Category: comedy

Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)
Written and directed by the Chiodo Brothers

The Chiodo Brothers (Stephen, Charles, and Edward) had been absorbed by making movie special effects since they were kids. They had worked in the industry for a few years, selling their skills to productions like Critters, Faerie Tale Theater, and UHF. One of their most well-known works was the Large Marge effect in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Puppets, stop motion, make-up, they loved it all. Ironically, in their first feature film, most of the special effects work was done by other artists they had befriended over the years. The Chiodos spent most of their time directing, producing, and playing some Killer Klowns. The result is that the film is less interested in the plot and more about the spectacle of the movies.

From Beyond (1986)
Written by Brian Yuzna, Dennis Paoli, and Stuart Gordon
Directed by Stuart Gordon

Stuart Gordon was a well-regarded name in American horror cinema, particularly in the 1980s. Born in Chicago in 1947, Gordon was drawn to acting and live theater, which he majored in at university. After graduation, he started his own theater company and engaged in highly provocative stagings. One of these, The Game Show, was designed as an attack on audience apathy. With plants in the audience, Gordon’s cast would begin to provoke the viewers, and each show would conclude with an audience riot that brought the play to a halt. He put on a politically charged adaptation of Peter Pan in 1968, which got him and his wife arrested for obscenity. Live nude actors and allusions to pixie dust being a substitution for LSD seemed to draw ire from the community. Gordon would come around to film in the mid-1980s, with his first production being The Re-Animator and From Beyond as his follow-up.