I watched this on VHS (rented from Dr What) and I was completely shocked at how great this film is. The picture quality given the tape was 25 years old was still pretty good. I have just pre-ordered the blu-ray version to see it in its full glory.
The premise is completely original and crazy, the story refreshingly free from back story. The klowns have come from somewhere, flying through space in a big top tent and once landed they are pretty keen on eating earthlings. The humans spend the whole film trying to stay alive- no character arcs to speak off just those that get deaded (or more correctly cocooned in fairly floss – a bit like Alien but more PG) and those that don’t. And luckily no one learns anything about themselves or makes themselves a better person during the course of the movie. And no movie stars- its budget as reported by IMDB was 2M which was a substantial budget for essentially a straight to video movie back in the day- today to finance a 2M movie you would need 2 or 3 “names” to get the deal done. Indie film making aint what is used to be!
I am surprised the Chiodo brothers didn’t follow this very accomplished first film with another film but they seem to have focused on their animation- puppetry- special effects business until recently- a sequel is due in 2013 – in 3D no less. From VHS to 3D in 25 years- not bad. If they had no artistic integrity they would have cranked out a dozen sequels – I’m glad they didn’t but they would probably be a lot richer.
Bring on “The Return Of The Killer Klowns From Outer Space in 3D”
ghastlyfunvhsfilms 