The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #3: Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) & Clown (2016) (Reupload)

Episode Date: April 2, 2021

In Episode #3, we review the newest Eli Roth production, "Clown," and also give props to the Chiodo Brother's 1988 Kooky Klassic Kamp Komedy "Killer Klowns from Outer Space!" It's all the Clowning you can stand this week on...The Horror Returns! Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR X: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= THR TeePublic: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horror-returns SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 E Society Spotify For Podcasters: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/esoc E Society YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCliC6x_a7p3kTV_0LC4S10A Music By: Steve Carleton Of The Geekz

Greetings, listeners. You have found the horror returns. For all of you who delight in dread, fantasize about fear and glorified gore, welcome home. This is the podcast that proves that the horror never ends. Each episode, we seek out and review a brand new horror movie or book. And then we go back and find a classic work with similar themes. And we're looking at both similarities and differences.

Our goal is to explore how our perceptions of fear remain the same from generation to generation, but also to point out how the presentation can change based on the social and political climate of the times. Although we always do our best to avoid spoiling the new release, sometimes it may be necessary to talk about certain details in the course of our conversation. We generally assume you guys have already seen the classic film, so there will often be spoilers when discussing anything that's been out for at least a year. The other thing we may do from time to time is use a few four-letter words. This is a horror podcast, and horror movies tend to be R-rated, so you can pretty much expect us to be too.

I'm Lance, and here with me tonight is Brian. Our co-host, Philip, could not make it this week. So let's start out with a discussion of some of the highlights of what we've checked out this week. Brian, what are some of the coolest things you've seen this week? didn't quite check out a lot this week but I did start a new show Outcast Have you heard of this show?

Yeah, if I'm not mistaken Isn't this a Robert Kirkman comic book made into a TV show And I think it's on Cinemax, right? Yes, it is I'm all in After the first episode, I was all in It's a fantastic show

It has to do with with a demon possession and exorcisms. And I didn't realize until we were about into the second episode that the main, the main lead in it, he was the kid. You ever see the movie Almost Famous? That is actually one of my wife's favorite films of all time. Yeah, the kid, that was the reporter. Right.

He is actually the lead in this TV show. I'll be damn almost famous. That is the one with the Tiny Dancer song. that they're singing on the bus, right? Yes. Yeah, my wife loves that movie, man. Are you talking about the kid that was, yeah, you said the kid that was actually the reporter for Rolling Stone, right?

Yeah, I didn't, yeah, I did not recognize him until they did a flashback scene where he was, you know, clean shaving and everything. Right. But, uh, it's, it's a fantastic show. I recommend this. Cool. I like the special effects in it and, um, the acting's great in it. And, uh, it kind of, kind of, kind of.

kind of leaves you each episode with questions, and it makes you want to watch the next episode. So I'd highly recommend this. Hey man, that's the most you could ask for in a show, you know? Yes. Yeah, I saw something about it, and if I'm not mistaken, I think the first episode was put out on YouTube for free

to kind of get people hooked on it. I believe so. Yeah, I think that I probably will check this out. I appreciate you bringing it up because I was kind of on the fence about whether I was going to check it out. But yeah, man, if it's that cool and if it really gets you want the next episode that much, I'll definitely take a look. And didn't really check anything out except the movies we'll be talking about. So what did you check out this week? Well, I actually kind of did a couple of Netflix selections, or I should say new Netflix selections.

Um, there's a TV show that apparently has been on the Chiller, uh, channel for a while. It's now on Netflix. It's called Slasher. Have you heard about this? Yes. I, um, I've been waiting for someone to talk about this. I haven't got a chance to see it, but I just wanted to, uh, get someone else's take on it. Should I start it or should I not or?

Well, I'm, I'm one episode in. And, um, so far so good. What I didn't like is the very beginning. I really loved the little scene that they had at the beginning. It took place at Halloween, and I think it was like in 1988. And so it was kind of like a flashback scene. And it was, I guess, kind of setting the whole thing up

where it kind of showed a home invasion and a murder. And it was extremely well filmed, and I loved it. It was kind of like watching like a late 80s to 90s horror movie. Okay. The intro, I was a little ticked off because it, It almost seemed like the intro was trying to mimic American Horror Story. They sort of had the same kind of weird cuts and the same music beats that you get in the American Horror Story intro. Okay.

Yeah, that kind of threw me off a little bit. And I'm like, you know what? You guys are making a late 80s, early 90s horror, you know, horror movie here or TV show based on late 80s 90s horror movies. They would have a great opportunity to kind of, you know, show that style instead. and I think they kind of missed the boat there. But once they got into the show, it reminded me a lot of not the TV series screen because I haven't seen that,

but the original film, the first screen movie. Okay. And it sort of reminded me of like some of the later Friday the 13th movies a little bit. I mean, I'm definitely intrigued. I'm going to continue watching, no doubt. And they did kill someone off in the first episode, so I'm kind of thinking they're going to at least have one murder every episode,

which is intriguing to me. And speaking of Scream, it looks like they kind of follow one of their main rules like everybody is a suspect. Okay. Yeah, because it's really, really, really hard to tell who's doing the killing. And so, yeah, I think I'm going to stick with it.

I know there's eight episodes in the first season. So eight episodes I think I can handle. Yeah, I think I'm going to check it out. You said it's on Netflix? It is on Netflix now, the first season. The other thing that I checked out on Netflix is an animated film, and it's an anthology of Edgar Allan Poe stories. It is called Extraordinary Tales. Oh, okay.

And I was actually a little bit nonpluss with it, to tell you the truth. I'm kind of a Poe fan, and I do like his stories. There were some really good voice talents in it. Christopher Lee did the voice on one of the stories. Julian Sands from Warlock, did the voice on one of the stories. There was an extremely old recording of Boris Karloff, and they kind of set, I guess, a new animated film to his original recording. But what I really enjoyed the most was the final story,

which was the mask of the Red Death. And what I thought was so cool about that one is no one really told the Post story, and yet they showed they illustrated the story out on animated style. So you could actually watch the story unfold but there were no words in it. And the way they did it and the animation was really cool.

