Terrifier

Terrifier is a 2016 American slasher film written and directed by Damien Leone. The film stars Jenna Kanell, Samantha Scaffidi, David Howard Thornton, and Catherine Corcoran. The plot centers on partygoer Tara Heyes (Kanell) and her sister Victoria (Scaffidi), who become targets of the enigmatic serial killer only known as Art the Clown (Thornton) on Halloween night.
It is the first film centered around Art the Clown, second-feature-length movie to include the character (after the anthology film All Hallows' Eve), fourth film and fifth installment overall (following two short films and anthology movies) in the Terrifier franchise. Leone wrote the film specifically as a means of showcasing the character of Art and his practical effects work—such as the controversial hacksaw death scene. Leone has expressed regret for leaving the protagonists underdeveloped. Leone filmed Terrifier on a low-budget of $35k. It had an Indiegogo campaign, although it ultimately did not reach its goal.
Mike Giannelli, who portrayed all prior incarnations of Art, retired from acting before production began, and Thornton replaced him as Art. It premiered at the Telluride Horror Show Film Festival in October 2016 before being picked up by Dread Central Presents and Epic Pictures for a limited theatrical release in March 2018. The film received mixed reviews, with praise directed towards the special effects and the portrayals of Kanell and Thornton, while the writing was subject to criticism. The movie quickly became a cult film. A sequel, Terrifier 2, was released on October 6, 2022.
Plot
On her show, talk show host Monica Brown interviews a severely disfigured woman, the sole survivor of a massacre that took place the previous Halloween. Brown mentions that the body of the mysterious killer, known only as "Art the Clown", disappeared from the morgue, suggesting he is still alive. When the disfigured woman insists she saw him die, a man watching the program, revealed to be Art, destroys his TV. He changes into costume and fills a garbage bag with various weapons and knives. Later in her dressing room, Monica talks to her partner on the phone, making disparaging remarks about the interviewee's appearance. The disfigured woman, who'd been eavesdropping, attacks Monica and gouges out her eyes, laughing maniacally.
On Halloween night, two friends, Tara and Dawn, drunkenly leave a party, encountering Art, who follows them to a pizzeria. There, Art makes advances at Tara, unnerving her, before being kicked out by the restaurant owner for smearing his feces over the bathroom walls. The girls leave the pizzeria to discover that one of Dawn's car tires has been slashed, and Tara calls her sister Vicky to come pick them up. Meanwhile Art returns to the pizzeria, killing and mutilating two workers.
While waiting, Tara asks a pest control worker, Mike, to be let into the apartment building he's working in to use the restroom. There, she encounters the Cat Lady, a deluded squatter, who believes the doll she carries is her infant child. Meanwhile, Art attacks Dawn while waiting in her car and chases down Tara inside the apartment building. Art eventually subdues her with a sedative.
Tara awakens, bound to a chair, to see Art has Dawn suspended upside-down. Art forces Tara to watch as he saws Dawn in half with a hacksaw. Tara escapes and strikes Art with a 2x4, but he produces a gun and shoots her to death. The Cat Lady witnesses this and seeks out Mike for help, only to be dismissed. Art attacks Mike, knocking him unconscious with a hammer. The Cat Lady soon discovers Art cradling her doll, and in a plea for the return of her "child", attempts to show motherly compassion to Art by cradling him.
Vicky arrives to take Tara and Dawn home, but is lured into the basement, where she discovers Art, who has severely mutilated the Cat Lady and is wearing her scalp and breasts. Art chases and corners her into a locker, but turns his attention to Mike's co-worker and decapitates him. Art chases down Vicky, who briefly escapes him but stops upon finding her sister's corpse. Art catches up to her and attacks her with a makeshift cat o' nine tails, but a recovered Mike knocks Art unconscious. The two flee and call 9-1-1, but Art recovers and kills Mike. Vicky retreats into a garage, but Art rams through the door and hits her with a pickup truck, incapacitating her. As she lies unconscious, Art begins to eat her face. The police finally arrive, but Art shoots himself inside his mouth before he can be apprehended.
After the police discover Vicky is still alive, Art's body and those of his slain victims are taken to a morgue, where the medical examiner unzips Art's body bag. Art suddenly reanimates and attacks him. One year later, Vicky is released from the hospital after rehabilitation from the injuries inflicted by Art; she is revealed to be the severely disfigured woman from the film's opening scene and thus the events of the entire movie took place that previous year.
Cast
Jenna Kanell as Tara
Samantha Scaffidi as Victoria, Tara's sister
Catherine Corcoran as Dawn, Tara's best friend
David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown
Pooya Mohseni as the Cat Lady
Matt McAllister as Mike the Exterminator
Katie Maguire as Monica Brown
Gino Cafarelli as Steve
Erick Zamora as Ramone
Cory Duval as Coroner
Michael Leavy as Will the Exterminator #2
Production
The character of Art the Clown first appeared as a supporting character in the 2008 short film The 9th Circle, which Leone wrote and directed. Leone later wrote and directed a short film titled Terrifier, which featured Art as the main antagonist and was released in 2011. These shorts were incorporated into the 2013 anthology film All Hallows' Eve, which marked both Art's first feature film appearance and Leone's feature directorial debut.
