Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

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Fear of clowns seems to be one of the more common phobias. Because of this, evil clowns have wormed their way into pop culture in several forms, from Batman's irrational nemesis The Joker to Pennywise in Stephen King's It. Lon Chaney Sr. even famously quipped "there's nothing scarier than a clown after midnight." It seems the whole world doesn't love clowns, they're actually terrified of them. The Chiodo Brothers took this truism and ran with it, which is how we ended up with cult fave "Killer Klowns from Outer Space."

The basic concept of the movie lampoons monster movies of the 50's and 60's. Sadistic monsters invade a sleepy American town and plan on eating the people who live there. Teenagers encounter the monsters first and try to warn the authorities. The local hard-assed cop (veteran character actor John Vernon) of course doesn't believe them, and our heroes are left to fight off the monsters themselves.

You've seen this movie before. Again, it's the plot of many a b-movie, only this time the monsters look like super-deformed clowns on steroids - and therein lies the difference. The movie itself is kind of crude but amusing. The filmmakers understand one basic thing... clowns are creepy. This is used to great effect in a couple of scenes, producing actual chills in an ...

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