So, you know, I would say the first, there's five stories total. The first four, yeah, not so great, but the final one was really cool. Okay. So do you recommend people check this out? You know what? I would say considering that it is on Netflix,

If you have a subscription anyway, absolutely. Check it out. Okay. Why not? You know? And now, as with every show, it's time to take a little trip to the trailer park. We take a look at the big, the small, and sometimes the very, very weird. Brian, what's our first new trailer to talk about this week? First one we're going to talk about is Rob Zombies 31.

Oh, yeah. Off of our previous, we've had a previous discussion on how I've, feel about Rob Zombie. I'm not sure about this one. He makes very, very good trailers for his movies. I always, after

watching the trailer, I always want to check his movies out and then I'm left a little disappointed after I do. But I like the whole aspect of these people are basically fighting for their lives in this game. to the death.

That intrigues me. But I don't know. It's Rob Zombie. I'm not the biggest fan of his movies. And of course, as we've seen in the trailer, his wife is in his movie again. How did you feel about this one? Well, you know what?

Not only is she in the trailer, but if I'm not mistaken, she's actually the star of the film, right? I didn't get it. get that, but now that you mentioned, she was in quite a few scenes in the trailer, so. Well, I'll tell you what, she does seem to be out of character, because typically in his films, she is an antagonist, or at the very least, if not a full-on villain, she's at least somebody who is kind of on the evil side of things. Yeah. Yeah, this one seemed like the opposite. It seemed like she was actually kind of the hero in this one, the one trying to survive.

Yeah, now that you mention it, yeah. But it does, like I said, it does intrigue me the whole, what is the game, the game of 31? Yeah, it's 31, and I know there was, if I'm not mistaken, there was a lawsuit filed by someone at Marvel Comics. Because I remember in the, I think it was in the X-Men comics, they had a villain named Arcade. Okay. And he basically set up an area called Murder World. And he would kidnap the mutants and make them survive through murder world, which was kind of like a, you know, basically kind of like a fun house that can kill you.

Okay. And my understanding is that this movie was considered to be way too close to that theme. And there was a lawsuit. And I think that's part of what held up the production on this one. Yeah, because isn't the place in the movie? murder world? I believe so. I believe so.

And obviously, he finally got the okay to release it, so they must have come to some kind of an agreement. But, dude, I'm definitely a rob zombie zombie.

Everything he's done I've enjoyed. As a matter of fact, House of 1,000 corpses, for whatever reason, when it came out at the time, it was actually my favorite, looking back, it was my favorite movie

of that year that came out of all movies. I know a lot of people say that it's just kind of a rip-off of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that a lot of the characters are exactly the same, the predicaments are the same. I don't know, man, but for some reason, that movie really touched me, and I enjoy it quite a bit. I love that one, and I love the follow-up to it, Devil's Rejects. Oh, yeah, me too, man. It's just everything since then I have not liked.

well I actually liked his Halloween reimaginings quite a bit I'll give you the first one the second one it was a little confusing to me well the thing that I liked about it was he did not try to just kind of do a beat a beat for beat remake of Halloween or Halloween too in my opinion he tried to do something completely different by actually going back and doing the flashbacks and showing Michael Myers as a kid and stuff like that I actually kind of enjoyed that I thought it brought something to the mythology.

So, you know, a lot of the movies that he does, people are hard on, but I'm a Rob Zobby fan. I mean, bottom of mind, I'm looking forward to this. I will absolutely positively go see it in the theater, unless it's direct to video. And if it's direct to video, I'll definitely rent it when it first comes out. But yeah, dude, I'm stoked, man. Yeah, I'll definitely give it a try. Like I said, a lot of the trailers for his movies makes you want to go see. It's just the movie itself.

That's how I feel personally. But I'm going to check it out, too. So do you think any of that has to do with the fact that he is a musician and really into these music videos? It's kind of like, you know, get you in, get you out type thing. And trailers are kind of like that. Do you think that has something to do with it? Maybe a little bit. yeah i mean i'm excited dude

i'm a rob zombie fan from uh from from from the beginning for sure yeah i'm just hopefully this this will be more house of a thousand corpses devil's rejects than lord's of salem well that's that's how that's what i'm hoping for

understood i mean it remains to be seen but uh you know we'll just have to let it play out another concern that i've got is um and i'm sure a lot of it has do with the lawsuit and everything, but this is yet another one of those movies, and it seems like everything we've talked about

in the last two weeks, two or three weeks, has been in this same boat. But, you know, Brian, it's yet another film that has taken a year or two from start to finish to finally get to the theater.

Yeah. So, you know, obviously that's going to have me concerned. Yeah, absolutely. Well, what else are going to talk about trailer-wise, man? Okay, we're going to talk about a house on Pine Street. Not sure what to think of this one.

I totally agree with you. From what I'm hearing, this is getting a lot of buzz. Why? Yeah, I was just about to say, not quite sure. I don't know why. It looks like another haunted house, ghost slamming doors kind of movie. I don't know. nothing in the trailer really made me want to go watch this movie.

I mean, I don't know, Nan, it seems like, I mean, that's the flavor of the day, right? Hauntings and paranormal things of that nature,

right? Yeah, even some of the stuff in the, the trailer with the door slamming, even my wife was, my wife doesn't even watch these kind of movies. And she was like, well,

you know, that was kind of weak. That's not scary. So how do you think the fact that she's pregnant plays into this whole thing. Because they make it brutally obvious that she's pregnant. You know, I don't...

