he's lowered down, I used to think he was a sort of big attack dog that they keep locked away until he's needed but, on another viewing, I think he might be their leader. In any case, he's definitely based on Godzilla, having been officially dubbed "Klownzilla" by the Chiodos, and as big and dangerous as he is, Dave still stays behind to face him alone, popping his nose and destroying him, along with the ship.
The Klowns' means of attacking and terrorizing their victims are, as I've said, large made up of a bunch of macabre, otherworldly twists on elements that you associate with clowns and the circus at large. Using their colorful ray guns, they can either trap a person inside a cocoon that looks like it's made of reddish-pink cotton candy, which appears to instantly kill the person, as they look gooey and gelatin-like inside it, and which the Klowns then use as a way of sucking blood (through silly straws, no less), or, if they prefer, inside a yellow, virtually impenetrable balloon, as they do to Debbie, as well as at least one other person, given the call Mooney gets at one point. They can also fire and dispense what looks like popcorn but, in fact, is a deadly type of spore that eventually mutates into little monsters that kind of look like the creatures in The Deadly Spawn, with really long necks and toothy, Klown heads atop them. There are the aforementioned deadly shadow puppets the one Klown employs and the acidic pies that they pelt the security guard at the amusement park with, which melts him down to just a gooey mass, with only his bones remaining under the cream. But one that's just downright silly is the balloon dog that one of the Klowns comes up with track Mike and Debbie after they first escape from their ship, which has a leash, actually sniffs and follows their trail like a real dog, and even howls and points with what would be its nose when it realizes where they went (they use it again when they're chasing Mike, Debbie, and Dave through their ship). As ridiculous as this movie is already is, that, along with the shadow puppets, is the one aspect that feels less like an alien, science fiction take on clown material and like pure magic, like something you would see Pennywise come up with. But, hey, it's Killer Klowns from Outer Space, so I shouldn't be questioning anything that gets thrown at me. And finally, right before the climax of the movie, they start rounding up all the remaining townspeople with a big contraption with a hose that sucks up the cocoons and they also drive the classic small car that holds an insane amount of Klowns back to their hideout at the amusement park.
On the outside, the Klowns' spaceship looks a big, yellow circus tent with red stripes running across it, though it's obviously made of metal rather than soft fabric, and has "lines" anchoring it to the ground that are also metal and zap you if you touch them; inside the bowels of it, it's like a bizarre, deadly funhouse, with lots of crazy colors and decorations, long and claustrophobic corridors, entrances that look like the toothy mouths of giant, ugly fish, weird obstacles like a bunch of doors built on top of each other that get progressively smaller as you open them, a vertical pole that slides down into the mouth of some inexplicable monster (I don't know what that thing is and you can't tell exactly how big it is, but it looks like it's got a three-segmented mouth, with multiple black eyes around the base of it), and the enormous, big top area where Klownzilla is housed up in the ceiling. It's all a lot of interesting production design by Charles Chiodo, looking like a Tim Burton movie on crack, and it's well-done, considering the low budget, and the same goes for the rooms that make use of matte paintings in the big, wide shots. Those are the ship's enormous power core room, which is this vertical chamber that seems to drop down for miles (it reminds me of the scene in the original Star Wars where Obi-Wan deactivates the Death Star's tractor beam), and a room where all of their cocooned victims are stored, as well as where they create the "popcorn," which is actually done in a contraption that looks like a popper.
For a movie that was made for just around $2 million, Killer Klowns not only has pretty good production values but the effects work is quite solid as well. This is, undoubtedly, because the people behind it are effects artists themselves and so, they knew how to get the most out of very little. The Chiodo Brothers mainly handled all of the effects, props, and art direction involving the Klowns, like their designs, their weapons (the popcorn gun the one Klown uses was the costliest of the props, costing up to $7,000), the "cotton candy" cocoons and the victims inside them, the few instances of gory makeup effects the interior of their spaceship (instead of a studio, it was done inside of an electronics factory), the other creature effects like the popcorn monsters, that thing at the bottom of the pole in the ship, the big Klownzilla hand that picks up Dave, and such and it all looks quite good. You can kind of see the rubbery nature of the Klown suits that were used but I think that only adds to their goofy, zany quality rather than hinders anything and their faces are capable of conveying a lot of expression. The really big effects sequences, like the matte paintings, the modelwork, and the bits of animation used for the laser guns and whatnot were done by Fantasy II, which had done a lot of good work for The Terminator, and it's really good stuff. Again, some of it is rather cartoony, particularly the big matte shot of the inside of spaceship's power reactor room (seriously, look at how much it seems like an animation cel, rather than something in a live-action movie), and those laser effects are old-fashioned, but, again, the goofy nature of the movie as a whole makes it work. In fact, a lot of it is really breathtaking, like the big, matted wide shots of the room where the cocoons are kept and when you see the spaceship hovering above the amusement park, with live actors in the foreground. The moment where Klownzilla is holding Dave in his hand and holds him up to his face looks so good and convincing that I can't tell if that involved compositing or if they built a big, Klownzilla head along with the hand (I didn't think they would have had the budget for that but, given that it's the Chiodos, you never know); if it is matting, then it's truly excellent. The shadow puppet effects, which are clearly animated, especially look nice and the part where the T-Rex shadow devours those onlookers is really cool in my opinion. They had to make some compromises, though, due to the budget (Klownzilla was originally going to be done through stop-motion but they ultimately decided to do suitwork instead), and the wide-shots of the Klown driving an invisible car down the road do look rather wonky, but still, what they managed to get with what little they had is expertly crafted and really nice to look at.
