Over the last couple of years, the title Terrifier has been on the rise, especially in the horror community. What started as a short in 2011 and continued as a low-budget (around $35 000) horror movie Terrifier (2016) is now crashing the box office numbers, as the latest addition to this bloody saga has already earned slightly over $40 million, as of the writing of this review. Given the third Terrifier had a budget of $2.5 million, what a profit. And it deserves it. Well, with a couple of caveats…
Firstly, you must be a fan of this genre and extreme gore to enjoy this series. And I mean extreme. One great thing about watching this (now) trilogy is that once you get through it, I can’t imagine anything else grossing you out ever. Throughout this trilogy, Damien Leone pushes what is acceptable whilst improving (mostly) practical effects. As someone who had the privilege to see all three Terrifier movies in the cinema, I have noticed a massive improvement in the special effects, mainly in Terrifier 3. Not only are the kills more brutal than ever, but many times, he doesn’t cut away because the prosthetics are so good that the kills look almost realistic.
For you to enjoy this movie, you must also have a great sense of dark humour. Art the Clown (portrayed brilliantly by David Howard Thornton) never speaks, only emotes, has a tiny hat, and a bin bag full of… surprises. But throughout this (now) franchise, he always does something unexpected. Something that shows just how purely chaotic this character is. I wouldn’t be surprised if Leone’s initial idea for him was “what if Joker, but much more evil and chaotic”. For all intents and purposes, Art the Clown is the real agent of chaos. He will dance happily with Santa until it’s time to kill him and remove his beard so he can glue it to his face. He kills most of the family dressed as Santa just to eat the cookies and milk doing the dishes afterwards because it would be rude not to! His dedication to this dark role played with this bizarre level of levity and dark humour… if I had a tiny hat like you, sir, it would off to you.
I think I liked Terrifier 3 the most so far, not just because of the biggest budget they had yet (which you can tell mainly by the effects) but because of its Christmas setting. Horror fans don’t have many movies set over that period, or at least not many great ones. Well, leave it up to Art the Clown to come in, setting a literal bomb in the middle of a shopping centre full of kids waiting for Santa to change that. This movie doesn’t pull any punches; it does what it wants and gives the fans exactly what they want.
I must mention Lauren LaVera and her performance in this movie. I liked her in the previous Terrifier 2 (2022), but in this sequel, it seems like she went two steps further. You can sympathize with her character, who suffers this horrible PTSD, blaming herself for all the death and suffering of the previous movie while seeing some horrifying flashbacks. It’s obvious by the way this movie ends they are setting up her character (Sienna) to be the ultimate warrior of “good” and the only one who can defeat Art the Clown. Only time will tell how epic that will be, but as far as this movie, she was great.
I have two nitpicks with this movie. My first nitpick remains the same since the end of the original Terrifier. And this might be a bit of a spoiler, so if you haven’t seen a single Terrifier film and want to go in as pure as possible, don’t read any further. I was never a fan of them making Art the Clown this supernatural being. I thought what was scarier was the fact everything was quite “low stakes” in the original movie, and he was just a madman we know next to nothing about who enjoys murdering people in the most brutal way possible. But since then, this franchise leans heavily into supernatural territory, and for me, it always takes some “enjoyment” away. Now, I understand that I might be in the minority, and that’s fine; I will stay on my little island here. But having this supernatural big bad who can only be defeated by one weapon, and it seems that only one person on top of that… Can he be actually defeated? My point is this; I hope this won’t become Saw, and there is some endgame for Art the Clown. The trouble with delving deep into supernatural territory is that anything is possible, so nobody must remain dead, no matter whether they get decapitated.
The second nitpick, without going into actual spoilers for this movie – it is more than implied that one important character dies. But that character dies off-screen. And if the follow-up movie(s) will continue with that fact, what a shitty thing to do. I was so confused when the ending happened, and we discovered that fact because that felt weird. If you want to get rid of the character, fine, but give them at least some brutal, kick-ass way to go and don’t kill them off-screen like it’s an extra number 263. If you watched this movie, you know what character I am talking about.
Overall, Terrifier 3 is a bloody good time with characters you know and love (?) It’s bigger, bloodier and crazier than ever, and that is saying something. But despite some cameos (hey there, Clint Howard, Chris Jericho or Tom Savini!) and bigger than ever budget, Terrifier 3 remains true to what this franchise has always been about – extreme gore mixed with very dark humour and one creepy clown, wearing a tiny hat. I can’t wait for the Terrifier 4 (?).
That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Until next time,
Luke