From the movie, I don't know. It just might be coincidence that she's pregnant. I don't know. The trailer didn't really give you much to go on. Yeah, nothing about this catches my attention, man. I got to be honest with you, until I know more about it or what the heck is actually going on, I'm not going to get real excited about this one.

yeah i'm i'm i'm gonna have to 100% agree with you on this one gonna have to uh gonna have to hear more about this and but for right now it's uh it's a pass for me so do you know anything about it like who's in it or um is there is there anyone that's uh you know that that's famous here is is the director known for anything i mean you know uh nothing was really st stood out as far as i know this is an independent movie right i could i couldn't be wrong on that one, but I've really heard nothing about who's in it or... Well, I guess we'll just reserve judgment until we get a chance. Brian, what's in the news today?

Okay, the first thing we're going to talk about is something to do with one of our podcast's favorite movies, The Conjuring, too. Oh, okay. The Conjuring is getting another spinoff movie. Well, that didn't take very long. No. This one is going to be based off the nun. I heard something about this, and whenever I hear this kind of news, it makes me a little bit nervous. Is it because of Annabelle or spin-off in particular?

You know what? It's that, and also the fact that it is possible to milk a cow too much. Yeah, I agree. But I think, as far as anything, This seems like a way better idea than Annabelle. You think so? Yeah, because you never really got a kind of backstory on the nun. I'm a little interested to see how the progression was to the nun to where basically she was a demon nun in the movie. So I'm curious. I think if I'm not mistaken, I think that there was.

a line in The Conjuring 2 where he was referring to going back his raising in Catholic schools but it might understand that they were both raised in the Catholic school system I think so

all right so it may have something to do with that then huh it may be but it could be you know it might be just another cash grab these spinoff

movies. That's my only concern, man. Yeah, because we are getting an Annabelle 2 next year. Ah, you're kidding. No, no, sir. Wow. And doing doing, doing, doing some research, I did not know the first Annabelle made that much money. It made like, something like between like two to 300 million. Well, can't blame him for remaking that. Yeah, so. But like I said, I'm, I'm interested in this. I'm more interested in, I still haven't seen Annabelle. I might, it could be a possibility. I see the nun before I see Annabelle, the first one. So it's got my interest, definitely. All right. Well, just see what happens. I mean, after The Conjuring, too, he's definitely

bought himself a little bit of wiggle room. Is one supposed to direct it or do you know? As far as I know, he's probably going to produce. Right. That's kind of what I figured. Yeah, because they are already talking about a conjuring three. Sure, sure. And the possibilities. The rumor I heard thrown out there for the conjuring three is something to do with werewolves. Oh, come on.

Yeah, the warrants do have a case that has something to do with werewolves. Oh, shit. Okay, so you're going to have that coming out, and the same year you're probably going to have swear wolves coming out, right? Which is the follow up to what we do in the shadows? I did not hear about that one. Yeah, that's the next one, man. You remember the swear wolves, or the werewolf group that was in that movie? Yes.

Yeah, they've got their own spinoff coming up, my friend. Oh, okay. Well. Quite frankly, I'm a lot more excited about that one. Yes, definitely. If anybody out there is not check that movie out, they need to go check that movie out. Oh, yeah, for sure. All right, man.

Well, what else is coming up? Okay. even some more Friday the 13th news. Oh, boy. Yeah, the writers have recently came out because a lot of people were not really feeling this whole origin story. Jason's daddy and all that, huh?

Yeah, they're saying... What a surprise. They're saying it's not really an origin story. Okay. Talk about backtracking, huh? Yeah, they said origin-ish. So it's not going to... The movie is not going to be...

a complete origin story. Okay. Please elaborate, Brian. They said it's going to be more of like an alternate timeline for Jason. They said, from what I read,

we're going to get to Jason that we all know and love. Right, right. We're going to get more of his mother, Pamela. So is this going to be an Earth 2, Jason, or what? I don't know. Every week it seems something new comes out about this next one. And every now and then there's a new little tidbit that kind of intrigues me. But then they come with something with the, we're going to introduce his father and all this.

And it just kind of, it throws me off. I just, I actually kind of enjoyed the remake. Right. And I kind of wish the next one was just, just build off of that one. Just do another one. you know. Well, yeah, the remake wasn't terrible. I think it was kind of funny that Jason was a pot dealer. Yeah. And I kind of felt like they should have just went there and just, you know, built off of that. You know, it's plenty to build off, right?

Yeah, it kind of, it kind of reintroduced, you know, Jason to the younger audience. Sure. But now apparently we need to reintroduce him again with, I don't care what they're saying. it still sounds like a origin story. So, I don't know. Friday the 13th is one of my favorite franchises. And I just, I don't understand why they have to,

we don't need an origin story. We know what happened to Jason, you know. So, I don't know. This kind of makes me a little upset. Yeah, you know what, man? I mean, frankly, I'm kind of wondering if even know what they're going to do, Brian, or if they're just playing this by the seat of their pants.

Yeah, I mean, let's, you know, let's really think about it. The last one came out in, what, 2009? Was it that long ago? Yeah, so. Okay. What is, what is really the problem? It really takes that long to make another one? It doesn't make any sense, does it?

Yeah. But I can say, I don't know if you've seen online the gameplay footage for the video game, looks amazing. Oh, I've heard a lot of good things about the game. I'm not a gamer, are you? Yes, a little bit. Trying to get back in there. It's just, you know, with kids and work.

You know, it's kind of hard to find time to play games. Sure. But they had released a trailer for the game, and then shortly after that, they released five minutes of game footage. All right. I think I'm going to go ahead and pre-order my copy. Cool.

The game should be out around October. and you can play as Jason or you can play as one of the campers, the teenagers. Interesting. Interesting. Okay. So there is a bright spot out of all this Friday of 13th news, and I would say it's the game, not what they're telling us, what the next movie is going to be. All right.

