As 2018 comes to a close I thought it would be a good time to share my favorite physical releases of the year. I am a big supporter of physical media and will continue to support it. I like owning my movies that I can hold, not in some cloud somewhere. I love box art. This year was a great year for exclusive Steelbooks at Best Buy. Some of them will make my list. In deciding the number I fell on the most obvious one, 18.
Number 7 is the silly, yet fun horror/sci-fi/comedy 80’s gold from Arrow Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
The adults in the town do not believe that clowns are responsible for the carnage and it’s up to the local teenagers to solve the Killer Klown problem.
Yes, this is a real movie about aliens that look like clowns, (or klowns) that come to earth in a big circus tent spaceship and turn mankind into big cotton candy. I can’t tell you why this movie exists but it does it is pretty awesome. The klowns look like clowns from your nightmares, with some really cool practical effect by the directors, the Chiodo Brothers. Killer Klowns from Outer Space has some low budget charm to spare. If you go into this movie expecting gore, you won’t find any. You will find fun, humor and occasional family friendly frights. Killer Klowns is a fun easy to watch comedy/horror film.
Arrow has done an amazing job restoring this low budget film. They scanned the original 35mm camera negative in 4K resolution, and the results are stunning. Killer Klowns has never looked better. I owned the previous blu-ray and there is a noticeable difference in colors, detail and overall appearance of the film. Killer Klowns needs to be seen on this new scan, it does the colorful movie wonders.
Audio is pretty good. It’s not on the revelatory level as the video but it still is good. Dialogue and the silly gun effects sound clear. No issues here.
As is the case with most Arrow Film releases Killer Klowns from Outer Space is loaded with special features. The disc is not only packed with extras, but the extras are substantial in information. There are so many that it will take you over 3 ½ hours to explore all of them, and that’s not including the commentary by the Chiodo Brothers. Besides the interviews the best extras here are the Chiodo Brothers Early Films. It’s fun to see the Brothers grow as filmmakers. There is also deleted scenes, Behind the scenes, Bloopers, Image galleries, and a trailer. Plus a fold out poster and a well written booklet.
Arrow did an amazing job taking a favorite B-Movie and giving it an A-Movie release. Its fun and silly and not a bad way to spend a night.
Film: A-
Video: A+
Audio: A-
Extras: A+
Overall: A