WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Killer Klowns From Outer Space 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:08.719 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:15.680 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.960 Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. On today's episode of 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.720 Weird House Cinema, We're going to discuss what's kind of 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.319 a Rare Beast? A goofy horror comedy that manages to 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:30.360 avoid being too self aware and takes itself its genre 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.120 and the films it inspired it seriously enough to maintain 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:37.240 a certain air of creepiness, seriousness, and indeed horror, while 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:41.240 still being ridiculous and hilarious and fun. It is nineteen 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:44.240 eighty eight's Killer Clowns from Outer Space. 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.040 I think I'd agree with all of that, except I 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.240 don't know if a film can be more self aware 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.320 than Killer Clowns. This seems like the ultimate kind of 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:53.400 meta exercise. 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.920 Well, I guess it depends how you exactly consider too 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:01.440 self aware in a film. For me, when a film 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:04.399 becomes too self aware, it's like things begin to fall apart, 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:05.679 you know, like. 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:08.640 Not taking the plot seriously. 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.960 I mean right where it becomes too much of a joke, 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.759 to where you can see the joke and the performances 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.320 you can feel the joke and the writing in the 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:21.280 way that just again makes things fall apart. And sometimes 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.319 I've you know, there's some obvious examples of that in 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:26.440 more recent films you could point to, but I mean 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:28.560 there are also some older films that have a cult 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:31.600 following that I've tried to get into, and I just 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:33.600 find that, like, oh, this was just one big joke 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:36.759 for everybody, Like if the villain can't be taken seriously, 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.920 if if everybody's if it's just too much of a party. 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:42.280 I mean, I guess that can be fun, but it 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:44.640 can it can make the narrative itself fall apart. 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:46.800 Oh no, well, I agree with exactly what you're talking 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.640 about there. Yeah, an effective parody does still have to 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:55.440 function as a story, and some parodies are, you know, 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:59.080 so self conscious that they just they stop even trying 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.640 to be a function story. They're just doing the jokes, 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:04.640 and that becomes less engaging. 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:07.600 Yeah, So this is one that this is one of 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:09.720 those films that I don't think I'd ever actually sat 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.440 down and watched it all the way through start to finish. 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.760 I recall it airing on cable back in the nineties 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.040 and early two thousands and watching you know, parts of 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.040 it on late and probably something like USA Up All Night, 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:23.680 but I'm not sure where exactly it was airing. Maybe 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.240 it aired on Sci Fi Channel as well. You know, 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.760 it fits a number of those molds. It was also 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.400 originally released theatrically, apparently didn't do that well, but has 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:38.160 enjoyed a long life via home media, apparently more than 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.440 making back. It's I think one point eight million dollar 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.520 budget over the course of time. But as the filmmakers 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:46.239 have said in interviews, it's one of those things where 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.200 they've they've wanted to do a follow up, but studios 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:51.520 aren't really interested in a movie that's going to make 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.200 you know, millions and millions of dollars over the course 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.560 of like three decades. They want something that's going to 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.240 make that much money in one weekend. And so, for 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:04.680 various reas, we have yet to fully cinematically return to 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:06.320 the universe of the Killer Clown. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.600 I don't. I mean, on one hand, I would like 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:12.600 to trust them, but on the other hand, I'm like, 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:14.960 I don't know if I would like what this movie 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:18.160 would look like if it was made today. 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:22.040 Yeah, yeah, there. The closest thing that we have is 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.760 there was a recent video game that came out, Killer 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.000 Clowns from Outer Space. The game came out in twenty 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.320 twenty four. It's one of those asymmetrical survival horror games, 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:34.000 you know, kind of like the Friday the Thirteenth game. 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:35.600 In fact, I think some of the same people worked 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:36.080 on it. 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.600 That makes sense. They also made a Texas Chainsaw Mamasacre game, 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:41.120 which I've played one time. 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.920 Yeah, I have not played this one. It's one of 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.720 those my machine can't handle it. But I looked at 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.720 the stills and it looks pretty cool. It looks like 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:53.720 a lot of work went into maintaining the vibe of 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.640 the original picture. But I also agree with you on 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:01.360 the idea of like a modern clown remake or even 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.200 a sequel, Like even if the Kyoto brothers were just 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.080 all the way involved, it seems like there would be 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:12.280 a tendency to like lean into like nastier territory or 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.640 just I don't know, like, how would you maintain the 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.479 perfection that you have in this film right? At any rate, 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:21.200 there remains talk of a sequel, and I've recently read 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.080 that Ryan Gosling has been attached as a producer for 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:28.520 a potential remake so we'll see. We'll see. So what 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.800 we have here is pretty singular in many respects. It's 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.680 essentially a kind of Invaders from Mars the Blob plot, 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.480 but with clowns from outer space, and they are killer 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.440 clowns of course, and it is presented in PG thirteen forms. 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.760 So you know it's not hard PG thirteen. 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.000 It's a hard PG thirteen Like the clowns are frightening. 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:56.359 There's certainly some adult humor sprinkled throughout that doesn't go 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:58.640 too hard, but also some of it hasn't aged all 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.680 that well, was maybe a little tasteless back in the 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:06.479 day as well. But yeah, for my money, this film 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.400 stands out for a number of reasons. So it's a 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.320 goofy horror comedy that balances like the late eighties goofiness 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.640 and the monster horror quite well. So, like I say, 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.000 it doesn't become a complete farce, and the creatures are 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:23.720 all really convincing, look amazing. It really has the I 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:25.360 don't know how many I don't know if you can 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.440 relate to this or listeners can, but it reminds me 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.240 a lot of Mad Magazine movie parodies from back of 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:32.640 the day. 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:40.040 Yes, in multiple ways, with the slight ugliness of the caricature, 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.039 in the way the clowns are realized visually, the comedic 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:49.200 sensibility of the gags is very Mad Magazine And what 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:53.000 is that I'm recognizing there is On one hand, it's 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.239 not a dry humor. It's like a it's a very juicy, 0:05:56.320 --> 0:06:00.400 wet humor. But also it goes a little bit hard. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.560 As we were saying, it's a little bit more adult 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:04.560 than you might expect in some areas. 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:08.960 Yeah. Yeah, Like I'm reminded specifically when when RoboCop two 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.560 came out. I don't think I was able to watch 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.080 RoboCop two yet, but I had a Mad Magazine that 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.760 had the parody of RoboCop two in it, and of 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.600 course it was loaded with gags. It's very much, you know, 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.080 comedy and satire. But at the same time, like RoboCop 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.280 looked pretty cool in some of the in many of 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.160 the drawings, so did the nemesis of RoboCop two, and 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:35.200 so that comic I just have a strong memory of it, 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:37.440 you know, impressing me in a couple of ways, Like 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:39.920 it was funny, it was goofy, but also I was like, wow, 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.200 you know, there's still robots battling each other. I'll take it. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.120 Let's see what else. We'll get into a lot of 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.720 this when we get into the plot more. But we've 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.040 already talked about it. It's PG thirteen, so it's kind 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.080 of a hard PG thirteen. But in terms of like 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:57.960 a late eighties, like nearly nineties monster movie that features 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:02.560 like college student characters, this film's not nearly as tasteless 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.480 as it could have been, and it's not really gory. 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:10.440 Has no nudity, despite the inclusion of the genre standard 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:11.800 shower scene. 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.559 Which is notable in several respects, not just for having 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:15.880 no nudity. 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:19.000 Right, but overall. I think it's just the big thing 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:21.320 about killer clowns from outer space is just the absolute 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.320 commitment to the bit. You know, this was clearly their 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:27.880 vision for this picture. Earth has been invaded by clowns 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:32.720 from outer space, aliens that are clowns, clowns that are aliens, 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:38.320 as this film actually explores humanity's knowledge of clowns and 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:42.160 clowning traditions. We're talking from ancient Egypt, through gesture traditions 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.480 around the world through twentieth century Circus times. All of 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:50.960 this was inspired, perhaps by Earth's ancient alien first contact 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:53.120 with clowns from outer space. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.760 They do, in fact mention this in dialogue. Yeah, at 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.880 least as a suggestion by a character who is not 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:00.800 an expert. 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:05.000 So, but we don't know what his major speculating, We 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.680 don't know what his major is. Yeah, but but yeah, 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.760 these these aliens are not disguised as clowns. They are clowns. 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:18.680 Clowns are a species. Human clowns are unknowingly disguised as 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:20.280 clowns from outer space. 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:25.600 That theory is a wonderful little garnish on the feast 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:27.000 that is this film. 