I got you. So are you a PlayStation guy or a Microsoft guy? Microsoft, I would like to own a PlayStation, but, you know, you got to, with, what things cost these days you've got to pick one or the other so oh absolutely yeah yeah and especially with all the uh all the money we spend going out going out and seeing these movies huh yeah it's uh actually it's a lot cheaper than buying these games it's like 60s a pop for a game oh yeah from what and and you know what that's i'll tell you what i got out there's two things i got out of i got out of gaming for that very reason and i definitely got out of comic book collecting

because it got to the point where I was a, for example, I was a big X-Men reader. Yes. And Brian, it got to the point where if you wanted to follow up with what was going on in that world, you had to get X-Men Red, X-Men Blue, X-Factor, X-Force, X-Calibur, X-Calibur, X-this, X-that. You know, by the time it was all sudden done, I was spending about 50 or 60 bucks a week on comics. Yeah, I'm a comic collector, too. so I totally agree. I've gotten to the point where I'll

buy the first issue of something read it. If I like it, then I'll wait for the trade to come out. Right. And because it's like with the new Civil War II

comic that came out, you would have to not just buy the Civil War book itself, you would have to buy the Spider-Man, the Captain Marv, you know, just all these different comics just to get, you know, the whole story. And, you know, that's, that's a lot of money. Absolutely, man.

Yeah, that's what, that's what pretty much turned me off of that. But I still do collect every time, every now and then. But I agree. It's, it can get expensive. Mm-hmm. So we have any more news stories to talk about? One more news topic. I think we had previously talked about the Predator movie.

Oh, yes. And how it was going to star Arnold, returning Arnold. I was hoping that it would. Recent comments came out from Shane Black that he will, as far as they know, he will be in the movie, but he is not going to be the main character. Okay. Not a surprise. Not a surprise at all there.

Yeah, I kind of see that given his age. and you probably want to get somebody younger in there. Sure. Yeah, I mean, at some point, it's time to pass the crown on to somebody else, right? Yeah, I'm really excited about this movie with Shane Black writing it, and they're making it a direct sequel to the first one. Cool. So I'm interested.

I can't wait. I love The Predator. So you're basically telling me that we probably cannot expect. to see Adrian Brody in this one. I don't, did they ever get off that planet? I don't know, man. That's a good question. But the thing I was wondering, if this is a direct sequel to the first one,

is all the other ones kind of recond out? Oh, man, that's the problem. That's what you get into. And that's the problem they're in with the X-Men movies now. So, I don't know, man. I mean, let me put it to you this way. If Shane Black is directing it and Arnold at least has some kind of a role in it, I'm in. Totally, yes.

Yeah, I'm going to at least check it out. But other than that, that is all the news we have. Cool. And now on to tonight's featured attractions. We start with a review and discussion of clown, produced by Eli Roth. And then we move on to another creepy clown movie, 1988's Chiodo Brothers cult classic. Killer Clowns from outer space. So since we're going to be talking about Clown first,

let's go into some trivia. Clown was directed by John Watts. He's also known for Copcar and the upcoming Spider-Man Homecoming. The writers were John Watts with Christopher Ford. Christopher Ford was known for writing Robot and Frank and also Copcar. He also wrote a made-for-TV movie

called Eugene. This was starring Eugene Merman. Have you heard of him? No. Well, he's a regular guest host on Neil deGrasse Tyson's Star Talk podcast. And he was also part of Flight of the Concordes, if you've ever seen that. Yeah, I've seen a couple episodes. Clown was released in limited theaters and video on demand on June 17, 2016.

This was three and a half years after shooting in winter. 2012. Now that is normally the kiss of death. So we'll see how our reviews go, but the fact that it was filmed in 2012 and finally released in 2016 is definitely worth noting. This film is actually based on a 2010 fake trailer. Watts and Ford dropped the trailer on YouTube, falsely claiming it to be for an upcoming Eli Roth directed film as a joke. So these two guys made a fake trailer, you know, kind of like the fake trailer from Machete, for example. Yes.

And at the end of the trailer, it said, from the mind of Eli Roth. Anyway, apparently Eli Roth got the joke. And he reached out to the duo to create an actual full-linked film, which he would go on to produce. So that's how you get an Eli Roth movie. That is how you get an Eli Roth movie. Okay. And I want to know, Brian, what you thought of this Eli Roth movie. I, by the time the movie was over, I felt a little underwhelmed.

Okay. As far as the clown, the explanation, the mythology of the suit, I really like that. I really dug that. I agree. I agree. I really enjoyed that talking about the fact that it started out as a demon or some kind of an entity called a cloyne from going way back. And it kind of helped explain what a modern-day clown is, which I thought that was really neat too. And give me, I'm not, you know, we're not going to go into spoilers, maybe, you know, slightly.

But didn't the suit kind of actually look like and maybe kind of look like scale, kind of scaly skin kind of? I don't know. I just, when the reveal of the origin of the costume, it just kind of came off that way. Like it didn't just look like a regular suit after that. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Man, I got that too, for sure. He did a pretty good job of presenting that. But, I mean, the acting was fine.

But I don't know. It just kind of, maybe it was a little overhyped for me. You think so? Yeah, ever since I heard about this movie, I've been wanting to see it. So it just left me a little underwhelmed. How about you? Underwhelmed, okay, that's a good way to put it. Brian, I was actually heartbroken.

Oh. I was actually heartbroken. And let me tell you why. This director, John Watts, the movie that he, and I'm sure he made this movie quite a bit after clown, so I'm sure he was really getting his feet wet when he was doing this one,

particularly considering it was based on a short that he did a couple of years prior to that. But Copcar was actually one of my favorite film, of last year. It really was man, and Kevin Bacon was phenomenal in it. The kids were just amazing. And the writing of it and the

way they were able to balance comedy and dread and terror, I just found it to be one of my favorite movies last year. So, when I heard that this particular director had already been tagged to direct Spider-Man

Homecoming, which I guess will be coming out next year, I thought, okay, this movie is going to be fucking phenomenal. I was really looking forward to clown, dude. And I love body horror. I'm a huge David Cronenberg fan. Yes, absolutely. And I am absolutely fucking fearful of clowns.