The movie opens on a typical Friday night in the town of Crescent Cove, with the zany theme song playing over it. Teens are hanging out at the Big Top Burger place, though their presence isn't appreciate by Officer Mooney, who glares at them as he drives away after getting coffee, calling one kind a "son of a bitch" for committing the crime of crossing the street in front of his car. Reporting in, he tells Dave that not much is going on but adds that Friday night is just starting and says he's going to head over to the park. A lot of teens, meanwhile, are parked at the Top of the World, the local lovers lane, where the goofy Terenzi brothers make their appearance by driving up in an ice cream truck, offering ice cream for all the teenage lovers. However, the crude innuendos and suggestive hip thrusting that Paul Terenzi makes while describing the various types of ice cream aren't appreciate by the teens, nor is the fact that their make-out sessions are being interrupted, and he gets cans thrown at him, forcing him to duck back into the truck. Couple with that how their plan to park there for a while with a couple of women who are in the back of their goes south when the women have no intention of doing so (they're only with them because they said they could have all the ice cream they wanted) and their night starts off lousily, as they drive off. With that distraction gone, the teens, including Mike Tobacco and Debbie Stone, go back to making out in their vehicles, when the silence of the night is broken by a whooshing sound, as a glowing, meteorite-like object zips down behind the nearby tree. They're not the only ones who spot it; at his cabin in the woods, farmer Gene Green is sitting on the porch with his dog, Pooh Bear, when the object rushes over him and lands nearby. As surprised as he is at the sight of it, it turns to elation when he believes that it's Halley's Comet, which he's been reading about, and, grabbing a shovel and a lantern from inside his cabin, he rushes down into the woods with Pooh, thinking he's going to get rich off of it. Back at Top of the World, Debbie talks the reluctant Mike into taking her to go look for it.
Heading through the woods, Gene is surprised when he comes upon what looks like a circus tent in the middle of nowhere. Loving the circus, Gene says that maybe they can get some free passes and he and Pooh walk towards it. Stopping to look at the ropes that are holding it in place, he notices how weird they look and how he's never seen a tent that looks like this one. Walking around to the side of it, he tells Pooh that there's something peculiar about, as there's apparently nobody around and he can't find the ticket booth. As the two of them walk on, Gene doesn't notice the silhouette of a figure inside the tent following them, being more preoccupied with trying to find a way to get in, but Pooh notices it. He stops and looks at the shadow, when the side of the tent opens up and a net is pushed out and snares him. Hearing Pooh whine, Gene turns around and sees that he's not there. Walking back, he drops his stuff when he finds the dog's scarf lying on the ground. Picking it up, he decides that there's definitely something strange about the tent and tries to punch his way through it, only to hurt his hand when he ends up punching something hard and solid. Looking up at the tent, he yells, "Where's my dog?! Where's my Pooh Bear?! I'll tear this thing apart with my bare hands!" He then grabs one of the lines, only to get a nasty shock that flings him down the ground. Wringing his hands and moaning, he exclaims, "This thing is wired!" And that's when one of the Klowns make his first appearance when he walks up to Gene. He smiles at him, seeming benevolent, but then, he pulls out his ray gun and laughs evilly as he zaps him with it.
Following a scene at the town jail that shows Mooney roughing up some teens, much to Dave's disapproval, Mike and Debbie come across a wooden fence blocking the dirt road they were driving on. Realizing they have to get out and walk, and with Mike acting like a goofball, talking like a stereotypical Native American as he points out where the path is, they start down through the woods. It isn't long before they come upon the tent, both of them being bewildered as to what it's doing out in the woods. Debbie has a weird feeling about it, knowing something isn't right, but Mike wants to check it out and convinces her to come with him, as she decides she'd rather not be by herself in the dark woods. Walking around the side of the tent like Gene and Pooh did, they find the opening and Mike, again, has to entice Debbie to come along, telling her she's going to love seeing what it looks like on the inside. She joins him and laughs at how colorful and bizarre it looks, wondering what kind of circus it is; Mike jokes about it being a new wave type of circus and jokes about what kind of shows they'd put on. They then go to the end of the hall, where are three doors to be found and, deciding on the green-colored one right at the top of the hall, Mike pushes the three buttons to the left of it in a random pattern, the buttons giving off oddball sounds when he does. The door then spins around to reveal its opening, and Mike and Debbie are seemingly sucked into it. It whirls around and leads them into an enormous, vertical chamber that, as Mike says, looks like what you'd see in a nuclear power plant, as there's a sparking energy ball up near the roof. Mike throws out several theories as to what it could be, suggesting a missile silo and a military base, but when the ball sparks again, they quickly get out. Back in the main hall, Debbie figures that they've just found the "shooting star," and upon hearing someone coming and seeing a shadow trailing across the corridor, they duck into the pink-colored door on the left side. This one leads them into another huge chamber, this one with what looks like an active popcorn machine in the rear and objects that look like they're made of cotton candy hanging from hooks. Remarking on how it smells like candy, Mike says that it must be a cotton candy factory and they're hanging it up to dry it before shipping it. Debbie, however, still believes that they're inside a spaceship, saying that no one stores cotton candy like this. Mike, trying to prove his point, rips a piece of one off, only to reveal Gene's face, covered in a gooey, red substance, behind it, the sight of which causes Debbie to scream.