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.040 Yeah. Yeah, It's an idea that, to a certain extent, 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.240 is later explored in a different way, into a different 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:37.000 degree in horror writer Thomas Leggatti's nineteen ninety story The 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:38.319 Last Feast of Harlequin. 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:39.760 Oh, I haven't read that one. 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:42.719 Oh it's creepy and it has clowns. So if you 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.400 want a creepy clown read I recommend that one. All right, 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:47.480 elevator pitch for this one. I mean, this is one 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.400 of those films where the title alone tells you everything 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:52.520 you need to know. It's killer clowns from outer space. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:53.840 What else do you need to say. 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.800 Do you know why they chose to spell clowns with 0:08:57.880 --> 0:08:59.160 a K in the title? 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.880 I don't know offhand. I guess it just it looks funny. Uh, 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.120 it really clown is funny because the word found clown 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:08.560 is funny because it has that hardca kind of sound, right, 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:09.920 and so just go ahead and give it a K. 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:10.880 Fair enough? 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.360 Yeah, all right, let's go ahead and listen to just 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:15.920 a little bit of trailer audio here. 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:26.440 It was a night like any other night. Then something happened, 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:41.160 you see that, something different. It's still shooting star. Why here? 0:09:43.040 --> 0:10:14.079 Why now? Why clowns? Killer clowns, Killer Clowns from outer Space? 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:26.160 It's crazy, all right. As of this recording, Killer Clowns 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.560 from Outer Space is streamable on to the and Amazon 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.440 Prime here in the States, but is generally just widely 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.680 available in all formats. Shout Factory put out a really 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.840 nice looking steel book edition and it's i think still 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.560 available loaded with extras. Again, this one has enjoyed a 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.960 very long life as home media, and so different editions 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:49.920 I think have come out over the years, and I 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.080 mean it's really at home where people have grown to 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.280 love it. I'm honestly not sure about other media that 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.840 has explored the Killer clown universe beyond the recent video game. 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.000 It seems like you could have a lot of like 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:06.440 comic book crossovers here. It seems like Killer Clowns Aliens 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:10.200 versus Predator, like the crossover absolutely should happen there because 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:13.640 you can get the you know, you have ancient alien visitors, 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.120 you have you could have a hybrid where you have 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.680 like a xenomorph clown hybrid. Like what does that look like? 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:21.760 I mean, there's there's so many places you could go 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:22.080 with it. 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:25.760 Can I suggest something that is more I would say 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:30.560 tonally and thematically already aligned with Killer Clowns. You can 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:34.120 have RoboCop versus Terminator, you can have Alien versus Predator, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.840 and you can have Killer Clowns versus Critters. 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:40.480 There you go, right, crites, it seems like a perfect fit, yes, 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.600 for a number of reasons. So, and that really leads 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.600 us into into our discussion of the people behind this picture, 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:51.360 because the main like driving creative force here is of 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:56.079 course the Kyoto brothers. This is Stephen Kyoto, Charles Kyoto, 0:11:56.160 --> 0:12:00.240 and Edward Kyoto. I'm gonna basically talk about them as 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.240 a trio. But if you get into the credits, Steven 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.720 born nineteen fifty four is credited as director, one of 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.959 the writers, and the producer or one of the producers. 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:15.000 Charles born fifty two is credited as writer, producer, production designer, 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.760 clown designs and also plays the role of clown Zilla. 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:21.120 You'll find out what that is later if you haven't 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.040 seen it. And then Edward has a writer producer credit, 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:25.360 and he was born in nineteen sixty. 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:30.480 So these guys, before they were filmmakers in their own right, 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.600 they had worked on special effects for a number of things, right. 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.720 Yeah, absolutely, they were already an established effects team. And 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.080 they're still around as an established effects team. They can 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:44.080 continue to work even though they haven't really come back 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.840 and done any kind of like a full feature film 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:50.680 in the same way as Killer It Clowns from Outer Space. 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:54.560 But yeah, an American trio special effects siblings who specialize 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:59.280 in clay modeling, creature creation, stop motion animatronics, you know, 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.320 so many of those nice, you know, rub the fur 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:06.240 practical effects that we love in films like. 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:10.080 This totally And do I understand correctly that they originally 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:15.439 intended to include some stop motion effects in Killer Clowns, 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.560 but they weren't able to, and that's why the clown 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.760 Zilla effect. Yeah, I think it's like was originally going 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.160 to be a stop motion creature but ended up being 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:25.040 a man in a suit. 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:28.160 Yeah, that's my understanding. Yeah, that was gonna so we 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:29.920 were going to get some stop motion, and they've done 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.280 a lot of stop motion over the years, including him 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.840 to understand some bits for the Simpsons here and there. 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:36.960 But to be clear, I'm not trying to diminish the 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.600 clown effects by referring to them as a guy in 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.720 a suit, because they are more than just a person 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:44.040 in a suit with like makeup. 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:44.760 There. 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.960 There is some puppetry involved in the clowns, right, Yes, Yeah, 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.040 the clowns that we get in the film. 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.679 As we'll be talking about time and time again here, 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:57.280 they just look amazing, just wonderful practical effects. I mean 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.520 the way that the heads have been sculpted and fabricaded, 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.720 painted and then manipulated in a way that they just 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.400 completely come to life, Like the movements of the mouth, 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.040 the eyes, oh my goodness, the eyes of these things. 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:13.040 I guess it's you know, it's it's you don't have 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.680 to worry about Uncanny Valley with a creature like this 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.240 that is already supposed to be uncanny, but man, pretty 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:23.760 much in every shot, these clowns absolutely feel like living creatures. Yeah, 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.240 so the Kyoto Brothers. Other credits include, of course, nineteen 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:29.920 eighty six's Critters, which we've covered on the show before, 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:35.040 and that's why a Critter's killer Clown's crossover would be wonderful, 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:36.880 even though that would be a lot of k sounds 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.400 in the title. Yeah. They apparently also did the six 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.680 thousand sucks commercial for nineteen eighty seven's RoboCop. 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.240 Yeah, that's right, the car that is constantly being advertised 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:50.000 in the RoboCop universe and gets six miles to the gallon. 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.800 Yeah, let's see. Of course they did eighty eight Critters too, 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.240 as well as UHF the same year. They did some 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.440 effects in that. They did effects work in ninety one's three. 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.920 They did nineteen ninety one's Earnest Scared Stupid. This is 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.480 a film that I think a lot of us remember 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:12.040 from our childhoods, in part because the monster effects. The 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:16.000 trolls in that movie are extremely creepy and convincing and 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.200 share a certain resemblance to the creatures in this film. 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:24.560 Though despite rumors that they're the same sculpts like repainted. 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.160 That appears to not be the case, just I think 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:28.680 a similar design aesthetic. 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:30.960 I can't remember if we've talked about this on the 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.640 show before, but that is a film I remember very 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.680 vividly for being one of those things that was just 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.680 supposed to be funny and the kid's movie, but actually 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:41.000 scared me when I was a kid. 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.120 Yeah. Yeah, I don't remember how scary I found it, 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:46.280 but I remember liking it a lot more like I 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.240 was still at the point where I was obviously down 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.880 for earnest movies. Yeah, Like I wasn't. No one dragged 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.000 me into an earnest movie kicking and screaming. But then 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:56.760 I was like, oh man, I could tell, like this 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.000 is hitting harder than I had. I think these things 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:02.800 were like taking kids, turning them into wood. I recall 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.480 is that. I think that's right. That's one we may 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.160 come back to in the future. Let's see. They also 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:12.000 worked on ninety two's Critters, four ninety seven's Turbo, a 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.720 Power Rangers movie. They did some work in two thousand 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:18.880 and three's Elf Team America World Police in two thousand 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.960 and four, and they even had their hands in twenty 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.080 twenty one's Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, which is 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.120 a very delightful film. I saw that one in the 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:31.280 theater with my kid. They also did makeup on the 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:35.040 Monsters Horror anthology series from eighty eight through ninety, which 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:39.400 did indeed have some tremendous monster makeup effects. And like 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.000 I said earlier, they've done stop motion segments on The 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.080 Simpsons as well. They've remained very active in film and TV, 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:47.160 but again have yet to truly follow up on the 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:50.880 Killer Clowns from Outer Space with a sequel or spiritual successor. 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.040 Okay, wait a minute, I'm going to revise my earlier 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:58.480 recommendation of Killer Clowns versus critters. What about Killer Clowns 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.320 versus the Power Rangers. That's already there a skill set. 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:04.679 I could see that matchup maybe working. 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.119 Yeah, you know magic wand to make my clown grow. 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:10.800 Yeah, yeah, I mean we do get a giant clown. 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:12.399 That's the kind of thing that could battle a giant 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:16.840 robot for sure. We could do get into to Kaiju territory. 