I hate them. I fucking hate clowns, Brian. Dude, I thought this movie was just an absolutely hit me. I thought I was going to get a gut punch. and I was going to just enjoy it every step of the way and be incredibly scared. It just didn't do it for me, man. Did not do it for me.

I was heartbroken. I was expecting such a great film and what I got was like an hour and a half of shit, quite frankly. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, the movie was kind of boring. You hit the nail right on the head. Boring is a great word for it. And it's so disappointing because, you know, we both were really looking forward to this. Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. I don't know, but, I mean, there are some good points, you know. Like I said, the whole mythology that they created around this suit, but it just kind of fell flat. I mean, the whole, I'm really trying not to spoil this movie, but a few of the death scenes in here, I kind of felt like were cutaways, kind of. of, you know, that you really didn't get anything. And I just, I wanted this movie to just be violent and twisted and just, but it wasn't. Well, I'm going to say something that might be a little bit controversial.

But when you look back at this movie and when you look back at the setup and the fact that he was going after these children, the fact that he was like, for example, there was a scene where he was hiding out in a bathroom, waiting for kids to show up. Is it just me? Or did this look like some kind of a really, you know, kind of a weird, almost like a child molestation fable? Yeah, there was times when it kind of,

the whole, again, I feel like we're getting into spoilers, but the whole scene in the, I don't know what you call it, the children's little play arcade area. I don't even know what you're called. Yeah, like the Chucky Cheese. Yeah, that was, you know, that was a little creepy. Very creepy, dude.

I mean, it might be the most creepiest part of this movie, that whole aspect, actually. Right. So there was something creepy about this movie. Yeah, I mean, that kind of turned me off. And the fact that they didn't really show too much gore, like you said, every time they were going to show a good kill, they sort of backed off from it, you know?

Yeah, and you just kind of got the aftermath of what happened. Yeah, the aftermath. And it's like this movie didn't know what it wanted to be. Yeah, and it's like you get the aftermath and you kind of see what happened to somebody and then you're just like, wow, that looked like it might have been brutal. Why couldn't we have seen it, you know? But I was disappointed. I mean, there were a couple of kind of good effects.

like if you've noticed he had like rainbow colored phlegm yes and there were some parts where body fluids came out of him and they were rainbow colored at certain points in the movie

and that was kind of a neat a neat little touch I thought you know considering yeah I really I really dug his transformation yeah the transformation was a trip dude there was I mean there was some things

I didn't notice was going on until like his wife pointed out I'm like, oh, really? Okay, yeah, I didn't notice that. That just kind of changed. What did you think about Peter Stormere? I'm a little biased on Peter Stormer because I think he's awesome and everything. I love him.

I think he was actually one of the few saving graces of this movie. Yes, absolutely. He, I don't, like I said, I don't know if it's just, I just really like him, but I just feel like whenever he pops up in him, the movie could be terrible, and then he'll pop up and it gets a little bit better. Yeah, I agree, man. And did you notice that no matter what, it seemed like his wife never gave up on him? Yeah.

Yeah, I will, she was there by his side up until. Up until then. Yeah, even right before then. Right. Because I did, you kind of felt like the son maybe the son gave up. sure sure but even then she was still kind of you know with him to that point yeah to me i mean the one thing i kind of appreciated it about it it it does seem like it was kind of an analogy to someone who has a weird fetish or a really weird addiction which in this case i think

was probably you know pretty obviously child molestation i mean i hate to say that but it really seems like from the scenes and the way they played them out, they were really trying to make it look like this guy, you know, he had some molestation problems, but his wife stayed with him, you know, through the whole thing, you know? Yeah, and just to bring up another scene in the movie, did you ever, there was a lot of animosity between the father-in-law? Mm-hmm. But they never explained why.

Yeah, they didn't go into any detail. Yeah, and it kind of seemed like. It kind of seemed like the friends didn't like him either. Mm-hmm. So that was a little underwhelming, too. It just seemed like, did nobody like this guy or,

I don't know, it just kind of wasn't explained, really. They could have done a lot more with that, huh? Yeah, because it just really seemed like the wife's father just really hated this guy. Right. Yeah, I mean, to be honest with you, man, this movie was, um, in,

in one word for me, underwhelming. I was very disappointed. This director has a lot of potential. Not really sure why this wasn't that great, and I don't know if it had to do with the fact that it was because it was his first attempt,

or maybe they were just trying to rush it out there or whatever, but I don't know, man. I expected a lot more out of this movie, especially haven't seen Copcar. Okay, here's a question. I didn't get to see Copcar Right After watching this and previously watching

Copcar Are you Okay with him doing Spider-Man Or does it have you a little bit worried Not quite as happy anymore, dude Here's what I liked about Copcar Copcar focused on two boys Copcar was kind of like a boy's tale

You know like the story of two preteens that got in way over their head. Kevin Bacon was an absolutely integral part of that movie. He was one of the most believable and hateable villains that I've seen in a long time, okay? He's the bacon. He's the bacon. Yet much better than he was in the darkness, okay?

I think we'll agree on that. But having seen that movie, I know what this director is capable of getting out of his performance. And that movie was all about the performances because it was also an extremely low budget movie. So, yeah, I mean, I think, I still have faith, but I really wish I hadn't, I hate to see it, but I wish I hadn't seen this movie, man. I'm kind of right there with you. I wish I hadn't seen this movie. That's how disappointing I was.

