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| A hillarious threesome. |
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This cult classic horror spoof has it all: a plot that is simple enough to follow and entertaining at the same time, likeable characters and nefarious villains. It's one of these movies that enthrall the viewer with all sorts of otherworldly fantasies which make it hard to be brought back down to earth after the viewing.
The plot consists of an army of sadistic alien life forms, who look remarkably like our concept of a clown. The grisly-looking bunch land in the sleepy American town of Crescent Cove. When their spaceship lands, which is in the form of a circus tent. Mike Tobacco and Debbie Stone , out for a romantic evening, spot the newcomers and decide to investigate. They soon encounter the Klowns and barely escape capture, having been shot at by a "popcorn gun." At first, it seems the popcorn functions simply to track the fleeing teens, but another purpose is revealed later in the movie. Mike and Debbie rush into town to warn others of the impending danger.
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| Who can help feeling sorry for the little fella? |
Naturally, they first try to warn the police. Their warnings are met with scorn by Sgt. Mooney, convinced that the couple are nothing more than kids trying to pull a prank. They are viewed with equal skepticism by another police officer, Dave Hanson. Hanson also happens to be Debbie's ex-boyfriend, and his dislike of Mike is evident.
Meanwhile, the Klowns make their way into Crescent Cove. They harvest the unsuspecting population, blasting random victims with a ray gun that coccoons them with cotton candy, with lethal results. The Klowns use a variety of seemingly innocent methods to ensnare their victims; killer shadow puppets, bloodhound-like balloon animals and a ray gun that looks like a children's toy are all used. Since the methods themselves appear whimsical, the townspeople don't know they are in danger until it's too late.
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| This might as well become a Mario Party mini-game some day. |
When Officer Hanson sees a Klown use a Tyrannosaurus rex shadow puppet to capture a group of townspeople waiting for a bus, he is finally convinced of the danger and offers to help Mike and Debbie (who have also recruited the Terenzi brothers, a pair of local goof-offs who drive an ice cream truck). But for Sgt. Mooney, it is too late. After imprisoning a Klown who has entered the police station ("I'm supposed to read you your rights, but you're in Mooney's jail; and you ain't GOT no rights!"), Mooney is strangled by a teaser-like weapon wielded by the creature. In a delicious irony, Mooney--having repeatedly declared that "no one's going to make a dummy out of me!"--is horribly desecrated by the Klown: it paints his face and jams a hand into his mediastinum, thereby gaining control of Mooney's motor functions and effectively making a puppet out of him. A mortified Officer Hansen witnesses this and pulls his sidearm on the Klown. Shooting the Klown's torso has no effect, but when a bullet strikes the Klown's big red nose, this ignites a dramatic explosion. The Klown vanishes, and Dave has found the way to defeat the Klowns.
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| Killer Klowns usually mind their manners during a meal. |
While the Klown army is carrying out a genocide all around Crescent Cove, Debbie meanwhile is at home taking a shower. While bathing, the popcorn that one of the clowns fired at her begins to act strangely. When she steps out of the shower, she is attacked by several Jack-in-the-box-like creatures with clown heads. Debbie fends off the creatures with hairspray and a shower sprayer. It is possible these creatures may have been young space clowns, as the clown who used a shadow puppet to capture the group waiting by the bustop is seen putting his hands into a bag full of popcorn afterwards. While trying to escape, Debbie is captured by the Klowns. But instead of being turned into cotton candy, she is imprisoned in a balloon. Why she is taken alive is not stated in the movie. However she was not the only person to be taken away in a balloon.
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| truncheon bout |
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Debbie is taken back to the Klowns' "Big Top" circus tent-spaceship. Mike, Officer Hanson and the Terenzi brothers pursue them. It is there that they discover why the Klowns have been capturing people. By cocooning them inside their cotton candy, the Klowns gelatinize the humans' bodies into a liquid that is digestible. Vast numbers of victims (a majority of the town's population) are being stored aboard Big Top. The Klowns insert a crazy straw into the cotton candy, sucking the deceased victim's gelatinized bodies.
Debbie is eventually freed, and a hole is crashed into Big Top by the Terenzi Brothers' ice cream truck. Rich and Paul Terenzi, using their PA system, pretend to be the Klowns' leader (there's a giant clown's head with a sugar cone-hat on top of the truck). They tell the Klowns to let Mike, Debbie, and Officer Hanson go. But then a giant "Master Klown," roughly 30 feet tall, descends from the ceiling: Klownzilla, the "King Klown," presumably the leader of the aliens. The Master Klown violently throws the Terenzi Brothers' ice cream truck across the ship (with the Terenzi Brothers in it), resulting in a fiery explosion. Officer Hanson creates a diversion so Mike and Debbie can escape. He defeats the Master Klown by popping its big red nose (the Klowns' only weakness) with his badge. Master Klown blows up, and so does Big Top in mid-liftoff, but Officer Hanson and the Terenzi brothers all survive (Rich and Paul took cover in the freezer, with the ice cream, when their truck exploded; during the Big Top explosion, they and Dave all hid in a Klown Kar, which literally falls out of the sky). The movie ends with a bunch of cream pies being dumped on the heroes.