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:22.359 So Stephen Kyoto has claimed that the initial inspiration for 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:24.840 the series occurred when he was driving on a mountain 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.119 road and looked over and saw a clown driving next 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.320 to him. A clown where there shouldn't be a clown 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:33.800 sounds horrifying to me. It sounds like it, and I 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.720 think we get a sense of that in the film. 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:38.679 There's actually a scene in the movie that seems to 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.399 allude to this encounter, perhaps an encounter from another world. 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.680 They also cite strong influences from fifties and sixties sci 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:49.639 fi horror monster movies, which totally makes sense Mad Magazine, 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:51.600 which lines up with what I already said, as well 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:56.359 as Looney Tunes, which is perfectly believable, and they've stressed 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.679 in interviews that it was also an essential ingredient, ingredient 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.080 that the actors treat the threat itself, the threat of 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:07.760 the killer clowns, as absolutely serious and threatening, despite the 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:12.440 heavy comic veneer to everything. So again, I think that's 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:14.680 what the sense I get is that that's absolutely key 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.119 to this movie working, is that the clowns are legitimately 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:23.680 funny but also grotesque, and also there's a strong sense 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:25.760 of life and death here, like they are frightening. 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.600 Yeah, that's right, especially I think in the scenes where 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:32.679 they're like menacing children, and stuff that's like, those are 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:37.280 the least funny and the most actually threatening. I think, 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.320 fortunately though, the movie is kind of gentle in that regard, 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.880 and that we never actually see a child harmed, you know, 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:47.160 that always gets averted somehow. But the threat is kind 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:55.359 of looming, and that emphasizes the less funny aspects. 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.480 Let's get into the cast here a bit, all right. 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.840 Starting at the top, we have the character Mike Tobacco, 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:11.280 presumably a realistic name, played by Grant Kramer born in 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:12.240 nineteen sixty one. 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:14.800 This is one of our main two guys in the film. 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:16.920 Mike and Dave are the main two guys, and the 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.400 main lady in the film is Debbie. But Mike here 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:21.600 is a He's a real cut up. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:26.320 Yeah, and it's a mixed bag. It's the character is 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:30.359 full of terrible dated jokes. For the most part. I 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:32.600 think we're supposed to like him more than I found 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.120 myself liking him. I never hated him. I was never 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.199 like the clowns can't kill this guy fast enough. But 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:41.119 I don't think I liked him as much as I 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:41.720 was supposed to. 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.320 Yeah, exactly how we're supposed to receive him was a 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:48.840 little difficult for me to read. I found myself thinking 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:53.000 that that, essentially Debbie's other boyfriend, Dave, was the more 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:54.760 likable of the two characters. 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:57.280 Yeah. Absolutely, It's like, come on, Debbie, you can do 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:01.119 better than this guy, and he's right here. Why aren't 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.880 you with Officer Dave? But anyway, none of this is 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.719 Grant Kramer's fault. I'm perfectly fine here he was. His 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.120 first film credit was nineteen eighties New Year's Evil, followed 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:14.840 by the nineteen eighty four sex comedy Hard Bodies, and 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.119 his subsequent credits are a bit scattered, and he produced 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.280 a number of projects as well. He reprised his role 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.920 as a vocal talent in that recent Killer Clowns video. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:29.320 Okay, okay, I probably dare not go watch the nineteen 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.480 eighty four sex comedy Hard Bodies, but I'm curious about 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:35.080 it because it shares a name with the gym in 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:40.000 burn After reading oh yeah, I remember that Richard Jenkins 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.760 repeatedly just talking about their workplace by name, saying like, 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.040 we can't have this material here at Hard Bodies. 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.320 All right, Well, we mentioned Debbie already. Debbie Stone is 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:55.280 played by Suzanne Snyder born nineteen sixty two American actress 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:59.199 with some great genre film credentials. She has an uncredited 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.240 cheerleader role in nineteen eighty four as the Last Starfighter, 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.359 which we've talked about on the show. She's in eighty 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:10.240 five's Weird Science, eighty six's Night of the Creeps, Oh yeah, yeah, 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.920 and also nineteen eighty eight Return of the Living Dead 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:16.560 two and then this Glorious Picture. 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:19.240 You know, I love the original Return of the Living Dead, 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:21.680 but I've never watched the sequel. I've heard it's kind 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:22.560 of looney tunes. 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:27.640 Yeah, they're on. They're definitely the sequels that I'm familiar with, 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.040 mostly by box art. I know, the Return of the 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:33.560 Living Dead two has you know, kind of cool box art, 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.400 and then Living Dead Three's big selling point, I think 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:40.520 is Sexy Zombie. That's the one that I like. Sexy 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:43.760 Zombie is in the forefront, but I never actually watched 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:48.880 it anyway, Snyder. She had a number of subsequent TV 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:51.360 roles that included appearances on In the Heat of the Night, 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.919 Jake and the Fat Man, Seinfeld, and Homicide Life on 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:57.520 the Street, and she also reprised her role as a 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.000 vocal talent in The Killer Clams from Outer Space. 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:03.680 Okay, she's great in this. She brings a very good, 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:09.960 straight delivery of dialogue that is funny. Yeah, like not, 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:13.080 she's not hamming it up in a way that is good. 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:17.159 Absolutely. Yeah, as we'll discuss, she spends a lot of 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:22.040 screen time taking a shower. But you know, we'll break 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:23.919 that down when we get into the plug. All right, 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:27.280 let's talk about Officer Dave Hanson, then played by John 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:30.320 Allen Nelson born nineteen fifty nine. Yeah, this character is 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:35.119 Debbie's ex boyfriend and current local cop. Nelson's TV credits 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:38.200 go back to nineteen eighty three, but I believe nineteen 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:41.160 eighty nine he starred in Death Stalker and the Warriors 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.159 from Hell. This is a barbarian movie. He is the 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:48.320 lead in it. This one I think has been riffed before. 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:51.840 A lot of regular mainstream, mainstream TV work from this 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:54.440 guy followed. But he also pops up in two thousand 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:55.880 and nine's Feast three. 0:22:56.600 --> 0:22:59.639 I might have seen that Death Stalker movie or maybe not, 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:02.760 don't recall, but he I don't know. This guy doesn't 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:04.159 read barbarian to me. 0:23:04.600 --> 0:23:07.840 Well, no, you have two different basic types of barbarian. 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:10.439 You have the muscle bound Barbarian, and then you have 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:13.680 your leaner Barbarian Oka, and I think death Stalker tends 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:16.920 to be your leaner of Barbarian in different installments. More 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:20.360 of the rogue than the fighter, yeah, or is more finesse, 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.159 you know, he's putting more into decks than strength. 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:26.080 Right, Okay. I would say the same thing about a 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:27.960 Nelson here that I would say about Snyder in the 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:30.560 role of Debbie. Both of them do a great job 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:34.880 of straight delivery of funny dialogue that if they'd been 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:37.040 winking a little bit more wouldn't have been as good. 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:42.720 Right, Okay. Now let's get to the main human antagonist 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:46.720 of the picture, and that is Officer Curtis Mooney, played 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:49.800 by the great John Vernon who lived nineteen thirty two 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:52.399 through two thousand and five. Yes, it is the Dean 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:54.960 from nineteen seventy eight's Animal House. 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:57.880 Oh boy, the guy who puts them on double secret probation. 0:23:58.160 --> 0:23:58.400 Yes. 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:01.560 Yeah, and he's playing a sin actually the same character here, 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:03.359 but as a cop like with a gun. 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:09.399 Yeah. I mean Vernon really found a later career niche 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:13.080 for himself as you know, no nonsense, hard ass like. 0:24:13.480 --> 0:24:15.600 More than that, I would say that's being too generous, 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:17.200 like a lot of the characters he played are just 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:18.520 outright malicious. 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:20.480 A guy who hates the youth. 0:24:20.760 --> 0:24:23.120 He hates the youth, and he's going to do everything 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:27.240 within his powers given to him by his position or 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:30.280 his job to go after them and also maybe go 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:32.520 a little more as well, a little harder. 0:24:33.000 --> 0:24:36.439 This is the character archetype that is I think hilariously 0:24:36.480 --> 0:24:39.240 parodied in the Simpsons episode where Homer goes back to 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:41.320 college because the dean is super cool. 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:47.320 Yes, yeah, yeah, there's also a Futurama episode that parodies 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:51.280 this where Bender it goes to college and yeah, it's 0:24:51.359 --> 0:24:54.240 become such a staple, but it, you know, it all 0:24:54.400 --> 0:24:57.200 really begins with John Vernon's performance in that film, and 0:24:57.240 --> 0:24:59.879 again he plays a similar sort of character here, just 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:03.880 you know, a hard ass that hates everybody. The talented actor. 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:06.800 The Canadian actor with filming TV credits going back to 0:25:06.800 --> 0:25:10.520 the fifties, and his pre Animal House credits include some 0:25:10.640 --> 0:25:14.360 voice work for Marvel animated series in the nineteen sixties. 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:19.679 He voiced iron Man and would later do some Marvel 0:25:20.000 --> 0:25:23.880 voices on much later animated series. He debuted on Broadway 0:25:23.960 --> 0:25:26.639 in sixty four. He starred in the Canadian crime series 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:29.520 Wojiic from sixty six to sixty eight, which I've never 0:25:29.560 --> 0:25:33.080 seen but I'm to understand was like, you know, highly 0:25:33.080 --> 0:25:35.920 thought of at the time. It was like a new 0:25:36.040 --> 0:25:40.920 sensation on Canadian television. He soon crossed over into American 0:25:40.960 --> 0:25:45.080 film with roles in Hitchcock's Topaz in sixty nine, Dirty 0:25:45.119 --> 0:25:48.200 Harry in seventy one, he plays the mayor he pops 0:25:48.240 --> 0:25:51.159 up in seventy six is the outlaw Josie Wales. He 0:25:51.240 --> 0:25:55.000 followed up on Animal House with its thirteen episode TV spinoff, 0:25:55.080 --> 0:25:56.200 Delta House. Oh. 0:25:57.840 --> 0:26:00.280 I haven't seen it, but I don't have high hopes. 