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Late to the Party: ‘Killer Klowns from Outer Space’ (1988)

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Welcome back to another edition of Late to the Party, where the iHorror writers take turns checking off boxes on their personal unseen classics list.  With the release of the IT remake and the premiere of the new season of American Horror Story, it appears as if scary clowns are all the rage again.  This has forced me to make a rather embarrassing admission; I have never seen the 1988 cult classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space.  Until now.

Late to the Party - Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988), courtesy Trans World Entertainment (TWE).

Going in, there were a couple of things I knew about Killer Klowns from Outer Space.  Of course, I knew what the titular Killer Klowns looked like, since they are the film’s main iconic image.  Also, being an old punk rocker, I was familiar with the Dickies theme song.  But, other than that, I was going in blind when I popped in the $7.99 blu-ray from Walmart (I splurged on the limited edition Dia de los Muertos-inspired cover version).

Late to the Party - Killer Klowns from Outer Space

This one.  Image courtesy Walmart.

Basically, Killer Klowns from Outer Space is one big laugh riot.  There’s nothing serious about the film at all.  It’s a standard alien invasion flick along the lines of The Blob or Invasion of the Body Snatchers (in fact, it even lifts plot points from both of those influential movies), only with clowns (sorry, Klowns) as the alien invaders.  It’s a glorified B-movie.

Late to the Party: Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988), courtesy Trans World Entertainment (TWE).

What makes Killer Klowns from Outer Space a “glorified” B-movie instead of just your run-of-the-mill B-movie is the klowns themselves.  For what seems to be a very low-budget production, the alien Klown effects are very well done.  They’re more elaborate than just actors in makeup; the klowns look to be part rubber monster suit and part animatronic puppetry.  The klowns also take turns pulling out all the stops while terrorizing the public, doing clowny things like using victims as ventriloquist dummies and attacking bystanders with shadow puppets.  They even stick the people they abduct into cotton candy cocoons.  The story may lack creativity, but the appearances and the actions of the klowns are inventive enough to make the movie fun, and for a B-movie, that’s really all you can ask for.

Late to the Party: Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988), courtesy Trans World Entertainment (TWE).

I’ve personally never been particularly afraid of clowns, so in the end, Killer Klowns from Outer Space is exactly the movie that I thought it would be.  How could it be any different with a title like that?  The klowns did surprise me, as they were much more animated and “monster-like” than I thought they’d be, and some of their methods of attack are downright ingenious.  But, for the most part, Killer Klowns from Outer Space is a movie about just that – killer clowns from outer space – and doesn’t pretend to be anything else

 

Come on back next week for another edition of Late to the Party, or check out older ones you may have missed in the meantime!

(Feature image courtesy Chris Fischer)

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

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The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

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