The door then spins open and Mike and Debbie duck for cover, as a Klown comes in, carrying another cotton candy object, and hangs it up. He then walks over to the control panel in front of the "popcorn machine" and fiddles with the colorful controls, increasing the rate of the popping, as Mike and Debbie try to creep over to the door. Mike glances at one of the cocoons and, seeing a face sticking out of it, recognizes it as belonging to Joe Lombardo, dropping his flashlight in shock. The sound of it hitting the floor catches the Klown's attention, as he turns around and sees them. They immediately run for the door and spin back to the hallway, as he grabs a weapon from the panel. Mike and Debbie run back down the hallway that led them to the doors, as the Klown follows them out there and fires his weapon, which shoots a big spray of the popcorn that flies down the hall after them. They jump out of the tent's opening and to the ground, getting covered in the popcorn as they do, and then get to their feet and run off into the woods. The Klown, accompanied by another, runs outside the tent and, unable to see where they went, his partner quickly creates a dog out of balloons and puts it down on the ground, holding it with a leash. The "dog" sniffs the air and begins barking, leading them through the woods after the couple, who've made it back to the car. At one point, the dog stops to sniff the ground more thoroughly and lets out a high-pitched howl as it points with its snout. Mike fumbles to get the car started as the Klowns emerge from the woods and, starting it, he drives at them, knocking them to the ground and running over the dog before peeling down the road. Another Klown appears and jumps on their hood, trying to claw through the windshield, but he gets flung off as they turn a corner and head on down the road. One of the other Klowns looks at the one on the ground, who gets up and exchanges glances with him, while in the car, Debbie tells Mike that they have to tell the police. Mike, however, knows that they won't believe them but Debbie says that she has a friend at the police department who she knows will believe them. Little do they know that, in following them, the Klowns are now making their way to Crescent Cove.
They frantically drive up to the police station, knocking over a mailbox on the curb, and try to explain to Dave what they saw, telling him about Gene and Joe Lombardo. He asks them to come inside and tell him exactly what's going on, while elsewhere in town, one of the Klowns, carrying a green bag, finds himself in front of a drugstore. Seeing some people coming, he has to act like another animatronic figure akin to the one that's standing on the left side of the door (which, randomly, is a gorilla wearing a pink dress). He manages to fool the passersby, a couple of teenage girls, who head into the store, and as they do, he leers at them, speaking in his alien language. At the station, Debbie tells Dave, beat by beat, what happened, a tale that he isn't sure what to make of but one that Mooney, when he overhears it, disbelieves outright. Since they're claiming that two people are dead, Dave feels they should at least hear them out, but when Mooney recognizes Mike as being a friend of the Terenzi brothers, he believes that their claims are way of helping them sell ice cream from that clown-themed truck. Dave then tells Mike and Debbie to come with him and as they leave, Mooney continues mocking him, saying, "Go ahead, Dave. Make a dummy out of yourself! But you're not gonna make a dummy out of me." Outside, Dave has Debbie ride up in the front of his police car, while Mike has to ride in the back, and they drive off. At the town park, meanwhile, a teenage guy comes across a hand-puppet show in the gazebo. Initially, he's not too thrilled, as he watches a girl puppet resist the advances of a guy one, but he does laugh when the girl shows up with a laser gun and blasts the guy for his unwanted advances. His laughing doesn't last long, though, when the puppet turns the laser on him and the evil-looking Klown controlling it rises out of the box, making it collapse. He's then blasted into a cotton candy cocoon, with the Klown laughing evilly at his handiwork. Back at the drugstore, things aren't any better, as the pharmacist is having to deal with the one Klown basically ransacking everything. Having turned the two women he followed in there into cocoons, he's knocking stuff of the shelves and turning displays over as he grabs at various items, the pharmacist unable to do anything to stop him.