0:26:00.800 --> 0:26:04.400 Other credits include nineteen eighties Herbie Goes Bananas, eighty two's 0:26:04.440 --> 0:26:08.359 Airplane two, the eighty three horror movie Curtains. Oh, and 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:11.880 he's also in an Earnest movie nineteen eighty seven's Earnest 0:26:12.000 --> 0:26:14.479 Goes to Camp. I think that might have been the 0:26:14.480 --> 0:26:17.240 first full fledged Earnest movie. That's one I definitely saw. 0:26:18.359 --> 0:26:19.600 I don't think I saw that one. 0:26:20.440 --> 0:26:24.160 He's also in eighty seven's Blue Monkey. Let's See. There's 0:26:24.160 --> 0:26:27.200 a nineteen seventy seven killer cat movie called The Uncanny, 0:26:27.280 --> 0:26:30.439 and he's also in the nineteen seventy four provocative surrealist 0:26:30.440 --> 0:26:31.639 comedy sweet movie. 0:26:32.240 --> 0:26:34.880 I just had to look up The Uncanny to see Wait, 0:26:34.960 --> 0:26:37.880 have I seen this? I honestly don't recall. 0:26:38.840 --> 0:26:41.200 Yeah, it's not one that I think I'm familiar with. 0:26:41.520 --> 0:26:44.840 I think it's like a it's an anthology film, right 0:26:44.920 --> 0:26:46.879 that has a cat as the villain. 0:26:48.560 --> 0:26:50.840 Yep, yep, seems to be the case. Yeah, we have 0:26:51.280 --> 0:26:54.120 different times, you know this might did I maybe maybe 0:26:54.119 --> 0:26:57.359 I did watch part of this. Yeah. Yeah, it's because 0:26:57.600 --> 0:26:59.919 very familiar because we do. We have Peter Cushing and 0:27:00.080 --> 0:27:02.200 in at least one segment. 0:27:01.880 --> 0:27:04.280 Maybe Donald Pleasance and Raymonland. 0:27:04.800 --> 0:27:07.520 You know, I think maybe I did watch one of 0:27:07.800 --> 0:27:11.720 We did watch one segment from this for one of 0:27:11.760 --> 0:27:14.679 our horror episodes in the past. I think we are 0:27:14.760 --> 0:27:16.359 horror anthology series. Yeah. 0:27:16.480 --> 0:27:20.240 It's got Samantha Eggar too. Yeah, I think we've seen this. 0:27:20.600 --> 0:27:25.000 Yeah. Yeah. The segment that Vernon is in is Hollywood 0:27:25.080 --> 0:27:28.320 nineteen thirty six. This is the segment that has Samantha Eggar, 0:27:28.520 --> 0:27:30.760 Donald Pleasance and John Vernon. 0:27:31.359 --> 0:27:33.560 It's maddening when I get into the state where I 0:27:33.600 --> 0:27:35.640 can't remember if I've seen a film, but I really 0:27:35.680 --> 0:27:37.200 think I have. And now I've got to go back 0:27:37.200 --> 0:27:39.520 and watch it to figure out if I've already watched it. 0:27:41.480 --> 0:27:44.199 I mean, I don't remember for sure, but there's no 0:27:44.320 --> 0:27:46.800 way that John Vernon gets out of this movie without 0:27:46.840 --> 0:27:48.040 being eaten by a cat. Right. 0:27:48.080 --> 0:27:51.480 Oh he's got yeah, yeah, chump chump fancy feast. 0:27:52.119 --> 0:27:55.480 So anyway, yeah, terrific character actor, great at this sort 0:27:55.520 --> 0:27:58.679 of role and is tremendous sin killer clowns from outer space. 0:27:59.119 --> 0:28:02.000 All right. We have the Trensey brothers as characters in 0:28:02.040 --> 0:28:07.640 this There are comic relief characters. I would say they 0:28:07.720 --> 0:28:11.639 only hold up as limitedly funny. I had to chuckle 0:28:11.640 --> 0:28:14.239 at maybe one or two things that they do. And 0:28:14.280 --> 0:28:18.399 they are played by the comedy team Siegel and Lakassi. 0:28:19.320 --> 0:28:22.040 This was an actual comedy duo of the time. That's 0:28:22.400 --> 0:28:25.359 Peter Lcassi, who lived nineteen fifty nine through twenty twenty, 0:28:25.600 --> 0:28:30.480 and then Michael S. Siegel. Michael S. Siegel I think 0:28:30.640 --> 0:28:32.879 ultimately went on to do more things. He got involved 0:28:32.920 --> 0:28:35.240 in the UK film and Theater project when he moved 0:28:35.280 --> 0:28:37.400 in projects when he moved over there, and he's done 0:28:37.440 --> 0:28:40.520 some video game voice acting, including the recent RoboCop Rogue 0:28:40.520 --> 0:28:41.040 City Game. 0:28:42.160 --> 0:28:45.800 These guys occupy a strange niche in that they are 0:28:45.040 --> 0:28:49.480 the character archetypes who would normally be the comic relief 0:28:49.640 --> 0:28:52.959 in an otherwise not funny film. But this is a 0:28:53.000 --> 0:28:57.239 funny film, and I found their comedy bits some of 0:28:57.280 --> 0:29:01.280 the most failed attempts to be funny in this otherwise 0:29:01.320 --> 0:29:02.040 funny film. 0:29:02.320 --> 0:29:07.160 Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, the trends, Yeah, the times they succeed 0:29:07.200 --> 0:29:11.240 in being humorous, for my money anyway, are just smaller 0:29:11.280 --> 0:29:13.880 moments and not like the hard gag moments they're going 0:29:13.920 --> 0:29:14.640 for with these two. 0:29:15.000 --> 0:29:15.680 Yeah. 0:29:15.880 --> 0:29:18.479 All right, one more actor we're gonna mention here, and 0:29:18.560 --> 0:29:21.920 that is Royal Dano, who lived nineteen twenty two through 0:29:21.960 --> 0:29:26.520 nineteen ninety four playing the character farmer Jane Green Curricie 0:29:26.560 --> 0:29:30.000 American character actor with credits going back to nineteen forty three. 0:29:30.600 --> 0:29:33.640 His credits include nineteen fifty six Is Moby Dick, in 0:29:33.680 --> 0:29:36.800 which he plays the prophetic Elijah. This is the character 0:29:36.840 --> 0:29:40.960 that like warns our central characters that they are doomed 0:29:41.160 --> 0:29:42.400 if they go on the. 0:29:42.400 --> 0:29:44.680 Ship oh before they get on the pequad. 0:29:44.800 --> 0:29:48.400 Yeah. Yeah, let's see. He's in a seventy two TV 0:29:48.560 --> 0:29:51.320 movie titled Moon of the Wolf. He's in seventy fours, 0:29:51.360 --> 0:29:55.040 Messiah of Evil, seventy six is the outlaw Josie Wales, 0:29:55.120 --> 0:29:58.480 eighty three's Something Wicked, This Way Comes eighty three is 0:29:58.480 --> 0:30:03.760 the Right Stuff to eighty seven's Goolies two, nineteen ninety 0:30:03.840 --> 0:30:06.440 Spaced Invaders, and nineteen ninety three's. 0:30:06.200 --> 0:30:06.920 The Dark Half. 0:30:07.480 --> 0:30:10.240 He also has a slew of TV credits, including one 0:30:10.280 --> 0:30:14.520 episode of Night Gallery. You know, clearly a talented actor 0:30:15.000 --> 0:30:18.760 with a great folksy vibe, and he just goes ahead 0:30:18.800 --> 0:30:20.800 and just hams it up all the way here, just 0:30:21.200 --> 0:30:25.600 absolutely amped up to eleven. This is a fun little role. 0:30:25.920 --> 0:30:29.120 Spaced Invaders is a film that I loved when I 0:30:29.240 --> 0:30:31.080 was a kid. I think I rented it from the 0:30:31.160 --> 0:30:34.080 video store and I ended up watching it many times. 0:30:34.800 --> 0:30:38.680 Also a comedy science fiction film with some you know, 0:30:38.840 --> 0:30:42.920 zany Martians who come to Earth by accident and they 0:30:43.400 --> 0:30:46.080 end up running around on Halloween night. Everybody thinks that 0:30:46.120 --> 0:30:48.720 their kids in costumes while they're trying to take over 0:30:48.760 --> 0:30:51.640 the world. Haven't seen it many years. Probably doesn't hold 0:30:51.720 --> 0:30:53.520 up very well, but I loved it when I was 0:30:53.560 --> 0:30:57.360 a kid. And this guy plays the exact same character 0:30:57.480 --> 0:30:59.440 in that movie that he does in this one. 0:31:00.120 --> 0:31:00.320 Wow. 0:31:00.400 --> 0:31:02.480 And they're so close together too, it's like it's almost 0:31:02.480 --> 0:31:05.120 too close together for it to have for that to 0:31:05.160 --> 0:31:09.080 have been influenced by this. I don't know. Yeah, but 0:31:09.280 --> 0:31:11.120 the character that he plays is kind of like it's 0:31:11.320 --> 0:31:14.000 basically the trope that you see in the Blob. He's 0:31:14.480 --> 0:31:17.280 like the good natured, folksy guy who just happens to 0:31:17.400 --> 0:31:19.160 run a foul of the alien menace. 0:31:19.320 --> 0:31:23.400 Yeah, tar Nation. He's a farmer who's you know, a 0:31:23.480 --> 0:31:26.000 meteor has landed on his property and now he's going 0:31:26.040 --> 0:31:26.600 to be rich. 0:31:27.040 --> 0:31:30.800 Yeah all right. And then finally the music. The music's 0:31:31.040 --> 0:31:35.000 really fun here. The composer is John Massari born nineteen 0:31:35.040 --> 0:31:37.120 fifty seven. He worked a lot in TV and film 0:31:37.160 --> 0:31:40.920 over the years. Also scored the Lorenzo Lama Snake Eater movies. 0:31:41.400 --> 0:31:43.600 And I would say the general vibe for Killer Clowns 0:31:43.600 --> 0:31:47.360 from Outer Space is John Carpenter esque synth that is 0:31:47.480 --> 0:31:51.400 occasionally like quite suspenseful and very John Carpentry. But then 0:31:51.440 --> 0:31:54.320 you also have plenty of circus music whimsy sprinkled in 0:31:54.320 --> 0:31:54.920 there as well. 0:31:55.440 --> 0:31:57.640 Yeah that's all right. But then also, of course a 0:31:57.720 --> 0:32:01.360 major musical texture here is the rock music from the 0:32:01.440 --> 0:32:03.840 from the Dickies, because right at the beginning of the 0:32:03.840 --> 0:32:07.320 movie we get that opening theme song, which, if you 0:32:07.400 --> 0:32:10.120 did not already know, this is one of those movies 0:32:10.280 --> 0:32:14.000 like the Flash Gordon film that is not a musical 0:32:14.280 --> 0:32:18.400 but does have an original rock theme song that says 0:32:18.440 --> 0:32:21.760 the title of the movie in the lyrics and describes 0:32:21.800 --> 0:32:23.040 the plot in the lyrics. 0:32:23.680 --> 0:32:27.120 That's right, Yeah, Killer Clowns from Outer Space performed by 0:32:27.240 --> 0:32:29.760 the Dickies. Not a band I was super familiar with, 0:32:29.800 --> 0:32:31.640 but they've they've been around for a long time and 0:32:31.640 --> 0:32:35.400 they seem to have a strong following American pop punk 0:32:35.520 --> 0:32:37.640 band or I guess you'd just call him a punk band, 0:32:37.680 --> 0:32:40.680 but I've also seen pomp pop punk or humor punk 0:32:40.760 --> 0:32:45.320 thrown in there. Active still today, based out of la 0:32:45.600 --> 0:32:49.280 headed up by vocalist Leonard Graves Phillips, who also has 0:32:49.320 --> 0:32:53.440 writing production credit on this song. And it's also worth 0:32:53.480 --> 0:32:57.480 pointing out that noted film composer and frequent Steven Soderberg 0:32:57.600 --> 0:33:02.080 and Nicholas wending Refin collaborator Cliff Martinez was their drummer 0:33:02.120 --> 0:33:05.920 at the time, and and so presumably listening to the 0:33:05.960 --> 0:33:08.400 coiler Clowns from out of Space, we're hearing Cliff Martinez 0:33:08.440 --> 0:33:09.080 on drums. 0:33:09.760 --> 0:33:10.400 Yeah, I think so. 0:33:10.840 --> 0:33:14.160 Yeah. The same year he would have composed the score 0:33:14.240 --> 0:33:18.880 for Soderberg's Sex Lives and Videotapes, So an interesting little 0:33:18.880 --> 0:33:22.520 bit of film score trivia there. But the song the 0:33:22.560 --> 0:33:24.760 color Clowns from Out of Space was released the same 0:33:24.840 --> 0:33:28.040 year on an EP from The Dickies with the same title. 0:33:28.360 --> 0:33:31.800 That EP also includes a pretty amazing cover. It's a 0:33:31.840 --> 0:33:36.240 cover of a song originally from The Jetsons The Hannah 0:33:36.240 --> 0:33:40.520 barbera cartoon that's played on the show The Jetsons by 0:33:40.640 --> 0:33:46.560 an in show like teen Idol named I think Screaming 0:33:46.840 --> 0:33:50.800 Jet or Jet Screamer or something like that, and the 0:33:50.840 --> 0:33:55.959 song is called eepop orc u Ah, it's eepop orc 0:33:56.080 --> 0:33:59.160 I Love you, and the Dickies cover is excellent. 0:33:59.240 --> 0:34:01.640 I think yeah, this song is really fun. I mean 0:34:02.400 --> 0:34:05.000 it should be noted, as with the score, there's enough 0:34:05.000 --> 0:34:08.040 circus music in there that it is going to maybe 0:34:08.080 --> 0:34:09.759 annoy you a bit. I mean, that's the thing about 0:34:09.800 --> 0:34:13.480 circus music. But it's a really fun track. Some of 0:34:13.480 --> 0:34:16.040 the lyrics include the likes of everybody's running when the 0:34:16.040 --> 0:34:19.759 circus comes into their towns. Everybody's gunning for the likes 0:34:19.760 --> 0:34:22.839 of the Killer Clowns or this one's really this one 0:34:22.880 --> 0:34:25.279 gets a bit hard here see a rubber nose on 0:34:25.320 --> 0:34:29.640 a painted face bringing genocide to the human race. Yeah, 0:34:30.160 --> 0:34:34.239 it's almost getting into almost like Misfits territory with the 0:34:34.320 --> 0:34:35.239 lyrics on that one. 0:34:35.400 --> 0:34:37.080 Yeah yeah, Oh it reminds me of the lyrics of 0:34:37.120 --> 0:34:38.000 Astro Zombies. 0:34:38.160 --> 0:34:47.120 Yeah yeah. 0:34:47.160 --> 0:34:49.440 So the main Killer Clowns song plays while we get 0:34:49.440 --> 0:34:53.080 a montage of nightlife in the movies setting, which is 0:34:53.160 --> 0:34:57.799 this California town called Crescent Cove. So we see teenagers 0:34:57.840 --> 0:35:01.440 hanging out a circus themed restaurant called Big Top Burger. 0:35:02.360 --> 0:35:06.239 The youth are surveyed with evident disgust here by a 0:35:06.280 --> 0:35:09.719 cop named Officer Mooney. This is again the character played 0:35:09.719 --> 0:35:14.000 by John Vernon. Mooney's just looking around at these kids, 0:35:14.000 --> 0:35:16.640 and he would clearly love to arrest all of these 0:35:16.719 --> 0:35:19.880 long hairs, but he is outnumbered, so he gets his 0:35:19.920 --> 0:35:22.400 coffee and he drives off in his squad car, looking 0:35:22.680 --> 0:35:26.399 frustrated and fuming. Next thing we see is a young 0:35:26.440 --> 0:35:29.799 guy with blonde hair and glasses carrying some groceries on 0:35:29.840 --> 0:35:33.160 the sidewalk. He's drinking a beer in a can. That's 0:35:33.200 --> 0:35:37.000 just labeled beer in all caps with nothing else, and 0:35:37.040 --> 0:35:39.439 he sort of hides his open container as he goes 0:35:39.480 --> 0:35:43.360 through a crosswalk in front of Mooney's car, and Mooney grumbles, 0:35:43.400 --> 0:35:46.080 it's just like looking at this kid makes him furious, 0:35:46.160 --> 0:35:48.200 but then he moves on. This guy, by the way, 0:35:48.280 --> 0:35:51.520 is a minor character named Bob, played by Christopher Titus, 0:35:52.160 --> 0:35:55.040 and after they go their separate ways, Bob says, cops, 0:35:57.160 --> 0:36:00.640 but next we're going to check in at the local lane. 0:36:00.680 --> 0:36:04.720 It's makeout point. So all the youths here are parking, 0:36:04.880 --> 0:36:08.560 listening to the radio, drinking beer, stargazing and smoochin. 0:36:09.040 --> 0:36:10.759 Yeah. And it's one of those movies where I think 0:36:10.760 --> 0:36:13.480 they're all clearly well into their late twenties. Yes. 0:36:13.960 --> 0:36:15.920 And in the scene we meet a lot of the 0:36:15.960 --> 0:36:19.359 young characters who at first I was assuming we would 0:36:19.400 --> 0:36:21.920 follow many of these characters for the rest of the film, 0:36:21.960 --> 0:36:26.759 but no, mainly just our primary two characters here, Mike 0:36:26.920 --> 0:36:31.480 Tobacco and Debbie Stone. They're going steady. They're hanging out 0:36:31.480 --> 0:36:34.239 in their car. They are drinking, but while everybody else 0:36:34.239 --> 0:36:37.120 here is drinking beer, for some reason, they're having champagne. 0:36:37.280 --> 0:36:40.960 I don't know if here's a question did you read 0:36:41.360 --> 0:36:45.279 Mike as like a rich or preppy guy. He's sort 0:36:45.280 --> 0:36:48.520 of dressed in a preppy way. He's got this sweater 0:36:48.640 --> 0:36:52.160 on with a collared shirt underneath, and he's they're drinking 0:36:52.280 --> 0:36:56.239 champagne while everybody else is not. Is that what we're 0:36:56.280 --> 0:36:57.879 supposed to take from this? Oh? 0:36:57.920 --> 0:37:00.720 I had not put that together till just now. Maybe 0:37:00.719 --> 0:37:03.799 that's what they were going for, But yeah, I don't 0:37:03.800 --> 0:37:06.239 know his character. Yeah, about the only thing I really 0:37:06.239 --> 0:37:07.960 get out of it is that, yeah, he is a 0:37:08.040 --> 0:37:12.279 cut up, and he also is kind of he's a 0:37:12.320 --> 0:37:16.200 cool kid, but he's also still friends with the weird kids. Yeah, 0:37:16.239 --> 0:37:19.080 so he's a transitional character in that recard. 0:37:18.840 --> 0:37:21.640 That's right. Yeah. And then of course Debbie we meet 0:37:21.640 --> 0:37:24.760 in the scene, is depicted as very earnest and good hearted. 0:37:24.840 --> 0:37:29.080 She's got that final girl energy. We also in the 0:37:29.080 --> 0:37:32.319 scene meet the Trensey brothers, Paul and Rich, who are 0:37:32.440 --> 0:37:37.040 friends of Mike's from school. These are zany low level 0:37:37.120 --> 0:37:40.719 hustlers who make money running an ice cream truck, and 0:37:40.800 --> 0:37:43.759 their truck has a giant clown head on top called 0:37:43.880 --> 0:37:47.680 Jojo the ice Cream Clown. So when these brothers show up, 0:37:47.719 --> 0:37:51.000 they cause a major ruckus at the lover's lane by 0:37:51.080 --> 0:37:53.359 pulling up in their truck and yelling at everybody through 0:37:53.400 --> 0:37:57.040 their loud speaker. Their ice cream slogans have a lot 0:37:57.040 --> 0:38:00.640 of vulgar double on tundra based around the concept licking, 0:38:01.200 --> 0:38:04.160 and they also try to upsell the frozen treats by 0:38:04.560 --> 0:38:06.840 There's one who's doing his routine in the microphone and 0:38:06.880 --> 0:38:09.920 he keeps humping the air while he's listing the ice creams. 