Killer Klowns From Outer Space is a 1980s B-movie released on May 27, 1988, created by Stephen, Edward, and Charles Chiodo, also known as “The Chiodo Brothers.” While their names may not be familiar, their work likely is, as they created special effects for movies such as Critters (1986), Ernest Scared Stupid (1991), and RoboCop (1987). As well as Stop-Motion for movies like Elf (2003) and even an intro in The Simpsons (1989) featuring Gumby.
Killer Klowns was the first and only movie written and produced by the brothers, with Stephen directing the script he co-wrote with his older brother, Charles, on a $2 million budget.
Killer Klowns follows the story of Mike Tobacco (Grant Cramer) and Debbie Stone (Suzanne Snyder). In the film, we see Mike and Debbie at “Top of the World,” a place where young couples could make out, but their moment was interrupted when a giant glowing ball falls from the sky. Mike and Debbie investigate where it landed, assuming it’s a shooting star, but instead find a circus tent belonging to aliens that look like clowns and invade Earth.
In my opinion, the movie is excellent; it’s trying to be “so bad it’s good,” and it succeeds, and that’s what makes it good. It’s colorful but dark, cheap but impressive, and paced expertly with constant clown gags throughout. The Klown heads and practical effects were incredible, including the popcorn bazooka, which was actually the most expensive prop for the movie, costing $7,000 and taking six weeks to build. Even though the movie has a lot of impressive things, that doesn’t mean everything is excellent. The movie’s pacing, despite being decent, feels choppy, like it’s cutting from one movie to the next. For example, they would have the main characters trying to alert everyone about the klowns, then in the next scene, it would have a montage of the klowns causing trouble. As for problems with it, I feel it could have been longer and could have had more klown gags throughout. Overall, Killer Klowns is a unique and artistic film that can be cheesy at times, but that’s the reason fans love it.
Even though Killer Klowns completely bombed at the box office, making only around $80,000 according to SFGATE, it found love on home video and was re-released in theaters many times in the last 30 years. It has since risen in popularity and become an iconic cult film, having appeared at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights, once in 2019 and again in 2022. The franchise also received costumes, props, and animatronics from Spirit Halloween and even had its own video game, which was released on May 28, 2024.
As for the future of the franchise, it’s still unknown. A sequal titled The Return of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space was planned to be released in 2012, but after getting delayed many times and with no news coming out, it’s still unknown if it will ever be released. Tons of other projects were announced, such as a proposed TV series and a SYCY original movie. These projects never saw the light of day, but on April 15, 2025, according to Bloody Disgusting, a remake of the movie was announced, with Ryan Gosling possibly rumored to be involved in producing it. Whether a sequel, reboot, or remake is happening, Killer Klowns has been such a big part of horror, and at this point, it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