While Dave tells Debbie, much to her annoyance, that he's going to take her home and he and Mike are going to go check things out themselves, in another part of town, a young woman in a nightgown, carrying a glass of wine, answers her doorbell to find a Klown holding some pizza boxes. Initially, she's not too thrilled at this, and she gets even less thrilled when two other Klowns peek in from either side and a smaller one pops up from the stack of boxes. Smiling evilly, he pulls out a ray gun and zaps her into a cocoon. At another house, a housewife answers her doorbell to find another Klown, who hands her a heart-shaped candy box. Pleased at receiving it, she asks her off-camera husband, Jim, if it's from him, not noticing the Klown pointing his ray gun at her. Meanwhile, Debbie is dropped off at her house and, when Mike walks her up to the door, she tells him that she's going to follow after them when they leave. Mike, however, tells her to stay in her house, lock the door, and they'll be back later to check on her. After giving her a kiss, which doesn't go unnoticed by Dave, who Mike has now learned is an ex-boyfriend of hers, rejoining him in the squad car (he still decides to ride in the back). Back at the drugstore, the one Klown has now been joined by the smaller one in ransacking the place. Picking up a bottle of shaving cream, the little Klown pushes the button and sprays the taller one in the face, causing him to topple backwards and through a display. He then takes a small tin of talcum powder from the shelf, removes the lid, and sniffs it. As the other Klown leans in for a look, he sneezes, sending it flying into the air. Elsewhere, Mike leads Dave to the spot in the woods where the tent was, only to find that there's now nothing there but a large crater in the ground. Thinking he's been led in on a prank, Dave grills Mike about what's going on and he tries to defend himself but ultimately gets handcuffed and is led back through the woods. Back in town, a motorcycle gang gather in a large alleyway, only to be surprised when the small Klown comes riding in on a little tricycle. The gang, of course, takes one look at this and starts laughing and making fun of the Klown, with one guy walking up to him and sarcastically asking if he can ride the bike. The Klown shakes his head and when the guy asks if he can at least beep the horn, he nods and the biker acts all elated, before picking the bike up and smashing and stomping it while laughing cruelly. Once he reduces the bike to rubble, the biker gives a fake apology and the Klown sobs, only to jump away, confounding the biker, who doesn't know where he went, and then jumps back in, wearing boxing gloves. Acting like a boxer about to go into a bout, he challenges the biker, who laughs and asks, "What're you gonna do? Knock my block off?" Yep. The Klown uppercuts him, sending his head flying into a trashcan nearby and prompting the bikers to get out of dodge, while he laughs evilly.
One of the Klowns lurks outside of Big Top Burger, while inside, a family is sitting at a table and eating, except for a little girl, who's not very happy (mainly because her mother is acting like a bitch). She happens to glance outside and see the Klown, who waves at her, and she waves back. They exchange a few bouts of peekaboo with each other before he starts enticing her outside, her family not even noticing that she's gone from the table, while the Klown waits with a mallet behind his back. She makes it to the door, gets it open, and is about to step outside, when her mother, apparently not seeing the Klown, grabs her and pulls her back in, saying that she's not going anywhere until she finishes her food. Seeing this, the Klown lets out a frustrated growl upon losing a victim. Meanwhile, Dave is bringing Mike in, when they reach Top of the World and he notices that all of the parked cars seem abandoned. Stopping, he gets out and approaches the cars with his flashlight, finding junk like empty drink cans and the like strewn in and around them but finding no sign of anyone. Walking to the back of one car, he tries to open the door but finds it locked, so he then heads to a jeep parked across from it. Approaching it, a reddish-pink, thread-like material around the radio antenna, and when he opens the door, he finds that the inside of the jeep is full of the stuff. Reaching in, he pulls out a pair of cracked glasses and heads back to his car, gets Mike out of the back, uncuffs him, and shows him the glasses. Mike identifies the thread as the cotton candy-like material he and Debbie told him about and when he Dave tells him what vehicle he got it out of, he says that it belonged to somebody who was up there with them earlier. He then adds that it means that the Klowns got him. At the police station, Mooney hangs up on a woman who talks about clowns showing up at her doorstep, thinking it's another part of the "prank" Mike and Debbie were trying to pull earlier. He then gets another call, this one from the pharmacist, who says he thinks he has a bit of a problem, as the tall Klown pours a bunch of stuff on his desk. Then, another phone rings and when he picks it up, it's a man claiming that the Klowns took his wife away in a balloon, to which he responds, "Well, you don't need the police, pal. You need a psychiatrist!" Hanging up, he goes back to the pharmacist, only to hear some muffled yelling on the other end. Coming to the conclusion that the whole town is on it, he hangs up and decides, "They want to play games, they're messing with the wrong guy."
Next, a guy driving down the road gets the surprise of his life when a Klown pulls up beside him, driving... nothing, although the tips of his big shoes are shining like headlights. Panicking, he tries to go faster but the Klown continuously slams into him, causing him to swerve uncontrollably until he finally loses control, goes through a fence, and crashes at the bottom of a small gorge. The car explodes and the Klown, peering over the edge at the flaming wreckage, laughs at his destructive handiwork. At her house, Debbie is in the bathroom, stripping down and preparing for a shower, while putting her clothes, which still have some popcorn on them, in the hamper. What she doesn't notice as she steps into the shower, though, is some stray kernels that fell on the floor are moving by themselves. At the same time, at Big Top Burger, the Klown there opens up a bag full of the stuff, grabs a handful of it, and sprinkles it into the dumpster out back before walking away. Back at Debbie's, as she showers, the clothes hamper begins to jiggle, and then, at the restaurant, an employee takes the garbage out. Putting a couple of bags in the dumpster, he walks away, when he hears an odd trilling noise inside it. Curious, he noses around outside the dumpster and opens the lid and peers in, only to get pulled in by whatever is now in there, screaming bloody murder. The dumpster shakes violently and he continues screaming after he's pulled completely in there. Meanwhile, Mike and Dave have made it back into town, the latter talking about calling the state police, as well as apologizing for how he treated him earlier (he explains, "It's obvious she goes for laughs, not stability,"). At a local bus stop, a crowd of people are waiting when a bus passes by them and, once it's gone, a Klown is now standing near them (the same one who ran that guy off the road a few minutes ago). An old woman is the first to notice him, as he waves at her, and she then prompts her husband to look at him. He begins manipulating his hands and, to everyone's astonishment, starts creating really incredible shadow puppets on the brick wall behind them. He starts with a bunny, which impresses everyone, save for one guy who just goes, "Boo," and then, he makes an elephant, waving its trunk and trumpeting. Noticing that they're getting off the bench to come in for a closer look, the Klown cackles and continues his show, now creating a silhouette of George Washington crossing the Delaware.