0:38:10.239 --> 0:38:13.120 Yeah. Their entire business model seems to revolve around selling 0:38:13.160 --> 0:38:17.200 ice cream at night and put and setting their sights 0:38:17.239 --> 0:38:21.200 on the local makeout places like where the prime business 0:38:21.280 --> 0:38:23.000 is going to be for buying a bunch of fudge, 0:38:23.000 --> 0:38:24.399 sickles and stuff. Yeah. 0:38:24.520 --> 0:38:28.320 Yeah, the Tranzi brothers are After this, they are driven 0:38:28.360 --> 0:38:31.480 away from the car park area after being brutally heckled 0:38:31.520 --> 0:38:35.799 and pelted with beer cans and other trash. They're not popular, no, 0:38:36.960 --> 0:38:40.960 But then after watching all this happen, Mike tells Debbie, 0:38:41.000 --> 0:38:43.080 whenever I want to have a good time, I call 0:38:43.200 --> 0:38:45.840 Rich and Paul. A night out with those guys is 0:38:45.880 --> 0:38:47.120 a total adventure. 0:38:49.560 --> 0:38:52.480 What I mean, he just knows them. That's I guess 0:38:52.480 --> 0:38:54.000 all we really need to take away from this. 0:38:54.600 --> 0:38:56.319 But if we don't get the sense that there's that 0:38:56.400 --> 0:38:59.640 much adventurous about them, I don't know. Maybe it depends 0:38:59.640 --> 0:39:01.520 on what you call an adventure. They just seem like 0:39:01.560 --> 0:39:03.960 guys who were always trying to work some sort of scam. 0:39:04.120 --> 0:39:08.120 Yeah, they're making poor choices. Yeah, like did they did 0:39:08.160 --> 0:39:10.239 they run the ice cream truck truck during the day? 0:39:10.800 --> 0:39:13.040 Like or are they? Is it maybe some sort of 0:39:13.040 --> 0:39:14.839 weird scam where they're like, we know a guy who 0:39:14.880 --> 0:39:16.920 runs an ice cream truck, but he doesn't run it 0:39:16.960 --> 0:39:19.360 at night. We could rent it from him and sell 0:39:19.400 --> 0:39:23.799 ice cream to teenagers and college students at night, and yeah, 0:39:23.920 --> 0:39:26.160 thinking that's a great idea, that would make sense. 0:39:26.280 --> 0:39:28.319 Wait, I think later that they do say the ice 0:39:28.400 --> 0:39:30.200 cream truck is rented, right, Oh. 0:39:30.040 --> 0:39:32.200 Well they do, that's right, that's right. So maybe that's 0:39:32.200 --> 0:39:34.320 what's going on. They can only use it at night. 0:39:34.280 --> 0:39:36.399 Because they say, you know, like use the ice cream 0:39:36.440 --> 0:39:38.960 truck to ram the killer cloud and they're like, you, 0:39:39.239 --> 0:39:43.760 I can't. It's a rental anyway. So Mike and Debbie 0:39:43.840 --> 0:39:45.920 lie out in the back of their car looking at 0:39:45.920 --> 0:39:49.720 the stars when suddenly a huge bright object streaks across 0:39:49.760 --> 0:39:52.600 the night sky. What was that? Was it a comet? 0:39:53.160 --> 0:39:55.719 Debbie wants to go see where it landed, and Mike 0:39:55.840 --> 0:39:58.400 takes some convincing but she talks him into it. We 0:39:58.440 --> 0:40:01.719 also cut to somewhere else nearby, on a farm where 0:40:01.719 --> 0:40:05.080 an old codure this is Jean Green played by Royal Dano, 0:40:05.560 --> 0:40:08.120 is sitting out on his porch with his bloodhound Pooh, 0:40:08.680 --> 0:40:12.080 and he watches the light pass right overhead. And this 0:40:12.080 --> 0:40:16.560 guy is full of oddball rural colloquialism. See He's like, well, 0:40:16.640 --> 0:40:19.800 I'll be hornswoggle. Do you see that there? Sky Guppy 0:40:19.920 --> 0:40:24.360 is up one by sky Guppy? Is that a saying? 0:40:24.640 --> 0:40:26.680 I don't know? I mean I trust him? 0:40:27.239 --> 0:40:30.839 So Green determines the object was Haley's comet, and he 0:40:30.920 --> 0:40:34.920 also decides to go find the crash site, reasoning that 0:40:35.080 --> 0:40:38.200 somehow this will make him filthy rich. So he grabs 0:40:38.239 --> 0:40:42.120 his lantern and shovel and he heads out into the woods. However, 0:40:42.400 --> 0:40:45.160 when he comes upon the landing site, it is not 0:40:45.280 --> 0:40:49.760 an impact crater but a circus tint, and he's talking 0:40:49.800 --> 0:40:52.440 to his dog. He says, well, I'll be greased and fried. 0:40:52.560 --> 0:40:56.120 What's the circus doing out here? I love the circus? 0:40:56.200 --> 0:40:58.600 Come on maybe we can get us some free passes. 0:41:00.440 --> 0:41:03.239 Oh man, it's all it's really it's adorable. This guy 0:41:03.280 --> 0:41:06.040 loves circuses so much, but of course he's so dimmed. 0:41:06.120 --> 0:41:08.279 This is this guy's clearly going to get it. 0:41:08.640 --> 0:41:11.720 Yeah, But the scene takes a turn, so the farmer 0:41:11.800 --> 0:41:14.719 goes to investigate the tint and he determines that there 0:41:14.840 --> 0:41:18.440 is something peculiar about the circus. Where's the ticket booth? 0:41:19.080 --> 0:41:22.360 Here we also get our first clown stalking scene, first 0:41:22.400 --> 0:41:24.800 in silhouette through the side of the tent, so the 0:41:24.840 --> 0:41:27.960 guy's creeping along and then there's a there's a clown 0:41:28.000 --> 0:41:30.439 shaped shadow following him, which for a second you could 0:41:30.440 --> 0:41:33.200 mistake as being his shadow, and then he realized like, 0:41:33.280 --> 0:41:36.160 oh no, wait, that's a clown. There's something in here, 0:41:36.239 --> 0:41:38.360 kind of like the Charlie Chaplin mirror gag. 0:41:38.920 --> 0:41:42.560 Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. I love the colors here, and 0:41:42.680 --> 0:41:44.960 I think the film's already doing a great job invoking 0:41:45.000 --> 0:41:50.920 a surrealistic comedic menace in the clowns, and as a 0:41:50.920 --> 0:41:53.239 sidebark here, I think this is one of the things 0:41:53.239 --> 0:41:55.920 the film does just so well. So scary clowns are 0:41:55.960 --> 0:42:00.439 obviously a dime a dozen nowadays, and even at point 0:42:00.440 --> 0:42:02.839 when Killer Consorm outter Space came out, we'd already had 0:42:02.920 --> 0:42:06.160 multiple movies with sinister clowns in them, and Stephen King's 0:42:06.239 --> 0:42:09.640 hit the novel was a fairly recent best seller, and 0:42:09.719 --> 0:42:12.000 you know there would be many more scary clowns to come. 0:42:12.239 --> 0:42:15.120 But the thing about scary clowns in horror is that 0:42:15.480 --> 0:42:19.840 their clownness is very often only skin deep or grease 0:42:19.880 --> 0:42:23.640 paint deep, and underneath we usually get either human cruelty 0:42:24.080 --> 0:42:27.319 or supernatural menace. And I don't wanted to dismiss all 0:42:27.360 --> 0:42:28.600 of that out of hand. You know that can be 0:42:28.640 --> 0:42:31.440 a lot of fun still and be very terrifying. Pennywise, 0:42:31.480 --> 0:42:34.040 the dancing clown is one of the best, and he 0:42:34.120 --> 0:42:36.920 totally fits this mold clown on the outside. But it's 0:42:37.000 --> 0:42:40.640 just an illusion, just a face that's worn by an 0:42:40.640 --> 0:42:41.840 extra dimensional menace. 0:42:42.800 --> 0:42:46.200 Yeah, it was, Pennywise. Obviously, it is a It's a 0:42:46.239 --> 0:42:49.160 way of salting the meat for the creature, right, because 0:42:49.200 --> 0:42:53.000 it is a creature that thrives on fear. He savors 0:42:53.040 --> 0:42:56.800 the fear of his victims, and the clown the guise 0:42:56.920 --> 0:43:00.680 kind of heightens the ambiguity and the tension increases. The 0:43:00.719 --> 0:43:02.279 tension because you don't know what to make of it. 0:43:02.320 --> 0:43:04.319 A clown is supposed to be a funny and non 0:43:04.360 --> 0:43:07.520 threatening thing, but obviously this is one that is causing 0:43:07.560 --> 0:43:12.040 you fear, and that mismatch actually makes him more frightening. 0:43:12.480 --> 0:43:14.480 Right, But there will come a point where it's like 0:43:14.960 --> 0:43:19.200 the mask is drawn away, yeah, and the monsters revealed 0:43:19.760 --> 0:43:22.240 and the cloudness is gone. But I think there's something 0:43:22.280 --> 0:43:25.040 admirable where in a case like this movie where the 0:43:25.080 --> 0:43:28.520 clownness goes absolutely all the way to the bone. I'd 0:43:28.560 --> 0:43:31.520 venture to guess that maybe some incarnations of the Joker 0:43:31.680 --> 0:43:34.680 in comic books land in this area, but Killer Clowns 0:43:34.680 --> 0:43:37.239 from Outer Space definitely does. At no point is the 0:43:37.280 --> 0:43:41.320 mask of the clown removed to reveal some horror beneath. Again, 0:43:41.400 --> 0:43:44.680 they do not become clowns. They are clowns. Clowns are 0:43:44.680 --> 0:43:48.120 a species in this movie. They don't paint themselves to 0:43:48.160 --> 0:43:52.000 become what they're presented as. Like everything that they do 0:43:52.200 --> 0:43:56.520 on a biological or civilizational level is clowning. 0:43:58.800 --> 0:44:02.280 I think that's right. Yeah, yeah, So in this scene, 0:44:03.000 --> 0:44:05.120 you know, you're right, we do get our first tastes 0:44:05.160 --> 0:44:07.840 of that. So the farmer's dog disappears. I think a 0:44:07.880 --> 0:44:10.080 hole appears in the side of the circus tent and 0:44:10.160 --> 0:44:14.880 a big net comes out. And then the farmer turns 0:44:14.880 --> 0:44:17.640 around and his dog's gone, And this part's actually kind 0:44:17.680 --> 0:44:21.759 of sad, you know, But anyway, he gets enraged and 0:44:21.800 --> 0:44:24.359 he starts shouting at the tent that he will tear 0:44:24.400 --> 0:44:27.640 it apart with his bare hands. But then when he 0:44:27.680 --> 0:44:30.600 grabs one of the ropes surrounding the tent, it sends 0:44:30.600 --> 0:44:34.440 a huge jolt of electricity through him, and he says, like, 0:44:34.520 --> 0:44:38.080 holy smokes, this thing is wired. And then uh oh, 0:44:38.120 --> 0:44:41.560 here comes our first full view of one of the 0:44:41.600 --> 0:44:46.560 movie's clowns. How can we describe the look? Generally, the 0:44:46.600 --> 0:44:50.839 different clowns have somewhat different features, but they are basically 0:44:51.080 --> 0:44:56.000 humanoid in shape, but with distorted features and proportions, generally 0:44:56.040 --> 0:44:59.600 somewhat larger than a human but not much larger, or 0:45:00.160 --> 0:45:03.200 have some parts of their body with larger than normal 0:45:03.239 --> 0:45:06.320 proportions to the others, like a big head, big face, 0:45:06.480 --> 0:45:07.840 big hands, and feet. 0:45:08.600 --> 0:45:13.719 Yeah, like kind of like like a grotesque version of 0:45:13.760 --> 0:45:17.040 like an old man's features underneath, but also like a 0:45:17.120 --> 0:45:22.560 troll or an ogre's features. Yeah, you know, everything very exaggerated. 0:45:22.520 --> 0:45:26.040 Of course, clown clothes and makeup with pale white skin, 0:45:26.160 --> 0:45:30.600 generally candy colored hair, and big red noses. And then yeah, 0:45:30.600 --> 0:45:34.240 like you're saying, there are these hints of monstrousness. The skin, 0:45:34.920 --> 0:45:37.560 while made to look like a clown, it's got that 0:45:38.040 --> 0:45:42.840 makeup look. The grease paint look is also texturally craggy. 0:45:43.040 --> 0:45:46.880 It looks kind of rough and suggests a reptilian nature underneath, 0:45:46.960 --> 0:45:51.040 or maybe like ancient skin. Also, the mouth on the 0:45:51.080 --> 0:45:54.200 first guy we see is huge, with lots of glistening 0:45:54.239 --> 0:45:55.239 teeth inside. 0:45:55.920 --> 0:45:59.440 Yeah. Yeah, like it's sort of a cannibal more for something, 0:45:59.480 --> 0:46:02.920 you know, like extra large mouth for consuming things. 0:46:03.840 --> 0:46:06.600 So the clown approaches and the farmer is confused, and 0:46:06.640 --> 0:46:09.960 then the clown says something in his alien clown language 0:46:10.000 --> 0:46:12.720 which we hear many times in the film, then pulls 0:46:12.719 --> 0:46:15.520 out a ray gun and appears to cook the farmer 0:46:15.640 --> 0:46:16.440 alive with it. 0:46:17.320 --> 0:46:19.840 That went about as well as we knew it would 0:46:20.320 --> 0:46:21.400 for this poor farmer. 0:46:22.000 --> 0:46:24.880 So next thing, we go to the police station, where 0:46:24.920 --> 0:46:28.320 we get some drama between the two main cop characters 0:46:28.320 --> 0:46:31.319 in the film. There is Mooney, the seething law and 0:46:31.440 --> 0:46:34.840 order maniac we met earlier and a younger, more even 0:46:34.880 --> 0:46:38.200 tempered cop named Dave Hanson played by John Allen Nelson. 0:46:38.800 --> 0:46:41.359 The basic conflict in the scene is that Mooney has 0:46:41.600 --> 0:46:44.680 arrested two college guys dressed like they're headed to a 0:46:44.680 --> 0:46:48.560 Bauhause concert. He detained them I think for the crime 0:46:48.640 --> 0:46:51.839 of walking through the park in goth makeup, or maybe 0:46:51.840 --> 0:46:55.400 it was another open container issue I don't recall. But 0:46:56.000 --> 0:46:58.440 Dave Hanson is trying to calm the situation and get 0:46:58.480 --> 0:47:01.120 Mooney to take it easy, but Mooney won't be stopped. 0:47:01.160 --> 0:47:04.560 He's freaking out and screaming like it's come like you 0:47:04.680 --> 0:47:07.479 that are killing this town. And he hauls the guys 0:47:07.520 --> 0:47:11.960 away for booking. But apparently these two cops have some 0:47:12.080 --> 0:47:16.360 bad blood between them. Dave doesn't like Mooney beating people 0:47:16.440 --> 0:47:19.760 up and raging around like a psycho, and Mooney doesn't 0:47:19.800 --> 0:47:23.600 like Dave I think for being young, yeah, or maybe 0:47:23.640 --> 0:47:26.120 for being weak. Maybe he's like, you know, you're not 0:47:26.200 --> 0:47:27.120 tough enough on them. 0:47:27.560 --> 0:47:30.439 Yeah. It quickly becomes clear that Mooney is a terrible cop. 0:47:30.600 --> 0:47:33.320 He's a would be local tyrant who thinks the job 0:47:33.440 --> 0:47:37.000 is all about cracking heads. And again, Vernon is the 0:47:37.040 --> 0:47:38.880 perfect guy to play this hard ass. 0:47:38.960 --> 0:47:43.840 Yeah. So our farmer guy already got microwaved by the clowns, 0:47:43.880 --> 0:47:46.240 but now we gotta have another visit to the Circus Tints. 0:47:46.280 --> 0:47:49.239 So Debbie and Mike are they were also going to 0:47:49.280 --> 0:47:51.279 go look for where the shooting star landed, and they 0:47:51.360 --> 0:47:54.319 end up tromping through the woods, with Mike doing a 0:47:54.360 --> 0:47:57.759 lot of kind of cringey comedy routines as they go 0:47:58.280 --> 0:48:02.719 until they finally come across the circus Tint Debbie. Once 0:48:02.760 --> 0:48:06.120 they get there, Debbie is hesitant, but Mike is full 0:48:06.160 --> 0:48:09.440 steam ahead and he leads them inside where wouldn't you 0:48:09.520 --> 0:48:11.880 know it, This is not a circus tint but an 0:48:11.880 --> 0:48:17.959 interstellar starship with pervasive decorative circus themes. And again, all 0:48:18.000 --> 0:48:20.880 through this, mic is just doing this running comedy act 0:48:21.000 --> 0:48:24.280 to impress Debbie, most of which is super cringe worthy. 0:48:24.680 --> 0:48:28.040 Yeah, but this spaceship man looks amazing. 0:48:28.280 --> 0:48:31.040 Yeah. So inside the spaceship they find a bunch of 0:48:31.120 --> 0:48:35.560 fun house style corridors with wacky color schemes and angles. 0:48:36.600 --> 0:48:39.279 There is a portal that leads to a giant reactor 0:48:39.360 --> 0:48:41.880 room that really looks like it belongs on the Death Star. 0:48:42.040 --> 0:48:44.799 I think because of just the vertical depth of it. 0:48:44.800 --> 0:48:50.320 It's this giant chasm or shaft, but it is bathed 0:48:50.480 --> 0:48:52.680 in pink and purple light. And then at the core 0:48:52.760 --> 0:48:55.440 of this chamber is a giant crystal ball that is 0:48:55.600 --> 0:48:57.040 arcing like a Tesla coil. 0:48:58.040 --> 0:49:01.920 Yeah, I love this scene. Like the painting special effects 0:49:01.960 --> 0:49:05.560 combo here looks really good, Like, well, it really didn't 0:49:05.560 --> 0:49:07.840 even need to look this cool and clowney at the 0:49:07.880 --> 0:49:10.520 same time, but it does. And I guess, you know, 0:49:10.600 --> 0:49:14.120 also drives home that we're dealing with an advanced civilization here, 0:49:14.160 --> 0:49:19.400 Like they're somewhere on the Kardashchev scale, the Kardashev clown scale. 0:49:19.400 --> 0:49:22.640 I'm not sure how that differs from your standard Kardaschev scale, 0:49:23.040 --> 0:49:25.680 but they're on there. They have advanced technology, but they're 0:49:25.680 --> 0:49:26.640 clowning to the max. 0:49:27.239 --> 0:49:29.960 They don't have dice in spheres. They have dice in balloons. 