B Movie | 31 Nights of Horror

Storyline

When a small town is invaded by aliens from outer space who are capturing and killing the townspeople, no one takes them seriously. Why? The aliens all look like circus clowns, use weapons that look clown like, and all have painted on smiles. Only a few of the young people in the town realize the danger and of course no one believes them. Armed with an ice cream truck they try and rescue their friends.

Our Thoughts of Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

Some people see Killer Klowns as a great “bad movie,” but in spite of its low budget and iffy casting I rate this as a genuine “good movie.” Here we have a film that reimagines every aspect of clowning and circuses — puppet shows, cotton candy, balloon animals — in terms of homicidal aliens. The level of ingenuity is remarkable, and parts of it are quite funny. This film deserves far more fame that it’s gotten and I think it’s sad that the Chiodo brothers never made anything else.

Trivia

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.

Though not a hit when it was in theaters, the film has since become a cult classic and made revenue in action figures, DVDs, and t-shirts as well as an assortment of animatronics and other decorations from Spirit Halloween.

John Massari‘s music for the entrance of Klownzilla was originally composed a year earlier for the Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) movie trailer. Massari’s music for that trailer was rejected in favor a more cliche musical approach.

The iconic Killer Klowns March was originally written by John Massari for his high school rock band, Crisis. The band members did not like it because the notes of the song spelled out an F major 7th chord which they felt sounded too much like Jazz.

The Jeep that is covered in and filled with cotton candy webbing was loaned to the production by a local car dealership. They were told by the effects department that if they sprayed the Jeep with Pam, the webbing wouldn’t permanently stick and could be wiped right off. However, the solvent in the webbing caused major damage to the inside of the car, particularly to the seats and finish. This necessitated $3,000 in repairs at a different car dealership before the production could return the Jeep to its owner.