Editorials
How the ‘Killer Klowns’ Creators Brought Universal’s ‘Ghostbusters Spooktacular’ to Life
SEE THE STARS. RIDE THE MOVIES.
White text over a black battlefield. Doc Brown chases The Jetsons straight into the Nickelodeon blimp. A submarine-sized Jaws eats a fresh boatload of pastel tourists while the Phantom of the Opera looks on in disapproval. King Kong holds a Roosevelt Island tram like a Hot Wheel he’s more than willing to eat. Among the mayhem, E.T. peeks around a marquee in neon – Universal Studios Florida.
All that and more signed with a single promise at the bottom.
Opening in Orlando, May 1990.
There’s something to be said for subtlety and the early advertising for Universal Studios Florida had refreshingly little. But when the park opened, a month later than expected, one of its least-promoted attractions would prove its most necessary.
On the morning of June 7th, 1990, park consultant and director Steven Spielberg cut the ribbon dedicating Universal Studios Florida. By lunch, yet another breakdown on Jaws left him stranded in the middle of a lagoon with malfunctioning robot sharks in what must be the most specific trigger of PTSD ever devised. An early morning power outage crippled Earthquake before the park even opened. The 39-foot-tall animatronic apes in Kongfrontation stopped listening to the software that kept them from back-handing ride vehicles out of the sky, leaving frenzied employees to control the 13,000-pound figures manually. Guests were hastily offered a free, non-expiring ticket for a second day, a policy that lasted the rest of Universal Studios Florida’s inaugural season.
Kinks were eventually ironed out, but it wasn’t a particularly quick or clean process – Jaws would shut down entirely in September for a complete redesign and only reopened three years later. In that first, ramshackle summer, visitors needed something to do. Something spectacular. Something reliable. Something air-conditioned.
The Ghostbusters Spooktacular condensed the movie’s finale into an 11-minute live-action effects show. Audiences would follow a friendly tour guide into Soundstage 50 for a peek at a painstaking recreation of the rooftop temple from the 1984 classic. The guide spiels about John DeCuir’s set design and helpfully reminds everyone that the special effects from the movie couldn’t possibly be recreated before their very eyes. Then the effects are recreated before their very eyes. Ghosts, translucent and terrifying, begin to materialize. Cue Gozer. Cue the theme song. Cue the Ghostbusters. Cue the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Cue the gift shop.
The ghosts appeared ghostly thanks to one of the oldest parlor tricks in the book, Pepper’s ghost. The effect is deceptively simple – an angled pane of glass is used to reflect an unseen figure which, when lit, appears translucent in front of whatever the glass is covering. Magicians would use it to resurrect a guy in a bedsheet for stunned audiences. The Spooktacular designers used it to conjure up a cast of 16-foot-tall animatronic monsters hiding in a deep pit at the edge of the stage, performing 14 times a day.
If anyone could handle the robotic necromancy required, it was the Landmark Entertainment Group. Founded by Tony Christopher and Gary Goddard, Landmark first worked with Universal Studios on a revolutionary addition to its famous Hollywood tram tour – Kongfrontation. Not to be confused with its younger Floridian cousin, this Kong was the largest animatronic ever built at the time, an engineering marvel that inspired the creation of Universal Studios Florida in the first place. Their next project with Universal was The Adventures of Conan: A Sword and Sorcery Spectacular. It did exactly what it said on the tin. Battle axes, wizards, greased-up pecs. But the centerpiece was an enormous, fire-breathing animatronic dragon that rose from beneath the stage. The beast was already sketched out by noted entertainment designer Claudio Mazzoli, but the engineers needed something more physical to work from. Goddard, who’d soon go on to direct Masters of the Universe, asked the staff if they knew any sculptors and someone mentioned a fresh-faced artist, Charlie Chiodo.
Charlie brought his portfolio and, shortly thereafter, his brother Stephen. Landmark hired them immediately. They sculpted a 19” maquette of the monster, lovingly named “Lucy,” and impressed the Group enough to earn some office space for their pet project, a no-budget horror-comedy called Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The Chiodo Brothers, soon joined by youngest brother Edward, were using Landmark facilities for pre-production on Killer Klowns, from auditions to mold-making, when the company got the turn-key contract to design a Ghostbusters live show for Universal Studios Florida.