At that moment, Mike and Dave reach the bus stop and Mikes yells when he spots the Klown, who's now creating the shadow of a curvy woman swaying back and forth. They pull up and Mike tells Dave to shoot him but Dave tells him that he wants to check it out first. Laughing again, the Klown then shifts the shadow into the image of a roaring Tyrannosaurus Rex with a red eye, which further astonishes the crowd. That's when the Klown makes his move, having the dinosaur shadow engulf them in its mouth, shocking Mike and Dave, and they watch as he places the people, who are now shrunken inside his hands, into his bag of popcorn. Mike then grabs the wheel and hits the gas, swerving the car at the Klown, attempting to run him down, but just as they're almost on him, the Klown springs up into the air and disappears completely, while the car knocks into the wall. Once they compose themselves, they look out the windows and up the side of the building, but don't see the Klown anywhere. This is enough to convince Dave and he calls into the station. Unfortunately for him, Mooney is now sure that everyone, including him, is on this "joke," and when Dave tells him to call in the state police there are clowns killing people, he goes on a rant, saying that this prank isn't going to be enough to drive him out of the force, ending with, "So, fuck you! Over." Frustrated, Dave says he has to get to the station and call the state police himself, when the two of them hear some girls screaming. However, it turns out to be the Terenzi brothers, who are trying to catch the ice cream truck, which has gotten away from them. Getting an idea, Mike tells Dave he's going to meet up with them and get them to help him warn people and gets out of the car, with Dave taking off to the station. Rounding a corner, Mike finds that the Terenzis have caught up with the truck, which has crashed into some boxes up against a wall. Running up to them as they, again, argue over whose fault it is, Mike does his best to convince them of what's going on, saying that he needs their help. As incredulous as they are, they agree to at least take him over to Debbie's house, especially when he tells them that she has a couple of roommates with big boobs who love ice cream.
At the station, Mooney is now ignoring all of the phone calls that are coming, sitting back and reading his magazine, while smoking a cigar instead. Hearing the door open, he looks up and a Klown walks in, stopping at the other end of his desk. Taking the cigar out of his mouth, Mooney laughs and says, "Well, whoopty-goddamn-di-doo! What do we have here?!" Standing up, he motions for the Klown to lean in and he tells him he made a big mistake, as he's in Mooney's territory now. In response, the Klown pulls out some flowers and sprays Mooney in the face with water. Now thoroughly enraged, Mooney walks around to the Klown and tells him to turn around. When he does, he slaps the cuffs on his hands and tells him that he's supposed to read him his rights, but because he's in Mooney's jail, he has no right. He then pushes the Klown towards the cell area, only for his hands to come off, cuffs and all, revealing them to be fake. The Klown bounds into the area and Mooney, angrier than ever, stomps in after him. Seeing him stop in front of the cell, where the two teens from before are still being kept, Mooney pulls out his gun and, pointing it, tells the Klown to get his hands up. He raises his arms but reveals that he still has no hands... until a pair of them pop up. Chuckling, Mooney turns to unlock the cell, the Klown waving at the teens inside and quickly putting his hand down when Mooney turns back to look at him, opens it, and tells the Klown to get in. He shuffles in and, once he's inside, Mooney hits him in between the shoulders with the handle of his flashlight. The Klown then spins his head completely around and growls at him. For the first time, Mooney now looks scared, as he slams the cell door and tells him that before the night's over, he's going to be begging for mercy. The Klown then pulls out a toot whistle and blows it, the end flowing out of the cell, grabbing Mooney by the throat, and pulling him back, whacking his head against the bars. Watching him slowly slump to the floor, the Klown turns and looks at the teens, one of whom asks, "What are you in for?"