I was expecting so much more, dude. Yeah, you ready to do the ratings on this one? Absolutely, absolutely. I'll start, okay? All right. So on Clown, I'm going to give this a three out of ten, and I'm not going to say any more about it. Just because I don't want to give it a rating lower than the darkness,

I'm going to give it a five out of ten. Wow. Okay. There was, like I said, I really dug on the mythology. I wish there was more of it. There was some good points in this movie. It's just they didn't give you. enough.

Mm-hmm. So there was a decent movie in here, but it wasn't as bad as the darkness. There was a decent movie in here somewhere, huh? Somewhere. I don't know. Maybe I will give it another watch. Maybe I'll watch it and I'll find something in there somewhere. All right.

Well, I'll tell you what, Brian. If you get this one another watch, enjoy. And let me know what you thought. I sure will. All right. So I think at this point we can move on to our next movie. So I give it a three, you give it a five. Obviously you liked it a lot better than I did.

Yeah, I'm interested to hear what Philip thought about it too. Tell you what, why don't we move from a new film that took three years to come out? Or actually four years, right? Three and a half years. Pretty close. to a, what some people would consider, cult classic. And that would be,

Killer Clowns from outer space. And I'm sure you've seen this from before, right, my friend? Oh, I've seen this quite a few times. All right, well, Killer Clowns was directed by Stephen Chiodo. Writers, Stephen Chiodo with brother Charles Chiodo. In case you couldn't tell from watching this movie, the Chiodo brothers are primarily famous for their puppeteering. So they have done puppeteering in such films as Adventures in Wonderland,

the classic Good Burger. Do you remember that one? Yes, I do. And do you remember Team America World Police? Oh, you can never forget that movie. Okay. So let's go into trivia. To pay tribute to Alfred Hitchcock

Psycho, the famous bloody shower drain shot is mimicked with a toilet bowl swirl. Do you remember seeing the toilet bowl swirl in this movie? Yes, I did. The actor John Vernon, who plays Officer Mooney, also had a part in I'm going to get you sucker. One of my favorite films of all time, by the way. And he was in that one at the very end. of the movie as Mr. Big. He also played the dean in Animal House.

When Debbie and Mike are in the pink cocoon room of the circus, Mike yells out, Joe Lombardo. However, I'm sorry, man. This is definitely a so bad it's good movie. However, Joe Lombardo doesn't die until at least four scenes later in the movie. When a killer clown edges him off the road,

over a cliff. I'm sorry. I love this movie, dude. The film has a rabbit cult fan base. Though not a hit when it was first in theaters, the film has since become a cult classic and made revenue in action figures, DVDs, and T-shirts.

There are interesting similarities between the blob, a 1958 movie, and this one. Both have a first victim, him who is an old geyser living in a cabin who has a dog. Do you remember the original, The Blob? I've seen it once before. I'm more familiar with the remake. Yeah, the original had Steve McQueen in it as the hero. Yes. Both movies have a decent cop named Dave,

who does not believe the young people, and a crabby older cop who seems to have a grudge against young people. Horrorcore rap group, the Insane Clown Posse, often sample quotes. from this film and their music, most notably on the Raith Shangri-A album. So, you know, here we go. Killer clowns from outer space.

Like I said, one of my favorite B movies, one of my favorite low-budget schlock films of all time. You know what, Brian, every time I go back and watch this movie, I have more fun than I did the time before. Oh, absolutely.

You know, and knowing that these guys were puppeteers, how many instances in this film can you think of that they use puppets or puppeteering? Oh, throughout the movie it seemed like. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. So what are some of your original thoughts about this? Is this one you've seen before or was this your first time to watch it? I've seen this movie many times throughout my life.

and like you said, every time you watch it, it gets fun. Right. I mean, the design of the clowns is just creepy, but goofy at the same time.

Sure. The weapons are amazing. The cotton candy gun, you know, turns people into cotton candy cancunes, the popcorn gun. The pies, whatever's in the pies is crazy.

but this movie is and you know I didn't really realize it until just watching it recently the people in this town are stupid no shit it's I am not sticking around for any clowns that look like that

to see them do any kind of tricks or anything I was just like it's like one dumb person after another right this is a movie you can keep revisiting it and you know it for me personally it gets better every time it's I didn't with clown I felt bored with this one I never feel bored watching it you know what everything about this from the cheesy synthesizer heavy 80s music soundtrack yeah to the to the amazingly weird and surrealistic and quite frankly

acid trippy set design. Everything about this movie I love. Have you ever heard of a 1980 film called Forbidden Zone? I've heard of it, yes. Okay. This movie was directed by Richard Elfman. He's the brother of a particular musician,

I'm sure you've heard of, named Danny Elfman. Yes. Who's done hundreds of movie scores. He did the original Batman. He did Beetlejuice. he actually did the score for the desperate housewives TV show okay yeah yeah Danny Elfman he was in a band called mystic knights of the Oingo Boingo

okay they were pretty big in the 80s his brother Richard Elfman directed a film which was incredibly bizarre and it came out in 1980 it was called the Forbidden Zone it was actually filmed all in black and white It had a lot of extremely weird musical numbers, but the set design was almost identical to the Killer Clown set design, except Killer Clowns was filmed in color,

and this was in black and white. But you kind of get the same feeling that you're on a really, really weird acid trip the whole time that you're watching it. And upon re-watching Killer Clowns, it reminded me so much of this movie. I could see that now that you're saying it. And how funny is it? is it that the movie started with a scene at a restaurant called Big Top Burgers? And then the first thing, you know, like we were talking about in the trivia, you've got the old man with a dog named Poo, and the old man finds, you know, he sees the falling star and goes out to investigate.

