30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 16

There have been a good number of horror films that exploit our childhood. It feeds on our innocence and squeezes every last bit of precious memories. It's also a lot of fun, which is why themes of childhood playthings and adolescent pleasant moments are so easy to make scary. These are times in our lives where the whole world was simpler and there were monsters under the bed. Things were scary, mostly because we didn't understand the world yet. These movies can shatter happy thoughts of early days and take us back to a time where our biggest concern was homework.

Your favorite childhood themed horror film.

Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)

My fiancee loves this movie. She will watch it every time that it plays on Svengoolie and will bug me to pop it into the DVD player. One of my longtime friends hates this movie with every fiber of her being. She is terrified of clowns and is frozen with fear every time her boyfriend watches it on their DVD player.

This is the two extremes of clowns. Some are frightened by the thought of them and others haven't a care in the world. This movie concerns itself with aliens, who look like deranged clowns, hellbent on enslaving humanity. What a cheerful little film!

The story is hokey. Some of the acting is thin. It's a good thing that the film doesn't hinge on those performances. The acting performance that holds the most weight is that of John Vernon, who most people know as the dean from Animal House. His role as Sergeant Mooney is John at his snarky best. Perhaps his best scene is where the alien Klowns turn him into a ventriloquist dummy.

The bread and butter of the movie is the special effects and the design. The look of the clowns is unique to this movie and it has achieved cult status. Any film where humans are encased in a giant cotton candy cocoon in order to prepare them for harvest has to be the stupidest and most brilliant thought ever put to screen. It's a fun time, if you aren't terrified of clowns.

"What're ya gonna do with those 'pies', boys?"