#comic by kkfos

[spacecircusofklowns]

✨Klowns From Outer Space love their flying circus✨🎪💖

Grabbed some junk from the store and went to show off his big uncles

[purpleskkfosblog05]

Oh where could that little human be?

[marsinthecorner]

Don't tell me Shorty doesn't use his smaller stature to his advantage.🤣 You know he acts baby to avoid trouble or to lure humans. Jumbo isn't swayed....Shorty is his little brother and is savvy to his antics.

[obsidian-metalhead]

If he catches it, he will eat it.

[silverbaxart]

Here is my ink work for my variant cover for Ha Ha issue 6 . . #kkfos #killerklowns #bmovie #cultclassic #retrohorror #homagecover #imagecomics #clowns #art #silverbax (at HawgJaw Comics) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPlTRrQBrI-/?utm_medium=tumblr

[alexanderwrites]

Top of the Flops - Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)

Budget: $1,800,000

Gross (worldwide): ‎$43,625,096

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 71%

Okay, maybe this one isn’t a flop. But I want to talk about Killer Klowns from Outer Space. With clown discourse (clowncourse?) at an all time high, there can be no better time than now to discuss this film, which is a flop in spirit, if not financially. 

KKFOS came along at the end of a decade of movies that celebrated excess. From splatter horrors to body horrors, American cinema still was celebrating the artistic liberation of the 1960′s and 1970′s. But where low-budget horrors from the likes of Troma revelled in grossness, KKFOS is actually very, very mild. 

Now, stick with me through this sentence: if the scene in which a Killer Klown (which is from outer space, by the way) punches the head clean off the body of an angry biker had been featured in any other horror from the 80′s, a huge fountain of blood would’ve accompanied it, but in the hands of the Chiodo brothers, it quietly and bloodlessly sails across the alley and lands on the dirty ground. When a security guard is later dispatched by the Killer Klowns (again: from outer space. Just want to clear that up), he isn’t torn apart limb from limb he’s, uhh, pied to death.  

But we’re jumping into things, and i’ve yet to fully explain it things to you, just as the film refuses to fully explain anything to its dear, precious viewers: Killer Klowns have come to earth in a giant spinning top UFO to turn people in a college town into cotton-candy-wrapped Mummies. Glad we could clear that up. Now, what works about the film is that it’s aware of how dumb it is. It kind of revels in its lack of sense, and is more interested in displaying great stylised makeup and set design. The directors have worked on special effects, animatronics and modelling for the likes of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and The Simpsons, and it does show. Sure, the Clowns (sorry, Klowns. From space) look very dated but they have such a distinctive look that is so of its time, and its one made of the kind of practical effects that I really, truly miss in modern horrors. 

Yes, I miss this. I realise what I said. And the set design inside the spaceship is pulled off very well too, especially considering the budget. Some of it does admittedly look cheap (the black flooring with tape on it kinda says local theatre to me) but look at this:

Yeah it’s not realistic looking, but look at the detail and style of it. Look at the matte art. I would take unrealistic but with tonnes of character over realistic with no character any day. There is effort put into the look and style of the movie which really does set it apart, and as you’d expect from a horror, ahem “comedy” of its era, the performances, dialogue and characters are spectacularly not good. There is a baffling trend throughout the film of characters finding the Murderous Nightmare Klowns cute and delightful until they start killing. People wave, people smile - one women happily says “Pizza!” when one of them arrives at her door. 

Later, a crowd of delighted people gather around one of the nightmare murder klowns as it makes shadow puppets on a wall for them. It is baffling that anyone would be okay to be near these creatures, let alone enthralled. They are thankfully punished for their naivety by being eaten to death by the shadows. But here’s the thing: everyone in this film is for sure supposed to be dumb. It seems pretty clear that the characters acting this way is supposed to be a joke, a pisstake of how pretty much every character in every horror film acted in the 1980s. But clearly, nobody in the film is as dumb as we are, if we’re to believe that these men are 18 YEARS OLD:

The film asks us to accept a lot, but I draw the line at the balding, hairy-chested fellow on the right being under the legal drinking age in the US. We’re not alone in refusing to accept anything in the film, as John Vernon’s archetypal grizzled cop doesn’t believe the dozens of reports of people claiming they’ve been violently attacked by nightmare klowns, even when one of the nightmare murder klowns stands in front of him.

I always find the non-believer trope weird in films, especially when there’s irrefutable evidence of the thing which they doubt: think of all the family christmas movies where the parent doesn’t believe in Santa but is totally fucking nonplussed by having presents appear in their house every year. This is that trope but about Klowns instead of father christmas (who may or may not be from space). Everyone else seems to love the Klowns until they try to murder them, especially the ‘comic relief’ characters The Terenzi Brothers (who for no apparent reason are sex-starved ice cream men), who unquestionably have sex with two lady Klowns, one of whom has gigantic Klown Breasts. 

Sorry for the nightmares, guys! 

So this is the kind of film you’re dealing with. One of Killer Klown Sex and men getting pied to death. It’s damn silly, but it’s also damn entertaining, and there are so many little touches to make it a worthwhile watch. There’s the ridiculous earworm theme tune performed by The Dickies on top of all this, and a giant Klown called Klownzilla, a name which I can only imagine it took months to come up with. I think the film’s sense of lightness gives it character and a unique style - in fact, it was originally just called “Killer Klowns” but the directors were worried it’d make people think it was a slasher. It’s not a slasher at all, and i’m kind of glad it isn’t. They have ray-guns, they blast popcorn and nets at people and they have a fucking balloon-animal attack dog. Like I said: really, really silly.

The film can’t bear to give an even mildly dark ending - the last moment is the main cast getting pied because apparently getting pied is the funniest thing you can even imagine. But i’m glad they did, and i’m glad there’s a film that exists where these things can occur because even if they aren’t hilarious or smart, they’re different. I’m glad we have a trove of cult classics like this which we can dig into and find golden nuggets of nonsense. KKFOS does stand out and the Chiodo brothers clearly wanted it to, and still want it to: they’ve been trying to get another one made since “the day after” the first was released. Maybe now that It has been such a universal success, the world is ready for more Klown Cinema, and maybe, just maybe, it’s ready for more nonsense like this:

Worth a hate watch?: YES, but it might be more of an unironic LOVE watch

Worst/best line: “In Space, no one can eat ice cream” (tagline)

Worst film of 1988?: Nope. That would be Mac & Me. 

[purpleskkfosblog05]

((This is just a test!))

I’m thinking about making a comic about the killer klowns and I’m trying out this sort of 80’s style for it, what do you guys think so far?😅

[obsidian-metalhead]

[obsidian-metalhead]

Very. Very lost.

[obsidian-metalhead]

Maybe if I walk this way for a while I can finally get out of here…

…… and I’m back at the phone again…

Wtf is this place?? I guess I should try the phone again.

Hello? Hello? Anyone?? Please???

I’ve been stuck in this forest for several days and I’m having a hard time finding bugs to eat, and it’s getting colder each night, and I really just want to go back home!!!

[obsidian-metalhead]

Might have an easier time making friends if you weren’t making out with the bathroom mirrors.

(He was the only male at the bar when he first walked into the restrooms)

[obsidian-metalhead]

@puppet200 The mail arrived. He is confused.

[obsidian-metalhead]

Listening to the radio drag on through the night.