10 Scariest Movie & TV Clowns

10. Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)

Killer Klowns from Outer Space centres around a group of evil aliens who look like grotesque circus clowns and come to Earth to capture and eat humans. The film takes the clown metaphor and runs with it, with circus tent spaceship and the kills all being clown-themed, such as a carnivorous shadow puppet and an aggressive balloon dog.

It takes a bit of an ‘Alien’-type direction, as the captive people are encased in cotton candy cocoons that dissolve their bodies so that the Klowns can suck their blood through them via straws. Popcorn is shot at people and eventually turns into scary clown worm creatures.

There are some pretty gruesome scenes, including when the police chief is killed and turned into a clown ventriloquist dummy. There is also a security guard killed with flesh-dissolving cream pies, and when the teenagers first break open the candy cocoons, the bloody face of the victim is quite horrifying.

The amount of deaths and the drinking people’s blood make the film sound as if it should be very disturbing to watch, but the Klowns and the special effects are so over the top that it is hard for it to be particularly frightening. Even the ending is given a jokey edge when the exploding spaceship results in everyone below being covered with custard pies!