Landmark came up with the concept but ran into a familiar problem in execution. The ghosts, as drawn, were effective – all skulls and vapor-trails – but lost some personality as maquettes. So they turned to Charlie Chiodo. In the thick of making Killer Klowns, he designed every single ghost in the show, save for the few pulled directly from the movie.
The resulting sketches carry a Chiodo signature, but they hardly need to. Each character basks in that trademark Killer Klowns personality. Rictus grins on wrinkled nightmare faces. Gleeful, terrifying and gleefully terrifying. From the shopping cart hobo to the ball-and-chain prisoner, the finished animatronics look fittingly like extras from a Chiodo-directed Ghostbusters sequel. But there’s one ghoul in particular that belongs in the brothers’ most famous work.
As a tribute to the cult-classic-in-the-making or at least a savvy bit of recycling, Charlie designed a maniacal Jack-in-the-box that lunged out at the Ghostbusters with a big nose and bigger mallet. The murderous toy most closely resembles Klownzilla, the movie’s climactic Klown kaiju, and not just in size. While the Spooktacular never made it into the era of HD cameras, the estranged Killer Klown can be seen traumatizing tourists and their unsuspecting children on tape from 1990 to 1996.
Here’s a particularly clear example:
Killer Klowns from Outer Space opened two years before Universal Studios Florida. After Ghostbusters, the Chiodos, namely Charlie, worked on some preliminary drawings for Jurassic Park: The Ride before leaving Landmark.
It’s only fitting that, as their movie slowly earned an underground audience on home video, the Chiodos were menacing record crowds for almost a decade with a Killer Klown hiding in plain sight.
Editorials
‘Immaculate’ – A Companion Watch Guide to the Religious Horror Movie and Its Cinematic Influences
The religious horror movie Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney and directed by Michael Mohan, wears its horror influences on its sleeves. NEON’s new horror movie is now available on Digital and PVOD, making it easier to catch up with the buzzy title. If you’ve already seen Immaculate, this companion watch guide highlights horror movies to pair with it.
Sweeney stars in Immaculate as Cecilia, a woman of devout faith who is offered a fulfilling new role at an illustrious Italian convent. Cecilia’s warm welcome to the picture-perfect Italian countryside gets derailed soon enough when she discovers she’s become pregnant and realizes the convent harbors disturbing secrets.
From Will Bates’ gothic score to the filming locations and even shot compositions, Immaculate owes a lot to its cinematic influences. Mohan pulls from more than just religious horror, though. While Immaculate pays tribute to the classics, the horror movie surprises for the way it leans so heavily into Italian horror and New French Extremity. Let’s dig into many of the film’s most prominent horror influences with a companion watch guide.
Warning: Immaculate spoilers ahead.
Rosemary’s Baby
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The mother of all pregnancy horror movies introduces Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), an eager-to-please housewife who’s supportive of her husband, Guy, and thrilled he landed them a spot in the coveted Bramford apartment building. Guy proposes a romantic evening, which gives way to a hallucinogenic nightmare scenario that leaves Rosemary confused and pregnant. Rosemary’s suspicions and paranoia mount as she’s gaslit by everyone around her, all attempting to distract her from her deeply abnormal pregnancy. While Cecilia follows a similar emotional journey to Rosemary, from the confusion over her baby’s conception to being gaslit by those who claim to have her best interests in mind, Immaculate inverts the iconic final frame of Rosemary’s Baby to great effect.
The Exorcist
William Friedkin’s horror classic shook audiences to their core upon release in the ’70s, largely for its shocking imagery. A grim battle over faith is waged between demon Pazuzu and priests Damien Karras (Jason Miller) and Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow). The battleground happens to be a 12-year-old, Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), whose possessed form commits blasphemy often, including violently masturbating with a crucifix. Yet Friedkin captures the horrifying events with stunning cinematography; the emotional complexity and shot composition lend elegance to a film that counterbalances the horror. That balance between transgressive imagery and artful form permeates Immaculate as well.