The next thing, you know, you cut to town, and you've got this asshole officer Mooney. Gosh, he was just so He was so grouchy. This guy just hated everything. All he wanted to do was fuck with anybody who was more smart than him or who had a chance to succeed more than him. And I was always, he was always bitching about these rich kids, these college kids,

these, you know, these lucky high-born kids, you know. Yeah, and who was the superior officer? I was a little bit confused. Yeah, it was hard to tell. Yeah, because the other one, was talking about, you know, I'll have your badge. Yeah, you're talking about Dave. Yeah, I'm like, who's the superior officer here?

I was like, I was a little confused. Yeah, no shit. Yeah, but that's in my notes. He was an asshole. He just, he hated everything. He was just grouchy. Yeah, he was, uh, yeah, he, he was definitely a bit of an asshole for sure. But yeah, this, this movie, you know, even down to the names, did you, did you realize what

Mike's last name was. I'd hunt by any chance? In the movie, his name was Mike Tobacco. Ah, okay. I thought you were going to tell me it was Mike Hunt. No.

It's just, I don't know. And there was a, like I said, when you rewatch this movie, you just noticed saying, how long was Debbie in the bathroom for this movie? You're talking about the scene where she was attacked by the clown snakes or whatever they were.

Yeah, it seemed like she was in the, in the movie for a good, like, 30 minutes of this movie. Right. Yeah, she, she definitely enjoyed taking her hot baths, didn't she? Yes, she did. I thought that was kind of odd. And I don't know if you recognize her. She was, you ever see a movie called Weird Science? I love Weird Science.

Yeah, she was one of the girls that the boys had a crush on. Okay. Yeah, I didn't recognize her at first. but doing a little bit of research. So she has been in other movies. She was definitely hot, man, by 80 standards especially. Absolutely. Yeah, so you were talking about the different types of weapons that they employed,

the popcorn gun, the acid pies. What were some of the other things that they used? Let's see, the Shadow Puppet. The Shadow Puppets. And like I said, stupid people, these amazing shadow puppets from this crazy looking clown, and you're standing there cheering, and then he creates a shadow puppet dinosaur,

which swallows them up hole. Kind of like a peewee Herman thing, huh? Yes, and I think you'll agree with me. These clowns can jump pretty high. Hey, I don't mean to read too much into this movie or try to get too intellectual about it. But the popcorn kernels, were they alive? They, I guess. Yeah, so I don't, are those people dead?

The ones that, uh, that got swallowed up by the shadow puppet? I don't know. He did put them in a bag of popcorn. So they, they might be dead. I just thought it was kind of weird because I know that when they shot the people with a popcorn gun, the popcorn left kind of a breadcrum trail where they went so that the clowns could find him later. But I also noticed that at one point the clown was picking up popcorn out of his little satchel bag, and he put it in a dumpster.

And if you'll recall, a guy came out from behind the Big Top Burger and he was throwing trash away, and he heard a sound inside the dumpster. And so he opens it like a fucking idiot. Like you say, the people in the town are absolute idiots. And he leans down into the dumpster. And lo and behold, something pulls him in. I mean, did the popcorn turn into bigger clowns or demons or something? What the fuck was going on there?

It's quite possible. I always wanted a sequel to this movie. Well, what about the snake, the snake clowns in the bathroom? You were talking about the, you know, the final. ass chick that was taking a bath. Yeah. The next thing you know, these popcorn kernels

were laying on the floor everywhere in the bathroom. And the next thing you know, she's got like these clowns that are like snakes with clown heads on them attacking her. Were those like kernels?

Yes, those were. Okay. So they did metamorphose into like some kind of a weird clown snake hybrid or something, huh? Yes.

Interesting. How did you feel about, as he's commonly referred to as clownzilla at the end? Yeah, that was also a puppet. Done very well. Very well. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, the puppeteering theme from start to finish in this thing, huh? It was excellent.

Yeah, it was really cool, man. Now, do you remember the scene when you had the stereotypical 1980, Biker Gang and they were all Yeah, they were all hanging around the poor little clown that was riding his bicycle. And I could have sworn

that that main bully was Richard Keel. You know who that is? No. Do you remember the James Bond movies, the villain Jaws? Yes. Okay, Richard Keel was the actor who played Jaws. I had to look back in the credits. I could have sworn that was Richard Keel. I thought he looked just

like him? The one that got his block knocked off? Yeah, literally. Yeah, he says, what are you going to do? Knock my block off? And I'll be damned if he didn't have his block literally fucking knocked off, huh? Yes. But did you also think he looked like John's quite a bit?

Now that you're saying something, yes, he did. I'm going to have to look into that. Yeah, that was a pretty good scene, man. but yeah this this movie is great you know what you know what

also talking about not to be the dead horse Brian but going back to the fact that the writers and directors were puppeteers yeah going back to the puppeting factor

they also used officer Mooney as a puppet remember yes I do do do you like I had mentioned earlier how I

wanted a sequel. Do you think a sequel actually work nowadays? I think a sequel would absolutely work. Do you think that killer clowns worked because it was made at the time it was made?

Do you, or do you think that a movie like that could work if it was made today? I think that if it were done well and if it were done the way the Chiodo brothers did it, it would work if it were made in the 1950s.

It would work if it was made in the 1980s. And it would absolutely positively work if it was made today. Okay. Absolutely. There are rumors that, because there was rumors of a sequel, but now I'm hearing something about a TV show. What?

Yes. I don't know if those were just rumors or, because I think they've been working on something for a while. Brian, clowns episodic TV show. It sounds like my new favorite show. You know what? This

concept was custom made for a 13 episode TV show. Yes. This would be fucking phenomenal. I'm on board. Me too. Who can we call to get this done? I don't know. Do we make a fake trailer for one

and say it's produced by Eli Roth? You know what? You may be on to something my friend. I think the horror returns needs to step out right now. We need to ask all of our listeners to step up to the plate. If you have any acting ability, hell, if you have no acting

ability, if you know how to write a script, fuck, if you don't know how to write a script, if you wish you knew how to write a script, if you have a sense of humor, if you're willing to sit with us and drink a beer and smoke a joint with us. Let's do this, guys. If you just want to

be in a movie. THR needs to create a killer clowns TV show if it's not in the works. Absolutely. Hell yeah. Dude, I'm 100% on board. This actually I think would be a better TV show than movie. And I love the movie. Do you see this being on TV or do you see this being like a Netflix?