0:49:30.239 --> 0:49:31.120 Yes, there you go. 0:49:40.800 --> 0:49:43.719 So anyway, they you know, they're starting to get the 0:49:43.760 --> 0:49:46.520 idea that something's a little weird here. I think Debbie says, 0:49:46.600 --> 0:49:50.439 this is no fun house, no circus either. So Mike 0:49:50.520 --> 0:49:53.040 and Debbie realized that the shooting star they saw was 0:49:53.080 --> 0:49:55.960 actually an alien ship and they are now inside it, 0:49:56.760 --> 0:49:59.600 so they hear some approaching footsteps and they duck into 0:49:59.640 --> 0:50:03.000 a different room to hide. This room is the cotton 0:50:03.160 --> 0:50:06.160 Candy Room, which we will visit again a couple times 0:50:06.160 --> 0:50:10.200 in the film. This is a giant room filled with 0:50:10.960 --> 0:50:16.800 fog swirling around the floor and large pink, almost testicular 0:50:16.920 --> 0:50:20.720 kind of bowllesses hanging off of hooks on metal racks 0:50:21.200 --> 0:50:23.560 with rows and rows of rack space going up to 0:50:23.600 --> 0:50:27.960 the ceiling. And these pink bulbs, these dangling bulbs are 0:50:28.040 --> 0:50:30.680 supposed to be cotton candy. 0:50:30.840 --> 0:50:33.600 Yes, which you know, we did some episodes of stuff 0:50:33.600 --> 0:50:35.959 to blow your mind on cotton candy a while back, 0:50:36.000 --> 0:50:38.680 and you know, as we discussed there, like cotton candy 0:50:38.800 --> 0:50:43.360 is just intrinsically bound the idea of circus and fair 0:50:43.520 --> 0:50:46.200 and outdoor spectacle, so it makes sense that it would 0:50:46.200 --> 0:50:49.560 be associated with clowns. But as we'll discuss, the cotton 0:50:49.600 --> 0:50:52.520 candy here that the clowns are using must not be 0:50:52.600 --> 0:50:55.200 true cotton candy because they can do things that cotton 0:50:55.239 --> 0:50:58.560 candy is completely incapable of doing. It really seems to 0:50:58.600 --> 0:51:00.360 be more like a spider's silk. 0:51:01.000 --> 0:51:04.840 Yeah, yeah, that's right. But Mike does not catch on 0:51:04.960 --> 0:51:09.640 too to the spider silk elements here. He first says, 0:51:09.760 --> 0:51:12.799 look at this place smells like candy. I don't know 0:51:12.800 --> 0:51:14.960 where we were before, but this looks like a cotton 0:51:15.000 --> 0:51:17.319 candy factory to me. This must be where they hang 0:51:17.360 --> 0:51:20.080 it up to dry before they ship it out. What 0:51:21.640 --> 0:51:24.200 And Debbie says, I don't believe in UFOs, but if 0:51:24.239 --> 0:51:27.160 they do exist, then we're trapped in one right now. 0:51:28.040 --> 0:51:30.080 But Mike doesn't seem to agree. He gives her the 0:51:30.120 --> 0:51:32.240 old you come on, there's got to be a logical 0:51:32.280 --> 0:51:37.040 explanation for this, and to which Debbie replies, I don't 0:51:37.080 --> 0:51:40.080 remember exactly how she gets here, but she says, nobody 0:51:40.120 --> 0:51:45.600 stores cotton candy like this, and she's right, Yeah again, 0:51:45.640 --> 0:51:49.800 we did core episodes on cotton candy. Cotton candy is hygroscopic, 0:51:49.960 --> 0:51:53.000 meaning it absorbs moisture from the air and it will 0:51:53.120 --> 0:51:56.080 lose its fluffiness and turn into sticky goop. Look at 0:51:56.080 --> 0:51:57.960 all the fog in that room. That is a high 0:51:58.080 --> 0:52:00.799 humidity room. You cannot hang cotton candy like that. 0:52:01.080 --> 0:52:01.880 Yeah. Absolutely. 0:52:02.760 --> 0:52:06.160 However, Mike decides he's got to prove that Debbie is 0:52:06.200 --> 0:52:10.080 being silly and demonstrate that this is definitely normal cotton 0:52:10.120 --> 0:52:13.520 candy and not sinister outer space cotton candy. So he 0:52:13.719 --> 0:52:17.960 rips out a chunk of the nearest bulb, revealing underneath 0:52:18.120 --> 0:52:22.240 the wet, bloody, skinless face of a man. So it 0:52:22.320 --> 0:52:25.800 in fact is not just cotton candy. These are cocoons 0:52:25.840 --> 0:52:28.879 made out of a cotton candy like substance, which again 0:52:29.000 --> 0:52:31.360 is a terrible idea, by the way, and they appear 0:52:31.440 --> 0:52:33.000 to dissolve your flesh. 0:52:34.080 --> 0:52:35.680 Looks pretty grim. Looks pretty grim. 0:52:35.840 --> 0:52:38.600 Yeah, So Mike and Debbie are interrupted when a clown 0:52:38.640 --> 0:52:41.000 comes in to hang up a new bulb. And by 0:52:41.000 --> 0:52:43.360 the way, just side note, in the middle of the 0:52:43.440 --> 0:52:46.879 room there is a giant popcorn machine. He just pops 0:52:46.920 --> 0:52:47.960 swirling popcorn. 0:52:48.120 --> 0:52:48.279 Yeah. 0:52:48.320 --> 0:52:49.919 We'll learn more about that popcorn later. 0:52:50.480 --> 0:52:53.200 But Mike and Debbie are discovered and they bolt for 0:52:53.239 --> 0:52:56.399 the exit, and the clown gives chase, bringing along a 0:52:56.680 --> 0:53:00.880 popcorn gun. This is a big gun that shoots popcorn 0:53:00.920 --> 0:53:03.319 that kind of flies through the air after them as 0:53:03.360 --> 0:53:06.920 they run. The popcorn does hit Debbie and Mike just 0:53:06.960 --> 0:53:09.279 as they escape the tent, but it doesn't kill them. 0:53:09.320 --> 0:53:11.680 And I really wasn't sure what the popcorn was supposed 0:53:11.680 --> 0:53:13.440 to do at this point, but they do come back 0:53:13.480 --> 0:53:17.799 to that. Yeah, so Debbie's like popcorn? Why popcorn? And 0:53:17.840 --> 0:53:22.560 then Mike says, because of their clowns, that's why. Also 0:53:22.760 --> 0:53:26.279 after this, Mike and Debbie like they run away, and 0:53:26.360 --> 0:53:28.839 when the clowns follow them outside the tent, they make 0:53:28.920 --> 0:53:32.799 a balloon animal dog that helps them track the humans. Yes, 0:53:33.280 --> 0:53:35.359 it's barking and roughing, you. 0:53:35.320 --> 0:53:37.320 Know, total Looney Tunes moment. 0:53:37.600 --> 0:53:40.480 Right, So there's a chase through the woods, but Debbie 0:53:40.480 --> 0:53:43.120 and Mike get away in their car and also they 0:53:44.120 --> 0:53:46.160 you know, there's some fighting in the car, like you know, 0:53:46.200 --> 0:53:47.680 you end up with a clown on the hood of 0:53:47.719 --> 0:53:49.719 the car, of course, trying to reach through the windshield. 0:53:50.400 --> 0:53:52.880 But they get away and then while escaping the scene, 0:53:52.920 --> 0:53:54.959 they talk about what to do next to Mike thinks 0:53:55.000 --> 0:53:57.880 they can't tell anyone because of how crazy the story sounds, 0:53:58.200 --> 0:54:00.360 but Debbie says she has a friend who works for 0:54:00.360 --> 0:54:04.240 the police and he will believe them. She knows it. Meanwhile, 0:54:04.239 --> 0:54:08.120 we watch the clowns slowly waddling toward the city limits. 0:54:08.320 --> 0:54:11.080 Oh no, and this will be the beginning of a 0:54:11.120 --> 0:54:12.759 lot of the movie is just going to be little 0:54:12.800 --> 0:54:18.440 scenes of the clowns doing various clowning, clowning activities and 0:54:18.520 --> 0:54:23.799 circus related activities within the city against the citizens, all 0:54:23.840 --> 0:54:26.640 of which end in people being caught and cocooned. 0:54:26.880 --> 0:54:30.920 Yeah, all acts that are at once malicious and pure clowning. 0:54:31.160 --> 0:54:33.440 And at times it's hard, it's hard to figure out 0:54:33.480 --> 0:54:36.440 exactly like what the mo is like. Are they entertaining 0:54:37.000 --> 0:54:40.239 to put their victims at ease before they get them 0:54:40.280 --> 0:54:43.520 and you know, cocon them for later, or is there 0:54:43.520 --> 0:54:46.359 something else like is there's just something about them where 0:54:46.360 --> 0:54:49.000 they must entertain people as well? I don't know they 0:54:49.040 --> 0:54:50.080 are after all. 0:54:50.560 --> 0:54:53.040 I really like the moment where the clown tries to 0:54:53.120 --> 0:54:56.960 blend in by pretending to be a motorized Halloween decoration 0:54:57.080 --> 0:54:58.280 outside the drug store. 0:54:58.640 --> 0:55:00.120 That's smart, that's stealthy. 0:55:00.719 --> 0:55:04.040 So the friend that Debbie was talking about is Dave Hansen, 0:55:04.120 --> 0:55:07.760 the nicer cop from earlier. So Debbie and Mike try 0:55:07.960 --> 0:55:09.680 They get to the police station and they try to 0:55:09.719 --> 0:55:11.760 explain to him what they saw. But in the middle 0:55:11.800 --> 0:55:16.799 of explaining the killer clown popcorn conspiracy, Mooney wanders in 0:55:16.840 --> 0:55:19.280 and he's like, ah, this is a load of hogwash. 0:55:19.600 --> 0:55:22.280 And Mooney says to Mike he says, I know you, 0:55:22.280 --> 0:55:25.560 you little fart. You hang out with the Tarnzi brothers, 0:55:26.200 --> 0:55:29.640 and Mooney concludes that these clowns they're talking about are 0:55:29.920 --> 0:55:35.440 a Tarnsi Brothers stunt to sell ice cream. Makes sense 0:55:36.280 --> 0:55:39.759 so much to Mooney's derision, Dave agrees to go with 0:55:39.840 --> 0:55:42.239 Mike and Debbie to check out the circus tent and 0:55:42.280 --> 0:55:46.320 see for himself. Now we eventually learn here that Dave 0:55:46.680 --> 0:55:49.680 is Debbie's ex boyfriend and he is still in love 0:55:49.680 --> 0:55:53.040 with her, still carrying a torch for her, and because 0:55:53.080 --> 0:55:55.040 he still cares about her, he takes this kind of 0:55:55.040 --> 0:55:57.719 paternalistic tone and tells her that she can't come back 0:55:57.719 --> 0:56:00.800 to the ship. He's dropping her off at home, and 0:56:02.400 --> 0:56:04.480 Mike and Debbie have a little moment talking to each 0:56:04.480 --> 0:56:06.239 other before Mike is going to get back in the 0:56:06.239 --> 0:56:08.919 car and go with Dave up to the tent, and 0:56:09.000 --> 0:56:10.560 he's worried. He's like, yeah, I didn't know he was 0:56:10.560 --> 0:56:12.719 your ex boyfriend. He's gonna shoot me when we get 0:56:12.760 --> 0:56:15.960 up there, and Debbie tells Mike, don't worry about Dave. 0:56:16.239 --> 0:56:22.640 It's those clowns you got to worry about. So let's 0:56:22.640 --> 0:56:25.600 talk about some of the general clown antics in town. 0:56:26.040 --> 0:56:28.880 Yeah, because it basically becomes that for a while, just 0:56:29.000 --> 0:56:31.600 one clown antic can kill after another. 0:56:32.080 --> 0:56:35.239 One I liked is the puppet show in the gazebo 0:56:35.480 --> 0:56:39.240 with a single audience member, And I was genuinely laughing 0:56:39.239 --> 0:56:42.760 out loud about how this guy is just at first, 0:56:42.760 --> 0:56:45.959 he's scoffing and rolling his eyes at a puppet show 0:56:46.080 --> 0:56:48.360 that he is choosing to watch alone. 0:56:49.160 --> 0:56:49.440 Yeah. 0:56:49.520 --> 0:56:52.240 Yeah, he's like, Wow, what is this crap? But then 0:56:52.239 --> 0:56:55.799 he's drawn in by the you know, the raw honesty 0:56:56.040 --> 0:56:59.080 of this two puppet performance. And one of the puppets 0:56:59.160 --> 0:57:02.239 draws a lake are gun of some sort ray gun 0:57:02.320 --> 0:57:06.239 and zaps the other puppet, making that puppet completely evaporate. 0:57:06.760 --> 0:57:08.480 Yeah, and then the guy's like what And then of 0:57:08.480 --> 0:57:11.200 course the gun gets turned on him but zaps him 0:57:11.200 --> 0:57:12.680 into a cotton candy cocoon. 0:57:13.239 --> 0:57:15.040 Yeah, so this is where we learned. This is what 0:57:15.080 --> 0:57:18.560 they're doing. They zap people this the ray gun like 0:57:18.640 --> 0:57:22.200 spins them around, and then they're in this candy cotton 0:57:22.200 --> 0:57:25.320 candy cocoon that can then be collected later harvested. 0:57:25.600 --> 0:57:27.680 We also get a lot of drug store antics. We 0:57:27.680 --> 0:57:30.360 saw the clown going to the drug store earlier. So 0:57:30.760 --> 0:57:34.840 once inside, the clown wanders around clumsily knocking things over. 0:57:35.320 --> 0:57:39.880 The drug store clerk is extremely nervous and bothered by this. Uh, 0:57:39.920 --> 0:57:43.160 and eventually the clown starts cotton can, defying everybody in 0:57:43.200 --> 0:57:46.680 the store. But they're also like playing with the products, 0:57:46.680 --> 0:57:49.920 spraying themselves with shaving cream and sneezing in the baby powder. 0:57:50.160 --> 0:57:52.720 They can't resist a good site guy like that. They 0:57:52.720 --> 0:57:53.480 got to go for it. 0:57:53.880 --> 0:57:58.400 We also get a pizza delivery clown gag. I think 0:57:58.480 --> 0:58:02.440 that this is supposed to be a Carl Hungus style 0:58:03.240 --> 0:58:06.040 like pornographic movie set up, or like, oh, here's the 0:58:06.040 --> 0:58:08.880 pizza delivery guy here and the lady's answering the door 0:58:08.880 --> 0:58:12.240 in her nightgown but instead wine, yeah, with a glass 0:58:12.240 --> 0:58:15.720 of wine. But instead it's a clown delivering the pizza. 0:58:15.800 --> 0:58:18.080 And then the pizza box opens and inside there are 0:58:18.080 --> 0:58:18.840 more clowns. 0:58:19.080 --> 0:58:22.200 Yeah. This actress, by the way, is Carla Sue Krawl. 0:58:22.360 --> 0:58:25.680 This is only credit though, but this gag, this was hilarious, 0:58:25.680 --> 0:58:28.640 So clearly we clearly we need to do another similar 0:58:28.680 --> 0:58:30.440 bit with another clown delivery. 0:58:30.600 --> 0:58:33.320 Yeah, basically the same setup, but instead now it's an 0:58:33.320 --> 0:58:36.240 older lady who opens the door and the clown at 0:58:36.240 --> 0:58:40.400 the door has a box of Valentine cotton candy or 0:58:40.440 --> 0:58:43.360 not cotton candy, sorry, Valentine like chocolates box, you know, 0:58:44.840 --> 0:58:48.000 in a heart shape. And she turns and I guess 0:58:48.120 --> 0:58:50.320 is talking to her husband and she's like, oh, you know, 0:58:50.720 --> 0:58:54.040 oh Phil, you got this for me, And of course 0:58:54.080 --> 0:58:56.840 the clown there is ready to cotton candify them once again. 0:58:57.080 --> 0:58:59.960 They have a great deal of cultural knowledge of our planet. 0:59:00.920 --> 0:59:02.840 Maybe did a lot of research. Maybe we're you know, 0:59:02.840 --> 0:59:04.280 they're on the dark side of the moon for a 0:59:04.280 --> 0:59:06.880 while before they they made their trip, they've. 0:59:06.680 --> 0:59:11.600 Been studying us, watching our TV. So after dropping Debbie off, 0:59:11.920 --> 0:59:14.240 Dave and Mike head up to check out the spaceship tent. 0:59:14.360 --> 0:59:16.919 But when they arrived, there's nothing there, just a big 0:59:16.960 --> 0:59:20.160 hole in the ground. Huh. Well here, Dave gets mad 0:59:20.240 --> 0:59:25.320 and he places Mike under arrest. Another antic of that 0:59:25.440 --> 0:59:28.440 is going on in town is the whole biker versus 0:59:28.480 --> 0:59:35.000 clown scene, which is very inspired. There are a there's 0:59:35.040 --> 0:59:38.400 like a massive congregation of bikers hanging out in an 0:59:38.440 --> 0:59:41.920 alley outside a building that is covered in graffiti. By 0:59:41.920 --> 0:59:43.920 the way, I paused it to just read what some 0:59:44.000 --> 0:59:46.800 of the graffiti is some of it's biker slogans, but 0:59:46.880 --> 0:59:50.560 other stuff is like one graffito just says Jimmy Hendrix, 0:59:51.000 --> 0:59:52.760 another one says beer. 0:59:53.240 --> 0:59:56.160 Yeah, or one says no button, no put. What does 0:59:56.160 --> 0:59:57.960 that even mean? I don't know. Maybe that's someone. 0:59:57.840 --> 1:00:01.120 That's a that's a biker thing. I actually looked that up. 1:00:01.200 --> 1:00:03.919 I think it means basically like, I will not give 1:00:03.920 --> 1:00:05.960 you a ride on my bike unless I find you 1:00:06.080 --> 1:00:07.080 sexually attractive. 1:00:07.400 --> 1:00:08.840 Oh okay, but. 1:00:08.880 --> 1:00:12.000 Anyway, so, yeah, all the bikers are hanging out being rowdy, 1:00:12.040 --> 1:00:15.360 and then a single clown rides up to them on 1:00:15.440 --> 1:00:18.320 a bicycle with training wheels. I think this is the 1:00:18.640 --> 1:00:21.440 sort of it's implied the childlike clown. 1:00:21.840 --> 1:00:24.080 Yeah, this is the little guy of the group that 1:00:24.520 --> 1:00:26.200 may be a young clown. 1:00:26.520 --> 1:00:30.480 Yeah. So he rides up on his little bicycle with 1:00:30.560 --> 1:00:34.880 training wheels. And then there's one big, gross, drooling, mean biker, 1:00:34.920 --> 1:00:38.640 the biker bully, who approaches this little clown and starts 1:00:38.680 --> 1:00:41.640 bullying him. He asks if he can ride his bicycle, 1:00:41.960 --> 1:00:44.280 and the little clown shakes his head, and then the 1:00:44.280 --> 1:00:47.960 bully smashes the clown's bicycle while all his friends cheer, 1:00:48.920 --> 1:00:51.200 and then you really feel sad for the clown here. Yeah, 1:00:51.360 --> 1:00:53.400 he cries a little bit. It's so sad. He's just 1:00:53.440 --> 1:00:58.520 a little guy. And then one of the other bikers 1:00:58.560 --> 1:01:00.960 watching this is like, yeah, he should have let the 1:01:00.960 --> 1:01:06.440 man ride his bike. But then the clown manifests boxing 1:01:06.480 --> 1:01:08.800 gloves and puts his hands up and he starts dancing 1:01:08.800 --> 1:01:12.320 around and cutely saying something in the alien clown language. 