History Film / KillerKlownsFromOuterSpace

* SweaterGirl: Mike and Debbie wear sweaters for pretty much the whole movie.

** Crystal Cove's police force seems understaffed to say the least. At night, only Mooney and Hanson are on active duty (a single line does mention the Chief is on vacation). The rest of the state police do show up at the end, but they are too late to actually help anyone, arriving just in time to see the spaceship explode and the survivors escape.

* OnlyTheLeadsGetAHappyEnding: All of the five main characters survive, Dave and the Terenzi brothers even get a DisneyDeath when they're shown to have survived the explosion of the Klown spaceship after all. At the same time, their entire hometown (or a very good portion at least) has been wiped out by the Klown invasion, which is ignored with a pre-credits pie gag. While in the ship, Dave does suggest trying to free the people trapped in the other balloons, but then the Klowns show up and they have no time to save anyone but themselves.

* OneBookAuthor: The Chiodo brothers primarily design creature and makeup effects, as well as doing puppetry, and this is the only film they wrote or directed. Their other work includes designing the "troll" effects for ''Film/ErnestScaredStupid'', the 'Crites' in the ''{{Film/Critters}}'' film series, the animation for the "6000 SUX" commercial in ''Film/RoboCop1987'', the titles for the ''{{Music/Thriller}}'' music video, and the "ghost" animatronics for Ride/UniversalStudios' ''Theatre/GhostbustersSpooktacular''. They've also provided puppets, animatronics, models and StopMotion in other shows and films, such as ''Series/CharlieHorseMusicPizza'', ''Series/NinjaTurtlesTheNextMutation'', ''Series/AdventuresInWonderland'', ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'', ''[[ComicStrip/{{Pogo}} I Go Pogo]]'', ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'' ([[Film/TurboAPowerRangersMovie and its movie]]), ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'', ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', ''Film/{{Screamers}}'', ''Series/MaskedRider'', ''Film/TheStupids'', the UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 port of ''VideoGame/ItCameFromTheDesert'', ''Series/TheMrPotatoHeadShow'', ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'', ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'', ''Series/TheThundermans'', ''Series/{{Bibleman}}'', ''{{Film/Elf}}'', and ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure''.

* MakeOutPoint: "Top of the World," where all the local teens go to make out in their cars beneath the stars. It's near where the Klowns land. Creator/ChristopherTitus makes his film debut as one of the unfortunate teens.

* {{Kaiju}}: Jojo the Klownzilla.

* [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]]: Debbie demonstrates to be the most down-to-Earth character among the humans, as she's unwilling to go explore a strange circus tent in the woods (the Klown ship) and quickly decides that it's some extraterrestrial handiwork, while Mike suffers from some GenreBlindness and makes bad rationalizations until he sees dead people.

* SureLetsGoWithThat: The Terenzi brothers are resistant to help Mike and Dave, but display sudden interest when they mention that Debbie's in danger, and the Terenzis ask if Debbie has roommates. Mike lies and goes along with it, saying yes, she has two roommates, [[BuxomIsBetter with big boobs]], and affirms that they like ice cream when the [[ChubbyChaser Terenzis]] ask.

* {{Sadist}}: All of the Klowns take joy in killing.

During the Gamescom 2022 opening night, it was revealed a Multiplayer game adaption of the film was being made, with the executive producer of ''VideoGame/FridayThe13thTheGame'' helming it.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: The Klowns mostly speak their own language, but there are a few scenes where they speak English.

Made on a $2 million production budget, the movie bombed at the box office most likely due to a lack of marketing and being passed on by major theater chains in favor of big studio films when first released. Over the years the film became popular and made more revenue off merchandising such as action figures, Halloween costumes and T-shirts.

In spite of director Stephen Chiodo's best efforts, no sequel or television series has emerged. Creator/SyFy attempted to make a movie for their channel but couldn't purchase the rights, then in 2020 a story spread about 20th Century Fox silently buying the rights to make a theatrical movie but then [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Disney aborting the project after the acquisition of Fox]]. This was assumed to be the end of the line, until on March 2022 [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]] turned out to be still holding the rights of the film and with the announcement of Creator/{{Amazon}} purchasing their library, there could be a new chance for the Klowns to return, which remains to be seen as its DevelopmentHell state continues.

-->'''Jumbo''': ''Don't worry, Dave, [[OhCrap all we want to do is kill you!]]''

* ItsAllAboutMe: Mooney decides to stop listening to any calls for help, including one from his direct superior (Mike), because he thinks [[ScullySyndrome somehow]] that the whole town got together under the leadership of the Terenzi Brothers to try to [[TheCon swindle him]] into quitting being a cop, instead of the more obvious possible reason that there are a lot of crazy people dressed as clowns causing mayhem (considering he makes clear he doesn't believes Mike when he talks about the Klowns being aliens).

* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler:The reason the Klowns came to earth was to harvest people for consumption, with this reveal being shown when Chubby uses a straw to drink from a cotton candy cocoon.]]

In spite of director Stephen Chiodo's best efforts, no sequel or television series has emerged. Creator/SyFy attempted to make a movie for their channel but couldn't purchase the rights, then in 2020 a story spread about 20th Century Fox silently buying the rights to make a theatrical movie but then [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Disney aborting the project after the acquisition of Fox]]. This was assumed to be the end of the line, until on March 2022 [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]] turned out to be still holding the rights of the film and with the announcement of Creator/{{Amazon}} purchasing their library, there could be a new chance for the Klowns to return, which remains to be seen as it's DevelopmentHell state continues.

''Killer Klowns'' has also earned its own Scare Zone at the [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal Studios Orlando]] event for Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights in 2018. It later returned to the event in 2019 as a Haunted House walkthrough.

In spite of director Stephen Chiodo's best efforts, no sequel or television series has emerged and the sequel's development status is currently cancelled. Creator/SyFy attempted to make a movie for their channel but couldn't purchase the rights. It turns out 20th Century Fox silently bought the rights and offered to make a theatrical movie but its acquisition by Disney blocked the creation of a sequel when [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Disney forbid Fox from proceeding with the project]]. Since Fox owns the rights to ''Killer Klowns'' but Disney has full control over Fox's production schedule, it seems unlikely that a ''Killer Klowns'' sequel will ever be made.

* EveryCarIsAPinto: Downplayed (due to [[RealLifeWritesThePlot budget restraints]] not allowing a second and more spectacular stunt) as the car Slim causes to crash at the end of the CarChase only catches a bit of fire between the frontal wheels. [[MadeOfExplodium Played straight]] and UpToEleven with the ice cream truck.