I could see it on AMC. Okay. Absolutely. You know what? I am not embarrassed watching this movie with my granddaughters that are five and ten or actually now six and eleven years old. I think this is the perfect film for kids and adults to watch together. It's not filthy. It doesn't show any nudity.

There's no graphic gore. All the, all the violence is fun. But it also makes you, you know, it's the kind of movie that it's got this, it's got this, it's got this error of what am I trying to say man help me out here Brian there's there's something under the surface here that that is really kind of evil but at the same time it's a lot of fun yeah I see what you're saying yeah I'd go for it big time man yeah let's uh let's keep our fingers crossed yes let's do now I've got I don't know how how much else you want to say about this

movie, but I've got a absolute revelation for you. Okay, go ahead. Okay. Do you remember the fourth Indiana Jones movie? There is a scene in that movie. Of course, this one takes place in the 50s. Is this a crystal skull? Crystal skull.

Okay, unfortunately, yes. Okay, unfortunately, yes. Well, there is a scene in that film that has become a major part of popular culture now. Okay. there's actually a saying for it. If you'll recall in TV shows, there was a particular episode of Happy Days where Fonzie was surfing.

Or I think he was water skiing on the ocean or something, and he literally jumped over a shark. Are you familiar with the term jumping the shark? Absolutely. You have heard the term nuking the fridge. Yes.

Guess what? Killer clowns did it first, my friend. Really? Absolutely. The two brothers that sold ice cream. Oh. Getting in an ice cream freezer! Yes.

Yes. Because they had... Yes, because they had all the time in the world to jump in the back. Yes. That was... And we didn't even talk about them. Those guys are amazing. I'll tell you what.

Killer clowns scooped indie when it comes to the wonderful term, nuking the fridge. Yes. Literally. Oh, my gosh. I never really thought about that. Dude. This movie is head and shoulders ahead of its time.

Yeah, I'm hands down, I might say definitely out of all the movies we've reviewed so far, this is the funnest movie. May not be my highest rated, but definitely the finest. Yeah, absolutely. What's your rating, my friend? I am going to give this a strong 8 out of 10. I can definitely respect that. can watch this movie anytime

and enjoy it every time. Absolutely. I can, we can finish recording and I can pop this movie in and I will enjoy it just as much as I did the last time. So I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. Well, I couldn't agree with you more. I'm a little bit tougher

and I'm going to give it a strong 7 out of 10. Definitely not one of my favorite films are favorite horror movies of all time, but definitely a great horror parody. And when I see seven out of ten, Brian, I mean strong seven out of ten. So I'm pretty close to where you are, but that's definitely my rating.

And yeah, I'm with you, man. I wouldn't mind going into the room right now and watch as soon as we're done with the podcast, putting this sucker on again and watching it again. Yeah, because like you said, you can watch this with your kids. I mean, my... For sure.

My six-year-old is she tries to watch scary movies, but you know, I have to, you know, you got to watch what's on TV. I have no problem popping this in and letting her watch it. All right. So Brian gives Killer Clowns from Outer Space an 8 out of 10, and I give it a 7 out of 10. Strong 7. All right, and so that's our two films for the week.

And now, as always, it is time for listener feedback. Brian, want to let you know that Jessica Nicole from Houston, Texas, she wrote us, and this is what she had to say. I finished listening to both of your podcast. I really like it so far. I cannot express how much I love The Conjuring 2. I actually watched again last night. I do that when I like a movie a lot. I will see it in theaters, multiple times, and I did the same with the movie The Witch. There's not many things I saw. see that apply to my interest in horror, so it's really cool that y'all are doing it. So, Jessica, thank you so much for the feedback. Absolutely. Thank you, Jessica. Okay, and our next one here is from Robert Anthony Richard from Stockton, California. Shout out to the 209.

He writes, great podcast, boys, a lot of well-deserved love for The Conjuring 2. Damn good movie. Looking forward to future episodes. Keep it up, Jim. Thank you, Robert. And that was a great movie. And I'm glad to see that other people are enjoying that movie. Yeah, and Brian, we've actually gotten our first iTunes review. Oh, really? Yep, this is a four-star review from JS Black 41.

And it goes a little something like this. Great back and forth between the host. Lots of interesting takes on new and old movies. movies. Introducing me to a lot of movies that I would probably not know about. If you are a horror movie lover or just getting into the horror genre, these guys are the ones to listen to. So anyway, thanks guys, and as always, you can reach us with your comments, ideas, and questions at the horror returns at gmail.com.

Or, of course, as always, messages through our Facebook page, or of course leave an iTunes review. So as always, we want to thank you guys for listening to another episode of The Horror Returns. We would love to hear your feedback and ideas. You can always reach us at thehorror returns at gmail.com. For up-to-the-minute news, reviews, and interviews, visit our Facebook page at www.com forward slash the horror returns. Follow us on Twitter, of course, at Horror underscore Returns.

You can find us at Podbean at thehorrorreturns.podbean.com. Also look for us on iTunes. And come on, guys, if you like what you hear, rate us and review us. That way we can get those numbers up and continue to bring you bigger and better stuff. Next week, we're going to be reviewing Independence Day of Resurgence, and also, of course, the original Independence Day. And the week after that, what are we doing, Brian?

It looks like we will be doing The Shallow starring Blake Lively and Jaws. All right, so we got Blake lively in a bikini. Yes. And one of the absolute greatest films of all time.

Sounds like a home run to me. That is a week I'm looking forward to. So until the horror returns again, good night. Yo!