After a brief moment where we see that Debbie is done with her shower, and that her hamper is bubbling with whatever is in there, Dave arrives at the station. Running inside, he finds no sign of Mooney, sees that the lights are off and aren't working, and when he answer a ringing phone, he hears nothing but silly music on the other end. He then sees a trail of clown-shoe footprints leading into the cell area and cautiously follows them in there. Calling for Mooney and getting no response, he finds that the wall is covered in the prints and, inside the cell, is a mass of the cotton candy-like material. Pulling back some of it, he finds the face of one of the two teens inside it, and jumps back when an arm falls out of another mass hanging above it from the ceiling. Getting on his feet, he walks back into the office, only to find the Klown now sitting in a chair behind the desk. He pulls up Mooney's body, which now has a couple of red spots on his cheeks and two red lines trailing down from the corners of his mouth, and, after exchanging glances with his new dummy, he has Mooney (in a distorted version of his own voice) mumble, "Hey, Dave, who was that lady I saw you with last night?" As Dave watches, the smiling expression of Mooney's face fades, as he leans forward and says, "Don't worry, Dave. All we wanna do is kill you." The Klown then removes his blood-covered hand from Mooney's back and, shoving him to the floor, gets up and growls. Shoving the desk out of the way, he starts approaching Dave, who fires a shot that hits him in the torso but does nothing to stop him. As he shoves another desk out of his way, Dave fires a couple of more times but, again, it does nothing. He then decides to aim for the head and fires, bursting the Klown's nose in a shower of confetti. With this, he lets out a pained yell and spins around crazily, disappearing into a bright, green light before exploding. Right then, someone from the state police calls in and Dave tells him that things are out of control. The man, Jack, asks him about the reports they're getting on circus clowns and Dave tells him that they're really creatures from some other planet. He adds that Mooney is dead and asks for Jack to send all available units to Crescent Cove. There's a bit of a pause, as Dave hears nothing but static, but Jack tells him that help is on the way, much to his relief. That's when Debbie crosses his mind and he leaves to go check up on her.
Mike is cruising the streets with the Terenzi brothers in the ice cream truck, who still aren't taking what he says seriously and making jokes about it over the truck's PA. They also say that they're not stupid enough to fall for it, with Paul saying that if there any killer clowns, he's Porky Pig. However, when they round a corner up ahead, Rich, who's driving, slams on the brakes, as there's now a literal parade of the Klowns going down the street, using a large, float-like vehicle with a hose-like contraption at the end of it to round up and catch all of the remaining townspeople. They're actually tossing cocoons out of windows to Klowns down below, using the hose to suck up cocoons that hit the road, and as the guys watch, one guy who's hiding underneath a car crawls out and tries to run for it, only to get immediately zapped. Seeing this, Rich puts the truck in reverse, turns around, and drives down the opposite street. Meanwhile, at Debbie's house, she's put her clothes on following her shower, when she hears a sort of trilling/laughing noise. Not thinking anything about it, she opens the hamper, only for a couple of little monsters, with long, stalk-like bodies and Klown heads, to lunge at her, snapping their teeth-filled jaws. Debbie backs up against the sink and throws one of her slippers at them, only for a couple of more to lunge out of the medicine cabinet behind her and bite her on both of her shoulders. Grabbing a can of hairspray, she sprays them both, which makes them let go, and sprays them some more before closing the cabinet. The ones in the hamper start hopping in it towards her but she kicks it over, only for them to angle themselves out and around it. And then, one actually rises out of the toilet behind her and, when she least expects it, lunges at her, causing her to fall backwards into the bathtub. As it snaps at her, she grabs the portable showerhead and shoves it into the monster's mouth before turning on the water. It's now too distracted with this object constantly spraying water down its throat and Debbie, ripping the shower curtain off, runs for the door, covering the monsters in the hamper with the curtain so she can get by them. She runs into the next room and stumbles by her door, when she hears some knocking and hears Mike's voice calling for her. She opens the door, only to see that it's a Klown imitating Mike's voice, and immediately shuts it. The Klown begins banging and, apparently, jackhammering the door, prompting Debbie to run to the nearby window, but when she opens it and climbs over the ledge, she screams at seeing some Klowns with firefighter helmets standing down there, holding a net. Climbing back in, she backs up into the Klown that was at her door and he grabs her, hoists her up, and laughs at her before throwing her to the couch. He's joined by two others and, as Debbie cowers away, pulls out a ray-pistol and zaps her, entrapping her in a yellow-and-red balloon that she finds is impossible to break.
Mike and the Terenzi brothers, after some confusion over the directions (here's a tip, Mike: never say "right" when giving directions unless you mean go that way), then arrive in time to see the Klown carrying the balloon outside to a car parked in front of Debbie's house. Seeing them coming, he hops into the car, and as they pull up, they can see Debbie inside the balloon before it peels away. As Debbie struggles inside the balloon, Rich hits the throttle and races after them, and they both happen to pass by Dave, who also joins the chase. Mike tells Rich to go faster, as they're losing the Klown, but Rich reminds him that what they're driving is just an ice cream truck. The chase continues down the street (the film is sped up to make it look funnier), when Paul sees the police car behind them and grabs the wheel to make Rich stop. They come to a sudden stop and Dave ends up hitting their rear end. As the brothers, again, argue over whose fault it was, Mike gets out of the truck and runs to the rear. Seeing Dave's hood smoking, he asks if he's okay and Dave gets out of his car and asks them what they're doing. When Mike tells him that the Klowns have Debbie, they both jump into the truck, with Dave taking the wheel. Ignoring the brothers, who are worried about what trouble they're in, he drives off in the direction the Klowns were going, having an idea that they went to the nearby amusement park. At said park, a security guard is making his rounds and stops to eat his lunch, when the Klown car comes in and pulls up in front of the funhouse, where he's standing. Putting away his sandwich and getting his flashlight out, he watches as the door opens and the really tall Klown who was driving steps out. He tells him that the park is closed and that he's going to have to leave, only to be surprised when another Klown steps out... and another... and another... and another, until he's now facing five of them. Within a second, they're all holding pies and the guard asks the question, "What are you gonna do with those pies, boys?" They immediately hurl them at him, splatting him with pie after pie after pie, until he's completely covered and melts down into a sizzling mass on the ground, the Klowns passing by him as they walk into the funhouse. The little Klown stops to put a large cheery on top before joining the others. Immediately, the ice cream truck pulls up and everyone gets out, Dave telling them to stick together. Checking the Klowns' car, they find nothing inside, while the Terenzis are more interested in the mass of what looks like melted ice cream on the ground. Dave tells them that's not what it is, pointing at the guard's skeletonized arm that's sticking out, and they head into the funhouse, unaware that the tent that's right behind it is actually the Klowns' ship.