1:01:12.520 --> 1:01:15.080 It sounds a bit like Scooby Doo saying, put up 1:01:15.080 --> 1:01:18.280 your dukes, and then he punches the biker's head off 1:01:18.320 --> 1:01:19.320 into a trash can. 1:01:19.480 --> 1:01:20.640 Yeah, fatality. 1:01:22.320 --> 1:01:24.320 Back at the Big Top Burger, we get one of 1:01:24.320 --> 1:01:26.880 the actually creepier scenes in the movie, where there is 1:01:26.920 --> 1:01:30.720 a clown outside the restaurant playing peekaboo with a child 1:01:30.800 --> 1:01:34.720 through the window and trying to lure her outside while 1:01:34.720 --> 1:01:38.640 holding a giant cartoon mallet behind his back. But fortunately 1:01:38.680 --> 1:01:41.400 before the girl can make it outside to her clown doom, 1:01:41.560 --> 1:01:44.240 her scolding mother yanks her back to the table to 1:01:44.240 --> 1:01:45.320 finish her hamburger. 1:01:45.560 --> 1:01:49.560 Yeah, definitely very creepy sequence. Clown looked amazing. The music 1:01:49.720 --> 1:01:53.400 was very evocative here. Yeah, in that mallet, you know, 1:01:53.480 --> 1:01:56.120 obviously a comedic mallet but what's he going to do? Like, 1:01:56.160 --> 1:01:59.520 what kind of awful clown technology does it have? So 1:01:59.640 --> 1:02:01.640 really twin this did not come to fruition. 1:02:01.880 --> 1:02:05.000 I think we never see the mallet used in the film, 1:02:05.080 --> 1:02:06.320 so we don't know about that one. 1:02:06.360 --> 1:02:07.680 We're just left to imagine. 1:02:08.200 --> 1:02:11.200 Also, somewhere in here there is the thing that we 1:02:11.280 --> 1:02:13.440 really had a question about. There's a scene where there 1:02:13.560 --> 1:02:16.760 is a dude driving along a dark highway and he 1:02:16.840 --> 1:02:19.280 gets run off the road over the edge of a 1:02:19.320 --> 1:02:22.240 bridge by a clown driving what I took to be 1:02:22.880 --> 1:02:26.440 an invisible car. So I was trying it first to think, like, 1:02:27.280 --> 1:02:29.800 this doesn't seem clown related, like so many of the 1:02:29.840 --> 1:02:32.640 other attacks and gags are, what's the deal here? But 1:02:32.680 --> 1:02:34.880 then I was thinking, maybe it's supposed to be miming, 1:02:35.080 --> 1:02:38.880 because you know, clowns and mimes have some overlap, and 1:02:39.000 --> 1:02:42.520 mimes interact with invisible objects. That's part of clowning. I've 1:02:42.520 --> 1:02:45.600 never really seen an invisible car gag from a mime. 1:02:46.240 --> 1:02:49.440 Yeah, yeah, this one. This segment made a lot more 1:02:49.480 --> 1:02:51.480 sense when I read that bit about one of the 1:02:51.560 --> 1:02:55.560 Kyoto brothers being inspired by a supposed encounter with a 1:02:55.560 --> 1:02:58.600 clown driving on a mountain road, write what you know 1:02:58.760 --> 1:03:00.000 right exactly. 1:03:00.560 --> 1:03:03.560 Meanwhile, Officer Dave, with Mike handcuffed in the back of 1:03:03.600 --> 1:03:06.680 his squad car, comes across the Lover's lane from earlier 1:03:07.240 --> 1:03:09.600 and all the cars that now appear to be abandoned. 1:03:09.640 --> 1:03:12.800 It's dark and quiet here, and he investigates further and 1:03:12.840 --> 1:03:16.160 finds nobody around. All the cars are just filled with 1:03:16.480 --> 1:03:19.680 cobwebs of cotton candy, and so I think that's all 1:03:19.720 --> 1:03:22.480 the convincing Dave needs. He goes back in the uncuffs Mike. 1:03:22.520 --> 1:03:24.320 He's like, Okay, I believe you clowns. 1:03:24.640 --> 1:03:28.080 Yeah, yeah, the cotton candy cobwebs are just really convincing 1:03:28.120 --> 1:03:30.960 here too, Like it's everything's just bright, pink and colorful. 1:03:31.000 --> 1:03:33.880 But he's also legitimately unganny and creepy. 1:03:34.400 --> 1:03:37.240 Now there's some more police business. There's a scene where 1:03:37.720 --> 1:03:41.320 we're at the police station and Mooney is reading a 1:03:41.360 --> 1:03:45.560 magazine laughing to himself, laughing like it's a humor magazine 1:03:45.640 --> 1:03:48.560 or something, maybe he's reading copy of Mad. But then 1:03:49.000 --> 1:03:51.800 we see him turn a page and it's a gun catalog. 1:03:52.560 --> 1:03:53.680 What's he laughing at? 1:03:54.000 --> 1:03:54.200 Yeah? 1:03:54.280 --> 1:03:57.720 Yeah, But then the clown calls start coming in on 1:03:57.760 --> 1:03:59.800 the phone. The phones are ringing off the hooks with 1:04:00.560 --> 1:04:04.120 clown related complaints. You know, He's like, oh really, the 1:04:04.160 --> 1:04:08.200 clowns took your wife away in a balloon, And Mooney 1:04:08.280 --> 1:04:11.240 is angry. He does not like this nonsense, and he says, 1:04:11.280 --> 1:04:13.320 if they want to play games, they're missing with the 1:04:13.360 --> 1:04:17.280 wrong guy. So he resolves to ignore all of the 1:04:17.320 --> 1:04:19.360 phones that are ringing in the police station. 1:04:19.760 --> 1:04:23.960 Yeah, the perfection of his terrible job as a cop, 1:04:24.320 --> 1:04:28.479 actively ignoring dangerous situations going on while also just being 1:04:28.520 --> 1:04:29.800 a tyrannical bully. 1:04:30.000 --> 1:04:33.040 Now, meanwhile, we got the beginning of you alluded to 1:04:33.080 --> 1:04:38.040 this earlier rob the famous shower scene, not famous for 1:04:38.120 --> 1:04:40.160 the reasons many shower scenes are famous. 1:04:41.040 --> 1:04:43.520 That's right. It is a shower scene that does seem 1:04:43.520 --> 1:04:47.160 to go on forever. I got a sense of this one. 1:04:47.200 --> 1:04:49.720 I watched it through the first time in its entirety. 1:04:49.760 --> 1:04:52.480 But then I saw some folks referencing this online saying 1:04:52.480 --> 1:04:55.160 it's the longest cinematic shower of all time. I don't 1:04:55.200 --> 1:04:57.200 know about that. I couldn't find some stats on that. 1:04:57.680 --> 1:05:01.160 But again, it is remark first of all, and then 1:05:01.200 --> 1:05:04.320 it is a very PG thirteen shower scene. We get 1:05:04.320 --> 1:05:09.120 full arm nudity. We almost see an armpit. That's about it. Yeah, 1:05:09.240 --> 1:05:12.400 like it's it's even tamer than the full bikini shower 1:05:12.440 --> 1:05:18.000 scene from Piranha Mandir. We watched a while back, and 1:05:17.680 --> 1:05:19.640 it indeed goes on a while, so I had to 1:05:19.680 --> 1:05:24.280 clock it. I got out my stopwatch. Multiple scenes and 1:05:24.400 --> 1:05:27.720 nearly twelve minutes of screen time take place between the 1:05:27.760 --> 1:05:31.680 beginning and the end of Debbie's actual shower, and that's 1:05:31.760 --> 1:05:33.800 just when the water turns off. It is a full 1:05:33.920 --> 1:05:37.200 eighteen plus minutes of screen time before we see her 1:05:37.360 --> 1:05:40.800 fully out of the shower and dressed, but still in 1:05:40.840 --> 1:05:42.040 the bathroom. 1:05:42.400 --> 1:05:46.160 Yeah, that's right, So it's not all that much screen time, 1:05:46.400 --> 1:05:48.840 but it just spans a lot of the film. You 1:05:48.880 --> 1:05:52.040 get this feel like it starts in the middle of 1:05:52.120 --> 1:05:54.800 the movie and then you're like into the third act 1:05:54.840 --> 1:05:55.800 by the time it's over. 1:05:56.080 --> 1:05:57.720 Yeah, I guess screen time is maybe not the right 1:05:57.760 --> 1:06:00.840 discrete because it's yeah, we're not actually walked the full thing, 1:06:01.000 --> 1:06:04.400 but we keep coming back to it. That's the duration 1:06:04.560 --> 1:06:09.680 of this shower within the pacing of this movie. And yeah, 1:06:09.920 --> 1:06:12.560 I mean, in reality, a twelve minute or even an 1:06:12.560 --> 1:06:16.360 eighteen minute shower not unreasonable, but within the context of 1:06:16.360 --> 1:06:18.800 a film's pacing, that's one long shower. I mean, I 1:06:18.840 --> 1:06:21.600 think the shower scene in Psycho, the most famous shower 1:06:21.680 --> 1:06:24.160 scene of all, is something like a minute long, less 1:06:24.200 --> 1:06:27.240 than a minute even. Yeah, and that one's pivotal to 1:06:27.280 --> 1:06:27.720 the plot. 1:06:28.640 --> 1:06:30.400 But in that one, at least, you're not like cutting 1:06:30.440 --> 1:06:32.480 away to multiple other subplots. 1:06:32.520 --> 1:06:35.360 Yeah, that's the thing. We cut away to, just multiple subplots. 1:06:36.240 --> 1:06:40.000 So first of all, what's happening here, let's talk about 1:06:40.080 --> 1:06:44.000 so further developments during the span of the shower within 1:06:44.120 --> 1:06:48.200 Debbie's house, there are developments on the popcorn subplot. So 1:06:48.360 --> 1:06:51.600 we eventually find out that the popcorn does do something. 1:06:52.280 --> 1:06:56.440 I think it's understood to be the lauval form of 1:06:56.560 --> 1:06:59.240 the clown beings. Is that how you understood it? 1:06:59.600 --> 1:07:03.880 Yeah, because the popcorn we see is crawling around on 1:07:04.440 --> 1:07:09.360 the tiles of the bathroom floor like little larval creatures. 1:07:09.360 --> 1:07:12.520 So I think this is the larval form of the 1:07:12.560 --> 1:07:16.360 clown life form. What's the next phase in their development? 1:07:16.360 --> 1:07:17.640 I think we're about to find out. 1:07:17.600 --> 1:07:20.040 That's right. So, yeah, and we see this, by the way, 1:07:20.080 --> 1:07:22.560 because Debbie still has the popcorn stuck to her clothes, 1:07:22.560 --> 1:07:24.160 which are on the bathroom floor, so we see the 1:07:24.360 --> 1:07:26.680 popcorn kernels kind of squirming around. 1:07:26.600 --> 1:07:28.680 Which got blasted onto her by the clown guns. 1:07:28.720 --> 1:07:31.680 Yeah that's right. Yeah, so they're like little caterpillars. And 1:07:31.760 --> 1:07:35.120 then much later, once she's out of the shower, the 1:07:35.200 --> 1:07:41.160 popcorn appears to have metamorphosed into baby monster clowns, which 1:07:41.200 --> 1:07:44.720 are each like a little demon clown head with a 1:07:44.760 --> 1:07:48.000 mohawk on top of a snakelike spine. 1:07:48.360 --> 1:07:51.840 Yeah. Yeah, so I think it goes basically free moving 1:07:51.880 --> 1:07:56.280 popcorn larvae to juvenile clown snake, and then to adult 1:07:56.360 --> 1:07:59.840 clown form. And then I think we might assume that 1:07:59.840 --> 1:08:02.560 the killer clown from outer space is kind of like 1:08:02.600 --> 1:08:06.400 certain reptiles that keep growing throughout their entire life, because 1:08:06.640 --> 1:08:08.440 they seem to just get taller and taller. 1:08:08.800 --> 1:08:13.040 Yeah that's right. Now, these creatures, the snakelike creatures, attack 1:08:13.120 --> 1:08:16.439 Debbie in the bathroom, but she escapes, though she is 1:08:16.520 --> 1:08:19.519 later she escapes only to be menaced by fully grown 1:08:19.560 --> 1:08:23.679 adult clowns all around her, which ambush her and then 1:08:23.720 --> 1:08:27.000 prevent her escape from her apartment. There's one part where 1:08:27.000 --> 1:08:28.519 she's trying to get out and she runs to the 1:08:28.560 --> 1:08:30.120 window and looks down and there are a bunch of 1:08:30.160 --> 1:08:32.479 clowns holding a trampoline firemen. 1:08:32.600 --> 1:08:37.519 Yeah. Also worth noting that those snake clowns, they're also 1:08:37.600 --> 1:08:40.200 like Jack in the boxes, because again there's nothing about 1:08:40.240 --> 1:08:43.840 the clowns, their biology, or their life cycle, or their 1:08:43.880 --> 1:08:47.320 culture and civilization that is not clowning to its heart. 1:08:47.720 --> 1:08:51.599 Yes, so she's eventually captured and put inside a balloon, 1:08:51.800 --> 1:09:03.160 like we heard about on the phone. Before that, we 1:09:03.320 --> 1:09:06.280 get we cut away to different kinds of clown horror 1:09:06.280 --> 1:09:09.080 and subplots going on. We get a bit more with 1:09:09.200 --> 1:09:12.000 Mike and Dave in the car. Dave is kind of 1:09:13.000 --> 1:09:17.240 rambling about I think. Mike tries to apologize. He's like, look, man, 1:09:17.280 --> 1:09:19.280 I didn't want to, you know, cause any weirdness with 1:09:19.320 --> 1:09:20.080 you and Debbie. 1:09:20.560 --> 1:09:20.880 Uh. 1:09:20.920 --> 1:09:23.680 And Dave is like, the problem is me, obviously. She 1:09:23.760 --> 1:09:26.120 goes for laughs, not stability. 1:09:27.680 --> 1:09:30.040 Burn Yeah, but Mike's like, yeah, you got me. 1:09:30.280 --> 1:09:34.320 He gues and contest this, And there's more clown horror. 1:09:34.360 --> 1:09:37.880 There is the clown puppet show, where a clown shows 1:09:37.960 --> 1:09:41.360 up on a sidewalk and starts doing a oh not 1:09:41.400 --> 1:09:43.519 just a puppet show, a shadow puppet show. He's doing 1:09:43.560 --> 1:09:46.439 shadow puppetry for a group of elderly people at a 1:09:46.479 --> 1:09:50.719 bus stop. It begins cute and then gets increasingly absurd. 1:09:50.800 --> 1:09:53.680 One of the hand shadows he does is a detailed 1:09:53.720 --> 1:09:55.559 outline of Washington crossing the. 1:09:55.520 --> 1:09:57.800 Delaware yeap legitimately hilarious. 1:09:57.920 --> 1:10:00.720 Yeah, and then the shadow puppet turn into a big 1:10:00.800 --> 1:10:03.920 Tyrannosaurus rex head with glowing eyes, and it eats all 1:10:03.920 --> 1:10:07.719 the old people and that somehow shrinks them, which allows 1:10:07.760 --> 1:10:10.040 the clown to put them in a suitcase full of popcorn. 1:10:10.360 --> 1:10:10.880 There you go. 1:10:11.760 --> 1:10:14.880 So Mike and Dave witness part of this bus stop 1:10:14.920 --> 1:10:18.880 attack from Dave's squad car, and after this they split up. 1:10:18.960 --> 1:10:21.559 Dave heads to the police station and Mike goes to 1:10:21.640 --> 1:10:24.200 recruit his friends, the Tarnzi Brothers, the guys with the 1:10:24.240 --> 1:10:27.160 ice cream truck. I think the idea is they're going 1:10:27.240 --> 1:10:29.800 to drive around, maybe warning people to stay away from 1:10:29.840 --> 1:10:32.280 clowns on the megaphone, but first they've got to go 1:10:32.400 --> 1:10:36.200 rescue Debbie. Also back at the police station, which is 1:10:36.240 --> 1:10:39.240 only manned by Mooney. At this point, a clown appears 1:10:39.439 --> 1:10:41.599 at the station. While Mooney is sitting at his desk 1:10:41.680 --> 1:10:44.640 smoking a cigar and ignoring all of the ringing telephones. 1:10:45.360 --> 1:10:48.120 The clown offers him a bouquet, but it's a trick 1:10:48.160 --> 1:10:51.559 bouquet that squirts his face with water, and uh oh, 1:10:51.600 --> 1:10:55.160 that makes Mooney very mad. He attempts to arrest the clown, 1:10:55.240 --> 1:10:59.360 but encounters difficulties, including detachable clown hands that come off 1:10:59.439 --> 1:11:03.760 with the handcuff uffs, and so he tries to He 1:11:03.800 --> 1:11:07.240 does end up jailing the clown in the cell next 1:11:07.280 --> 1:11:12.040 to the two goth guys from earlier. When Dave later 1:11:12.280 --> 1:11:14.880 arrives at the police station, he finds that the clown 1:11:14.920 --> 1:11:18.800 has cocooned the unfortunate prisoners and has turned Mooney into 1:11:18.840 --> 1:11:22.200 a ventriloquist dummy. So he's got the little red cherry 1:11:22.280 --> 1:11:25.479 cheeks and the some blood running from the corners of 1:11:25.520 --> 1:11:27.840 his mouth that make it resemble the little like block 1:11:27.880 --> 1:11:31.080 mouth that operates on a on a ventriloquist puppet. 1:11:31.400 --> 1:11:34.879 Yeah, oh my god, this this scene is his is terrifying. 1:11:35.160 --> 1:11:38.880 The clown makes John Vernon talk and he says, don't worry, Dave, 1:11:39.120 --> 1:11:40.760 all we want to do is kill you. 1:11:41.880 --> 1:11:44.559 And then he he let that the clown lets this 1:11:44.800 --> 1:11:48.800 grotesque ventriloquis dummy like collapse onto the table and as 1:11:48.800 --> 1:11:52.960 he does so, like withdraws his now blood slit clown 1:11:53.040 --> 1:11:56.600 hand from the back of of of of the of 1:11:56.680 --> 1:11:59.160 mooney and then just kind of like flicks the blood 1:11:59.200 --> 1:12:02.679 off just to just a really centient here. Yeah, terrifying. 1:12:03.040 --> 1:12:06.240 So it's a showdown between Dave and the clown, and 1:12:06.360 --> 1:12:09.799 so the clown is approaching. Dave starts firing his service 1:12:09.840 --> 1:12:14.280 revolver at the clown, but the clown appears invulnerable until 1:12:14.479 --> 1:12:19.160 Dave discovers the clown's only weakness, the nose. Shooting them 1:12:19.200 --> 1:12:23.720 in the red, bulbous nose causes the nose to explode 1:12:23.800 --> 1:12:26.519 in a burst of confetti, and then the clown turns 1:12:26.560 --> 1:12:31.080 into a spinning, sequined Christmas ornament and then that explodes 1:12:31.080 --> 1:12:34.160 with pink fireworks. Is that about right? 1:12:34.280 --> 1:12:36.479 I think? So? Yeah, I mean you could. You could 1:12:36.520 --> 1:12:38.920 basically say the trick is you shoot him in the face, 1:12:40.040 --> 1:12:42.400 which works with a lot of things, but in this 1:12:42.479 --> 1:12:44.679 case it is the nose. The nose hold their. 