Terrifier 3 (2024, dir. Damien Leone)

by Jack Martin | Oct 8, 2024

Certificate: 18

Running Time: 125 mins

UK Distributor: Signature Entertainment

UK Release Date: 11 October 2024

WHO’S IN TERRIFIER 3?

David Howard Thornton, Lauren LaVera, Elliott Fullam, Samantha Scaffidi, Chris Jericho, Daniel Roebuck, Tom Savini, Jason Patric, Antonella Rose, Krsy Fox, Clint Howard, Annie Lederman, Jon Abrahams

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Damien Leone (director, writer, editor), Phil Falcone (producer), Paul Wiley (composer), George Steuber (cinematographer)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Art the Clown (Thornton) returns to cause some Christmas carnage…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON TERRIFIER 3?

For years, slasher fans have been wanting a new face to join the list of icons like Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers et al, and they got one hell of an expressive one with the mischievous and very, very deadly Art the Clown.

The breakout star of filmmaker Damien Leone’s growingly popular Terrifier series has rightfully attracted as much of a cult following as the movies have, with performer David Howard Thornton leaning heavily into classic vaudeville acting styles as the character – dressed head to toe in black and white, all the way up to the black dot on the end of his crooked nose – unleashes unspeakably gory mayhem unto anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path, with absolutely no moral compass to speak of. In every single way, Art is legitimately terrifying (no pun intended) and more than worthy of his rising status within slasher cinema.

His exploits continue in Terrifier 3, which has a huge act to follow after its critically praised predecessor. That film took the simple enough nature of Leone’s low-budget first entry and took it to all new heights, in terms of its writing, its characters, its expansion of the overall lore surrounding Art himself, and especially its violence, which ranks among some of the goriest in not just slasher movie history, but perhaps the horror genre as a whole. This film, quite remarkably, goes even further, and further, and further some more, until it almost threatens to overload itself with gory sweetness.

But crucially, Terrifier 3 never loses sight of its entertainment value, and manages to be a nastily fun ride for anyone who feels brave enough to take it on.

Set five years after Art’s last killing spree in Terrifier 2, survivors Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) and her younger brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) are struggling to move on from their trauma. While Jonathan is attempting to live a normal life at college, Sienna is in and out of psychiatric hospitals, plagued by visions of those killed by Art last time, all of which blame her for their gruesome deaths. Sienna’s worst fears are confirmed when Art (Thornton) suddenly returns, with his disfigured previous survivor Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi) as his crazed accomplice, to kill many more people using the various deadly tools in his black bin bag.

Oh, and it’s all set at Christmas, making this perhaps the bloodiest festive flick to ever exist (or second, depending on how you view Home Alone).

The first ten minutes of Terrifier 3 sets the mood for everything that’s about to follow, with warm Christmas imagery and sweet family moments cruelly interrupted by Art – now donning a Santa costume – laying absolute waste to anyone around him. Emphasis on “anyone”, for this opening really does establish that nobody is safe from Art’s grasp; whether you’re an unsympathetic adult or the most innocent child alive, chances are highly likely that you will be completely and utterly butchered by this deranged clown whenever he so wishes. On top of that, the violence he dishes out is beyond savage, with some fantastic practical effects (also provided by Leone) going to great lengths to show in detail every slash, dismemberment, gunshot, and piece of flesh that is torn off, cut open, or even frozen via liquid nitrogen. It’s horrifically violent, to where I would strongly suggest that anyone who’s remotely squeamish about on-screen blood to think twice before seeing it.

As in the previous film, Leone also spends a good amount of time with characters who are either next in line to be killed, or – even rarer – those who are destined to be spared, in ways that actually do have you caring for many of these likely victims. Lauren LaVera’s Sienna, who proved to be a pretty awesome “final girl” in Terrifier 2, is given a much more psychological arc this time round as she deals with the literal scars of her previous trauma, an angle that has been explored in other slasher sequels but is nonetheless done well here, as the actor is compelling whenever she needs to express inner frustration at others’ inability to see things from her perspective. She has good chemistry with young Antonella Rose as Gabbie, the hero’s niece who is endearing enough to accept amidst all the carnage that Art unleashes around her (and, as a reminder, absolutely nobody is safe in this film).

Speaking of Art, he remains as delightfully demented as ever, with not just his creepily vacant facial expressions and pure unapologetic sense of evil, but has some genuinely hilarious moments that make it all the more shocking that he is who he is. There’s a very funny scene where he encounters Daniel Roebuck in a Santa costume, and Art reacts by just fangirling as though he’s just met Taylor Swift… right before things take a less friendly turn, of course. Some later shots of Art reacting to other people’s comments about him are reminiscent of classic Chaplin or even old Looney Tunes cartoons, with the ever-expressive Thornton, like those inspirations, solidifying his talents as a performer who can do so much to make a person laugh without uttering a single line of dialogue, or even any kind of sound from his body. Little things like these do make Art the Clown a bit more than just an average slasher movie villain, and he remains as captivating to watch, even when you don’t really want to.

Any qualms about the movie have to do with its final act, which is certainly as gory as anything else in it, but does feel somewhat rushed with certain vital scenes feeling as though they’re missing from the overall puzzle. It also ends in a way that very much sets up another movie, which does prevent it from feeling as standalone as the previous movies did, with numerous plot threads and even character arcs deliberately unresolved, for a future Terrifier 4 to pick up on.

But even though Terrifier 3 very much leaves you wanting more, you’re not at all likely to come away from it feeling cheated in any way, for this is still an impressively gory slasher movie with fantastic effects, strong characters, and of course a new genre icon in Art the Clown.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Terrifier 3 is an exceptionally gory but highly entertaining slasher sequel that goes further than ever before with its brutal violence, committed as ever by the iconic Art the Clown, which viewers will need the strongest of stomachs to endure.