Stepping inside, Dave, who's leading the group, gives Mike the flash light and tells the Terenzis to stick together and not fool around. Walking on, they come upon a room where the walls are decorated with cutouts of dinosaurs and other monsters, and they head through it, Mike asks Dave if he got through. Dave tells him that help is on the way and that he told them what's going on but adds that he doesn't believe it himself. The four of them ponder what the Klowns are doing on Earth and, for that matter, why they look like circus clowns to begin with. They toss around theories that they're ancient astronauts and are the origin of our idea of clowns (you may laugh, but I've heard stupider stuff on Ancient Aliens), that they're from a dying planet, that they're using people as experiments, and that they've just stopped for a bite to eat. Dave then suggests that they hold off on the talking so as not to give themselves away, and as they walk down some stairs into a room where mist is hanging over the floor, Dave tells Mike that the way to kill the Klowns is to shoot them in the nose. Getting down to the floor (the Terenzis hop down the steps, making a bouncing sound), they pass by a red button on the wall that Paul presses, causing a sudden stream of hot steam to spray up from the floor and scare the crap out of Mike. When he calms down, Dave tells Paul not to touch anything, as the Klowns probably have the place boobytrapped. Coming upon a door, Dave again tells the brothers to stay together, as he doesn't want to have to find them along with Debbie, and they say they can handle it... and when he opens the door, the brothers fall through a hatch in the floor and land in a pit of plastic balls. As they're about to walk in, Dave and Mike notice that the Terenzis are gone, much to the former's irritation, but Mike tells him not to worry about them. Down below, the Terenzis struggle to sit up in the balls and when they do, they see that they're not alone: there are two girl Klowns sitting on the rim of the pit, both of which have big breasts, with one of them inflating them to make them bigger. Smiling stupidly at this, Paul asks if they're Debbie's roommates.
Beyond the door, Mike recognizes the colorful hallway as where he and Debbie were earlier. They then rush ahead and come upon the three doors from before. Mike takes Dave through the pink door that leads into the chamber where the cocoons are stored, the place now filled to the brim with them, as the Klowns have virtually everyone in Crescent Cove there. They begin searching amongst the cocoons for Debbie but find no sign of her. A Klown then enters the room and they duck behind some cocoons to hide. The Klown scans the room and, not seeing anyone, he walks into the heart of it, forcing Mike and Dave to creep further backwards behind the cocoons, and he stops in front of one cocoon in particular. Feeling it, he steps over to the one standing next to it and appears to like the feel of this one more. Tapping it with his fist and smelling it, he pulls out what looks like a silly straw, sticks it in, and blood begins whirling its way up the inside of it. The Klown slurps it up through the other end and, once he's finished, he removes the straw, belches, and waddles out of the room. Mike panics at this, as he realizes Paul was right about the Klowns seeing people as nothing but food, and Dave has to calm him down, telling him that they have to find Debbie. That's when he glances nearby and sees the yellow balloon she was captured in hanging up with a bunch of others. Rushing to it, they see that Debbie is inside, still trying to get out, they themselves try to figure out how to get her out. Mike pounds on the balloon futilely, when Dave removes his gun and, despite Mike's objections, shoot the balloon. This bursts it open and Debbie tumbles out. They help her up and Dave knows that they'd best get out as soon as possible. But, when they rush to the door, Dave tells them that there might be other people alive in the balloons. When a couple of Klowns enter through another door, Mike tells Dave that it's too late and he, reluctantly, joins them in the other door, just managing to escape the Klowns when they charge at them. Reaching the other side, they see more Klowns coming at them down the hallway that leads out, though Dave manages to kill one by blowing his nose off. With no other choice, they take the yellow door across from them, as more Klowns head to cut them off.