1:12:44.560 --> 1:12:49.200 Power, that's right, it's their Achilles nose. Yeah. Also, Dave 1:12:49.280 --> 1:12:51.719 manages to get a call in to the state police 1:12:51.800 --> 1:12:55.000 to request help with their their killer clown issue, and 1:12:55.040 --> 1:12:57.120 the state police are like, Okay, we're on the way 1:12:58.360 --> 1:13:00.639 what's the police code for killer clowns? 1:13:00.800 --> 1:13:02.760 Oh, I don't know. You gotta have a new one 1:13:02.800 --> 1:13:03.000 for that. 1:13:04.000 --> 1:13:06.120 So while Mike and the Trendsy Brothers are on the 1:13:06.120 --> 1:13:11.040 way to pick up Debbie, they encounter a giant mechanized 1:13:11.160 --> 1:13:15.320 human harvesting operation where the clowns are parading through the 1:13:15.360 --> 1:13:19.000 streets of the city, surrounded by confetti and streamers with 1:13:19.120 --> 1:13:22.720 a giant vacuum cleaner machine that sucks up all of 1:13:22.760 --> 1:13:25.240 the people who have been pre wrapped in cotton candy. 1:13:26.200 --> 1:13:28.680 Yeah, it's a full blown parade here. Reminds me a 1:13:28.760 --> 1:13:30.800 lot of a very similar scene that we get in 1:13:30.880 --> 1:13:34.000 nineteen eighty seven's Masters of the Universe when Skeletor rolls 1:13:34.000 --> 1:13:34.519 into town. 1:13:35.960 --> 1:13:39.720 Somewhat recalls also the harvesting imagery and War of the Worlds, 1:13:39.920 --> 1:13:43.639 but obviously here it is clown themed. Yes, yes, Anyway, 1:13:44.200 --> 1:13:46.879 by the time Mike and the brothers arrive at Debbie's apartment, 1:13:46.920 --> 1:13:49.720 she's already been placed inside the balloon and attached to 1:13:49.800 --> 1:13:53.439 a clown car which drives away. So Mike and the 1:13:53.479 --> 1:13:55.960 brothers and then also Dave arrives in his squad car 1:13:56.000 --> 1:14:00.720 and they all give chase, but they lose track of 1:14:00.720 --> 1:14:03.599 the car. Some Oh, I think the Trenzi brothers like 1:14:04.479 --> 1:14:07.000 they pull over because there's a police car behind them. 1:14:07.080 --> 1:14:10.040 Maybe is that what happens? And so they end up 1:14:10.080 --> 1:14:13.679 losing the clown car, but they figure out where it's 1:14:13.720 --> 1:14:16.439 where it's going. Where are these clowns headed with Debbie? Well, 1:14:16.479 --> 1:14:18.920 if you were a clown, where would you go? The 1:14:18.960 --> 1:14:22.080 amusement park? Obviously, that's right. That's where they fill at home, 1:14:22.160 --> 1:14:24.760 that's where they can blend in. So when we see 1:14:24.760 --> 1:14:28.960 the clowns arrive, we pack multiple gags into the same scene. 1:14:29.040 --> 1:14:31.439 Where the clowns show up at the amusement park and 1:14:31.439 --> 1:14:34.439 there's a security guard there. We first of all get 1:14:34.479 --> 1:14:37.120 many clowns climbing out of a single tiny clown car 1:14:37.200 --> 1:14:38.200 while the guard watches. 1:14:38.600 --> 1:14:39.360 Yeah, gotcha. 1:14:39.840 --> 1:14:44.920 And then they also produce like banana cream pies and 1:14:45.080 --> 1:14:46.559 the guards like, what are you going to do with 1:14:46.600 --> 1:14:49.360 those pies? And of course they give him pies to 1:14:49.400 --> 1:14:51.720 the face, but uh oh, the pies are some kind 1:14:51.760 --> 1:14:55.599 of corrosive material, you know, their their lye pies or something, 1:14:55.640 --> 1:14:58.879 and they melt the guard into this pile of whipped 1:14:58.920 --> 1:15:02.240 cream basically, and then as the clowns walk past his 1:15:02.360 --> 1:15:05.720 melted form. Uh, the little clown puts a cherry on top. 1:15:05.960 --> 1:15:10.000 Oh, it's the dedication to the art form. 1:15:10.400 --> 1:15:13.040 So our heroes arrive on scene to the rescue, and 1:15:13.080 --> 1:15:15.920 they head into the funhouse for the final showdown. And 1:15:16.200 --> 1:15:18.680 while they're exploring the clown's layer, here's where we get 1:15:18.720 --> 1:15:22.880 to the curious exchange we talked about earlier. Dave is saying, 1:15:22.920 --> 1:15:25.360 where do the clowns come from? Why are they here? 1:15:25.600 --> 1:15:29.600 Why are they clowns? And Mike says, they're not clowns, 1:15:29.640 --> 1:15:32.240 some kind of animal from another world that just look 1:15:32.439 --> 1:15:35.599 like clowns. And then this is suddenly dawning on him. 1:15:35.800 --> 1:15:39.200 He says, Dave, maybe they're the ancient astronauts, you know 1:15:39.320 --> 1:15:42.360 that came to our planet centuries ago, and our idea 1:15:42.400 --> 1:15:43.920 of clowns comes from them. 1:15:44.320 --> 1:15:49.040 Yes, absolutely, that's that's one I love it. 1:15:49.120 --> 1:15:53.080 They built the pyramids, had to be no other explanation. 1:15:53.040 --> 1:15:56.760 Everything in our clowning cultures, which again, you know, not 1:15:56.760 --> 1:15:59.040 to get too deep here. You know they're they're clowning 1:15:59.280 --> 1:16:01.760 cultures around the world, and they go back a very 1:16:01.800 --> 1:16:05.080 long way. What if they're all based on something we 1:16:05.200 --> 1:16:09.120 observed when these ancient alien creatures came to our world 1:16:09.160 --> 1:16:09.880 and did clowning. 1:16:10.320 --> 1:16:13.320 One of the Tornsi brothers says, how come they're not funny, 1:16:14.120 --> 1:16:15.480 that they are funny. 1:16:15.200 --> 1:16:18.240 But Therenzi brothers they are funny. You might not know funny, 1:16:18.600 --> 1:16:19.360 see it they. 1:16:19.280 --> 1:16:21.960 Are, And then the other one says, how come they're 1:16:22.000 --> 1:16:23.600 not funny. The other one says, maybe they're from a 1:16:23.680 --> 1:16:24.519 dying planet. 1:16:27.280 --> 1:16:27.719 Anyway. 1:16:27.800 --> 1:16:31.479 At some point, our heroes become separated, and the Tornsi 1:16:31.600 --> 1:16:36.360 brothers fall into a ball pit, where they are later 1:16:36.680 --> 1:16:40.599 seduced by clowns in wigs that have made themselves appear 1:16:40.680 --> 1:16:42.640 buxom with the aid of balloons. 1:16:43.360 --> 1:16:45.880 Okay, I'm just gonna put a pin in this one 1:16:46.000 --> 1:16:47.920 and trying to figure out how this factors into the 1:16:47.920 --> 1:16:48.880 clown life cycle. 1:16:49.120 --> 1:16:54.040 Yeah. Meanwhile, Mike and Dave they find the cotton candy 1:16:54.080 --> 1:16:58.040 storage room, and then while hiding, they watch a clown 1:16:58.560 --> 1:17:02.000 drink blood from one of their cocooned victims through a 1:17:02.040 --> 1:17:06.320 silly straw. Yes, this makes me wonder what is the 1:17:06.320 --> 1:17:08.479 origin of silly straws? When do we get the first 1:17:08.520 --> 1:17:09.240 silly straws? 1:17:09.560 --> 1:17:13.160 Hmmm, well, there's definitely I think material requirements for that, 1:17:14.040 --> 1:17:16.200 but of course this would have been something we observed 1:17:16.280 --> 1:17:19.360 long ago when the Killer Clowns visited our world in 1:17:19.479 --> 1:17:20.240 ancient times. 1:17:20.800 --> 1:17:23.000 So we got the idea for silly straws from their 1:17:23.080 --> 1:17:25.280 visits to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. 1:17:25.360 --> 1:17:26.800 Yeah, it would just be a long time. I mean, 1:17:26.800 --> 1:17:28.639 I guess you could have made a glass silly straw 1:17:28.680 --> 1:17:31.439 at some point before you could make a plastic one. Well, 1:17:31.880 --> 1:17:33.920 we'll have to roll out an invention episode on the 1:17:34.280 --> 1:17:35.680 straw and figure that out. 1:17:35.720 --> 1:17:36.160 That would act. 1:17:36.200 --> 1:17:38.960 That would be fun. I'm actually down for that anyway. 1:17:39.520 --> 1:17:42.599 So they eventually find Debbie inside the balloon and Dave 1:17:42.680 --> 1:17:45.559 shoots the balloon to release her, but the sound draws 1:17:45.600 --> 1:17:47.920 the attention of the clowns and this leads into a 1:17:47.920 --> 1:17:50.559 big chase scene where they're running around the spaceship the 1:17:50.600 --> 1:17:55.799 funhouse corridors. There's a good silly firehouse pole gag where 1:17:56.360 --> 1:17:59.200 they like slide down a pole and then they hop 1:17:59.240 --> 1:18:01.679 off at one leg before going down all the way, 1:18:02.200 --> 1:18:04.439 and Dave comes down after them and he's like, why 1:18:04.479 --> 1:18:06.240 didn't you go any lower? And then we just see 1:18:06.240 --> 1:18:08.920 a giant sarlac mouth at the bottom of the pole 1:18:09.200 --> 1:18:14.880 and he says, oh, good reason. But eventually they get 1:18:14.880 --> 1:18:17.680 cornered by clowns in a big funhouse room full of 1:18:17.680 --> 1:18:20.840 wacky painted blocks and furniture, and how are they going 1:18:20.920 --> 1:18:24.200 to escape? The clowns are crowding in, menacing them, and 1:18:24.240 --> 1:18:26.679 then it's the Trenzi brothers to the rescue. I don't 1:18:26.720 --> 1:18:30.320 recall how they got out of the clown seduction situation. 1:18:30.520 --> 1:18:31.759 Maybe that's never revealed. 1:18:31.840 --> 1:18:33.760 Yeah, it seems like they were done for, but they 1:18:33.880 --> 1:18:35.280 I don't know, they love their way out of it, 1:18:35.320 --> 1:18:35.679 I guess. 1:18:35.800 --> 1:18:39.280 Yeah, So they crashed through the wall in their ice 1:18:39.400 --> 1:18:42.559 cream truck. Now, remember the ice cream truck had a 1:18:42.640 --> 1:18:46.320 giant clown on top, and so they get on the 1:18:46.439 --> 1:18:49.439 loud speaker and they say, I am the Great and 1:18:49.560 --> 1:18:53.800 powerful Jojo that you will obey my command. And this 1:18:53.920 --> 1:18:57.519 does seem to work. It temporarily hypnotizes the clowns and 1:18:57.560 --> 1:19:02.120 they stand frozen in awe their their giant clown god. 1:19:03.120 --> 1:19:06.080 So this buys some time for our other heroes to run, 1:19:06.400 --> 1:19:08.200 you know, run out of the middle of the room 1:19:08.200 --> 1:19:12.600 to safety. But this leads into the final final showdown, 1:19:12.640 --> 1:19:16.160 which is the lowering from the ceiling of a gigantic 1:19:16.360 --> 1:19:20.200 clown on marionette strings. And what do we call this. 1:19:20.280 --> 1:19:22.599 Is this the King Clown or clown Zilla? 1:19:23.200 --> 1:19:26.200 I think in the credits it's referred to as clown Zilla, 1:19:26.240 --> 1:19:27.920 but yeah, we might think of it as as kind 1:19:27.960 --> 1:19:30.200 of a ruler of the bunch, or just maybe the 1:19:30.320 --> 1:19:32.559 largest I don't know, Like I have this theory that 1:19:32.600 --> 1:19:35.400 these clowns grow throughout their life, and so some of 1:19:35.439 --> 1:19:36.920 them are just extra huge. 1:19:37.479 --> 1:19:40.880 I would say it is a cross between a clown 1:19:40.920 --> 1:19:43.960 of monstrous size and Bowser from Mario. Do you know 1:19:44.000 --> 1:19:46.160 it's the Bowser like shape and movements. 1:19:46.360 --> 1:19:49.120 Yeah, Like if you were if you could remove the 1:19:49.160 --> 1:19:51.880 grease paint from this face, which you can't because it's 1:19:52.120 --> 1:19:54.720 the clown space, Yeah, you would have had you have 1:19:54.800 --> 1:19:58.360 a very and even more monstrous inhuman skull for this creature. 1:19:59.080 --> 1:20:02.040 So the giant clown attacks it, grabs and hurls the 1:20:02.080 --> 1:20:05.240 ice cream truck across the room, seemingly with the trendsy 1:20:05.360 --> 1:20:07.559 rows inside. So I was like, well, they're dead now, 1:20:08.680 --> 1:20:11.920 and then Dave distracts clown Zilla while Mike and Debbie 1:20:12.000 --> 1:20:15.240 run outside through a hole in the wall. Outside, the 1:20:15.240 --> 1:20:18.800 state police are arriving and Dave is cornered, so it 1:20:18.800 --> 1:20:21.240 seems like he's done for because clown Zilla picks him 1:20:21.280 --> 1:20:23.439 up in his giant hand as if to bite his 1:20:23.520 --> 1:20:27.360 head off. And meanwhile, the big top clown spaceship is 1:20:27.400 --> 1:20:30.600 taking off into the sky and Dave is there in 1:20:30.640 --> 1:20:33.120 the monster clown's hand. How is he going to survive this? 1:20:33.280 --> 1:20:37.360 What's going to happen? The solution is pretty ingenious. He 1:20:37.560 --> 1:20:40.960 takes the police badge off of his shirt, which I 1:20:40.960 --> 1:20:43.640 guess is held in place by a safety pin, and 1:20:43.800 --> 1:20:47.320 uses the pin to pop the nose. Pop the nose 1:20:47.360 --> 1:20:52.559 on the big which this super clown is actually quite fragile. 1:20:52.600 --> 1:20:54.439 I mean, if just a pin prick on the nose 1:20:54.560 --> 1:20:57.680 completely destroys it, and not only the clown Zilla but 1:20:57.720 --> 1:21:03.160 also destroys the entire ship, maybe is like only powered 1:21:03.160 --> 1:21:06.559 by the magic of the clown Zilla. I don't know. 1:21:06.600 --> 1:21:08.840 That's a weakness in the design, I would say. 1:21:09.040 --> 1:21:11.080 I would say so as well. It seems like even 1:21:11.120 --> 1:21:15.960 a very primitive prey culture would be able to overcome you. 1:21:16.439 --> 1:21:19.720 Potentially that's just one well placed arrow. They're victorious. 1:21:20.280 --> 1:21:24.160 So the entire spaceship explodes in fireworks. It seems like 1:21:24.240 --> 1:21:27.120 Dave's got to be dead, right, But somehow no. A 1:21:27.240 --> 1:21:30.639 clown car falls out of the sky and Dave emerges 1:21:30.680 --> 1:21:34.920 from it unhurt. Also, somehow the Trenzi brothers are fine. 1:21:34.960 --> 1:21:39.120 They emerge from the same car eating popsicles. So basically 1:21:39.200 --> 1:21:41.880 all the main characters are okay, and we get our 1:21:41.920 --> 1:21:44.280 final stinger of the heroes looking up into the sky 1:21:44.400 --> 1:21:47.080 and Debbie says, do you think it's over? And then 1:21:47.160 --> 1:21:48.479 pies fall in their faces. 1:21:49.040 --> 1:21:52.240 Presumably these are not acid clown pies like we saw earlier. 1:21:52.720 --> 1:21:55.040 This is just supposed to be a goofy send up 1:21:55.080 --> 1:21:57.559 of that sort of keep watching the skies ending that 1:21:57.640 --> 1:21:59.720 we get in a lot of those old fifties and 1:21:59.760 --> 1:22:02.280 six these movies, whereas like, is is there something else 1:22:02.320 --> 1:22:04.519 out there? Is the end, and you know, we get 1:22:04.520 --> 1:22:08.000 a little philosophic in our victory at the end, and here, 1:22:08.120 --> 1:22:09.800 you know, it's just one more reason for a nice 1:22:09.840 --> 1:22:15.720 clown gag to close it all out. Bravo, All right, 1:22:16.360 --> 1:22:21.760 Killer Clowns from Outer Space, Like I say, commendable. There 1:22:21.760 --> 1:22:25.280 are some other films in the horror comedy genre from 1:22:25.320 --> 1:22:27.840 this time period that I also really love, Terror Vision 1:22:27.880 --> 1:22:30.559 being one of them, But it's really hard to think 1:22:30.560 --> 1:22:33.559 of anything quite like Killer Clowns from Outer Space. It 1:22:33.600 --> 1:22:37.599 does stand alone absolutely, and hey, everybody loves a clown, 1:22:38.280 --> 1:22:43.600 keep up orc uh uh. All right, well, we're going 1:22:43.680 --> 1:22:47.160 to go ahead and close out this our first full 1:22:47.200 --> 1:22:52.000 fledged October episode of Weird House Cinema for this October season, 1:22:52.040 --> 1:22:56.160 but we have more October selections to come, so stay tuned. 1:22:57.000 --> 1:22:59.280 We will have a Weird House Cinema every Friday in 1:22:59.280 --> 1:23:01.360 the Stuff to blow your podcast feed. We're primarily a 1:23:01.400 --> 1:23:04.600 science and culture podcast, with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:23:04.760 --> 1:23:06.840 but Friday is our time to set aside most serious 1:23:06.880 --> 1:23:09.439 concerns and just talk about a weird film. If you 1:23:09.439 --> 1:23:11.000 want to keep up with all the films that we've 1:23:11.000 --> 1:23:13.040 covered over the years and sometimes get a peek ahead 1:23:13.040 --> 1:23:15.960 at what comes up next, go to letterbox dot com 1:23:16.080 --> 1:23:19.160 our account. There is Weird House search us find us, 1:23:19.320 --> 1:23:22.240 look at that list, and yeah, wherever you get your podcasts, 1:23:22.280 --> 1:23:24.360 just make sure that you rate, review and subscribe to 1:23:24.360 --> 1:23:25.280 get more episodes. 1:23:25.640 --> 1:23:29.440 Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway. 1:23:29.680 --> 1:23:31.240 If you would like to get in touch with us 1:23:31.240 --> 1:23:33.799 with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 1:23:33.800 --> 1:23:35.880 a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 1:23:36.040 --> 1:23:38.519 you can email us at contact at Stuff to Blow 1:23:38.520 --> 1:23:46.240 Your Mind dot com. 1:23:46.360 --> 1:23:49.280 Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 1:23:49.400 --> 1:23:52.200 more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 1:23:52.320 --> 1:23:55.440 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.