Suspiria
Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Bannion, an American newcomer at a prestigious dance academy in Germany who uncovers a supernatural conspiracy amid a series of grisly murders. It’s a dance academy so disciplined in its art form that its students and faculty live their full time, spending nearly every waking hour there, including built-in meals and scheduled bedtimes. Like Suzy Bannion, Cecilia is a novitiate committed to learning her chosen trade, so much so that she travels to a foreign country to continue her training. Also, like Suzy, Cecilia quickly realizes the pristine façade of her new setting belies sinister secrets that mean her harm.
What Have You Done to Solange?
This 1972 Italian horror film follows a college professor who gets embroiled in a bizarre series of murders when his mistress, a student, witnesses one taking place. The professor starts his own investigation to discover what happened to the young woman, Solange. Sex, murder, and religion course through this Giallo’s veins, which features I Spit on Your Grave’s Camille Keaton as Solange. Immaculate director Michael Mohan revealed to The Wrap that he emulated director Massimo Dallamano’s techniques, particularly in a key scene that sees Cecilia alone in a crowded room of male superiors, all interrogating her on her immaculate status.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
In this Giallo, two sisters inherit their family’s castle that’s also cursed. When a dark-haired, red-robed woman begins killing people around them, the sisters begin to wonder if the castle’s mysterious curse has resurfaced. Director Emilio Miraglia infuses his Giallo with vibrant style, with the titular Red Queen instantly eye-catching in design. While the killer’s design and use of red no doubt played an influential role in some of Immaculate’s nightmare imagery, its biggest inspiration in Mohan’s film is its score. Immaculate pays tribute to The Red Queen Kills Seven Times through specific music cues.
The Vanishing
Rex’s life is irrevocably changed when the love of his life is abducted from a rest stop. Three years later, he begins receiving letters from his girlfriend’s abductor. Director George Sluizer infuses his simple premise with bone-chilling dread and psychological terror as the kidnapper toys with Red. It builds to a harrowing finale you won’t forget; and neither did Mohan, who cited The Vanishing as an influence on Immaculate. Likely for its surprise closing moments, but mostly for the way Sluizer filmed from inside a coffin.
The Other Hell
This nunsploitation film begins where Immaculate ends: in the catacombs of a convent that leads to an underground laboratory. The Other Hell sees a priest investigating the seemingly paranormal activity surrounding the convent as possessed nuns get violent toward others. But is this a case of the Devil or simply nuns run amok? Immaculate opts to ground its horrors in reality, where The Other Hell leans into the supernatural, but the surprise lab setting beneath the holy grounds evokes the same sense of blasphemous shock.
Inside
During Immaculate‘s freakout climax, Cecilia sets the underground lab on fire with Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte) locked inside. He manages to escape, though badly burned, and chases Cecilia through the catacombs. When Father Tedeschi catches Cecilia, he attempts to cut her baby out of her womb, and the stark imagery instantly calls Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s seminal French horror movie to mind. Like Tedeschi, Inside’s La Femme (Béatrice Dalle) will stop at nothing to get the baby, badly burned and all.
Burial Ground
At first glance, this Italian zombie movie bears little resemblance to Immaculate. The plot sees an eclectic group forced to band together against a wave of undead, offering no shortage of zombie gore and wild character quirks. What connects them is the setting; both employed the Villa Parisi as a filming location. The Villa Parisi happens to be a prominent filming spot for Italian horror; also pair the new horror movie with Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood or Blood for Dracula for additional boundary-pushing horror titles shot at the Villa Parisi.
The Devils
The Devils was always intended to be incendiary. Horror, at its most depraved and sadistic, tends to make casual viewers uncomfortable. Ken Russell’s 1971 epic takes it to a whole new squeamish level with its nightmarish visuals steeped in some historical accuracy. There are the horror classics, like The Exorcist, and there are definitive transgressive horror cult classics. The Devils falls squarely in the latter, and Russell’s fearlessness in exploring taboos and wielding unholy imagery inspired Mohan’s approach to the escalating horror in Immaculate.
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