Rounding a corner, they come across a spot where there's a pole sliding down a hole in the floor. As reluctant as Mike is to slide down the pole, not knowing what's down there, he has no choice but join Debbie when the Klowns come after them from around the corner. Dave manages to kill another Klown before sliding down the pole himself, only to find that Mike and Debbie stopped at just one level when it seems like they could have kept going. Asking why they stopped there, Dave sees a monstrous creature chomping on the other end of the pole and he says, "Good reason!" They then head down what looks like a hallway, only for the sections of it to sway back and forth, accompanied by laughter, revealing that they're just a facade. Regardless, they keep running, as the Klowns slide down the pole to continue the chase, and they duck into an opening that looks like the toothy mouth of an ugly fish, as the Klowns reach the bottom of the pole. The three of them have to push through a space full of balloons and come out the other side, which is another fish-shaped opening; meanwhile, the Klowns are still on their tail. They reach another zany-looking hallway, as the Klowns exit the tunnel they just went through, and come upon a door at the end of it. With the Klowns closing in, Dave tries to hold them off as Mike opens the door, only to find another door behind it. He opens it and finds... another door. Beyond that, is yet another door (each one gets progressively smaller as he opens them) and when he opens that one, he finally finds a passage. Dave is about to shoot the approaching Klowns but his rifle clicks empty and he instead joins his friends, closing the door behind him and using his empty rifle to bar it in an attempt to slow the Klowns down. Once that's done, they find that they're in a huge chamber that looks like a big top and Debbie wonders where they're supposed to go now. Just as they're about to move, other Klowns emerge from an opening across from them, brandishing weapons like bats and golf clubs. They then attempt to run to their right, only to find more Klowns emerging from over there, and they see the same thing to their left as well. With all of them closing in, they have no choice but to climb up onto the tiered blocks behind them. However, this seems to only delay the inevitable, as they're soon trapped, with the Klowns climbing up and swinging their weapons at them.
Suddenly, the Terenzi brothers come crashing through the wall in their ice cream truck, which instantly gets the Klowns' attention. Speaking over the truck's PA, Paul manages to make them stop but, when he can't think of anything else, Rich grabs the mike and says, "I am the great and powerful Jo-Jo! I command you to stop! Do not hurt them. Let them go! You will obey. Let them go!" Surprisingly, the Klowns are positively transfixed by this and it gives Mike, Debbie, and Dave the chance to climb down from the tiers. Running to the truck, they pile it into it, Rich struggling to get it to start, with Dave trying to help outside. That's when the Klowns suddenly look up at the ceiling and, as the other watch, something is lowered down from up there, something big. The Klowns quickly run for cover as the enormous Klown monster, Klownzilla (it pains me to write that but, that's his official name), come down onto the tiers that they were standing on, suspended by marionette-like wires. He lets out a roar and Paul decides that he's had enough of this. Dave tells them to get out of the truck and run but Paul says they can't, as it's a rental. Klownzilla then stomps down towards them as they try to start the truck, Paul honking the horn to try to scare him off, but he instead smashes the clown head off its top and pounds on its roof. The brothers are unable to escape, and as the others watch, Klownzilla picks the truck up, throws it, and it skids along the floor and explodes when it hits the wall. Dave has to stop Mike from trying to run to the wreckage, telling him it's too late, and that's when Klownzilla sets his sights on them and stomps towards them. Spying the hole in the wall the Terenzis created, Dave tells Mike and Debbie to get out while he draws Klownzilla's attention. Both of them try to stop him but he's not to be deterred, as he runs to the side and fires on Klownzilla, telling them to go for help. The two of them then run out, and when Klownzilla looks back at where they went, Dave again fires on him, drawing his attention back. As Mike and Debbie make it outside, the tent-ship retracts its anchors and pulls them in. Back inside, Dave continues circling around Klownzilla and firing on him, when he suddenly runs out of bullets. He tries to reload, but Klownzilla grabs him in his huge hand and lifts him up. Outside, Mike and Debbie run for cover as the ship begins to take off, just as the state police arrive. Rushing to where they are, they all watch as the ship, spinning like a top, rises into the sky. Inside, unable to reach his spare bullets in Klownzilla's grip, Dave removes his police badge from his shirt and uses its pin to burst his nose. Klownzilla drops him and Dave runs as he spins before exploding, which causes the entire ship to explode as well, the explosion turning into pink and purple-colored fireworks.
What's a crazy, zany movie like this without an equally silly music score? John Massari did the score and, as you'd expect, it absolutely plays up the goofy, comical nature of the movie, with a constant electronic, synthesizer sound to it that often comes off like circus music on acid, as well as the addition of that ice cream truck playing Pop Goes the Weasel. There's also one piece that's a really exaggerated, rocking and scratching sort of tune that you hear a few times (like when the Klowns head into the funhouse after killing the security guard), and as I described earlier, the score also doesn't forget that there are some parts of the movie that are genuinely creepy, especially that moment between the one Klown and the girl, which is played with the only sound being this eerie piece that involves some creepy vocalizing from a female voice. That and a few other instances are the only times when the music is not being completely goofy and yet, like the movie itself, it manages to be that way without coming off as jarring. However, more memorable than the score is the theme song, performed by the Dickies, which plays over both the opening and ending credits. It's another song that is so catchy that, one you hear it, it'll likely be stuck in your head for the rest of the day, and just like the movie itself, it's very to the point in what it's all about, basically describing how this is one circus you want no part of.
One of the best horror comedies ever made considering that it's about killer klowns! Add to the fact that it was directed by the Chiodo brothers makes it even more iconic and unforgettable!
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