In 2015, Leone launched a campaign on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo to finance Terrifier, a feature-length spin-off of All Hallows' Eve. After being notified of the Indiegogo campaign, filmmaker Phil Falcone provided the necessary funds for the project in exchange for a producer credit. In The 9th Circle, the short film Terrifier, and All Hallows' Eve, Art was played by Mike Giannelli, who opted not to return to the role for the feature film Terrifier due to not wanting to pursue any more major acting roles. Instead, the role of Art was recast to David Howard Thornton. Thornton was already familiar with All Hallows' Eve when he auditioned for the role of Art in Terrifier, and was cast in the role after improvising a kill scene in mime.
Release
Terrifier premiered at the Telluride Horror Show Film Festival in 2016. It was later screened at the Horror Channel FrightFest on October 28, 2017, and was subsequently picked up by Dread Central Presents and Epic Pictures for a limited 2018 release. In April 2023, it was announced that Terrifier would be released theatrically in 700 theaters on July 19, 2023.
Home media
Terrifier was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Dread Central on March 27, 2018. The release features audio commentary from Damien Leone and David H. Thornton, behind-the-scenes footage, an interview with star Jenna Kanell, deleted scenes, collectible reversible cover art, and several other bonus features.
Critical response
Terrifier received mixed reviews from critics, with praise directed towards the performances of Thornton and Kanell, while the screenplay received criticism. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 55% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "All about the splashy kills, Terrifier artfully introduces the unpredictable massacrer mime Art, yet fails to carve an entertaining story worthy of his wrath."
John Higgins (Starburst) praised the performances of Kanell and Corcoran in that they "are attractive leads and hold the attention." Higgins also praised the film's balance of suspense and gore.
Anton Bitel of the British Film Institute described the film as a "subtext-free thrill-and-kill ride which openly advertises the sheer senselessness and gratuity of all its on-screen cat-and-mouse deaths by numbers" and "an unapologetically ‘pure’ genre entry, confronting – and amusing – us with all the sinister masked vicariousness of the Halloween spirit." Cody Hamman of Arrow in the Head awarded the film a score of 8 out of 10, calling it "a very simple film, providing 84 minutes of stalking and slashing that occurs largely within the confines of one location. Leone directs the hell out of that simple scenario, though, milking every possible bit of tension from each moment. It's a thrilling, brutal, gory '80s throwback that I recommend checking out, especially if you have a fondness for the same decade of films that this movie obviously holds in high regard."
Sol Harris of the magazine Starburst gave the film a score of 6 out of 10, writing: "Presented as something of a throwback to horror B-movies of the '80s, Terrifier has far more style - both visually and audibly - than the average film of this nature. It's a surprisingly nice looking film for a movie about a clown chopping people into pieces." Jeremy Aspinall of Radio Times praised the film, writing "But despite the unsparing gore, there's also plenty of atmosphere and a gnawing tension that's maintained all the way to the sequel-hinting climax." In a thesis by M. Keith Booker, he writes that rather than evolving the slasher film genre in different directions, Terrifier acts as a homage to the 1980s films of the subgenre but with better special effects and higher production values. Booker also observes similarities with Dawn's (Corcoran) hacksaw death scene and Freddy Krueger's pursuit of Nancy Thompson in the bathtub scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
The film was not without its detractors. Amyana Bartley of FilmInquiry.com felt that the film's script lacked both clear protagonists and depth, writing, "Art the Clown has the potential to be a formidable, gruesome, franchise horror character, he just needs more seasoning and cultivation." Felix Vasquez Jr. of Cinema Crazed called it "fairly mediocre slasher fare", stating that the film lacked any creativity and tension while also criticizing its story line. Vasquez concluded his review by stating "As a film Terrifier aims high, but feels like a very disposable party favor you'll have forgotten once the credits roll."
Accolades
The film received three Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations: Best Limited Release, Best Supporting Actor (Thornton), and Best Makeup FX (Leone).
Sequels
In February 2019, Damien Leone stated that a sequel for Terrifier was in production, with the other sequel's script having already been written. The film went into production in October 2019 with Fuzz on the Lens Productions as co-producers along with Dark Age Cinema. The film was initially delayed during production of its final days of shooting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but finally resumed in September 2020 and wrapped shooting in 2021.
The film debuted at the Arrow Video FrightFest in London, England on August 29, 2022, before receiving a nationwide US cinema release on October 6, 2022, and was released to streaming platforms on November 11, 2022.
After the success of Terrifier 2, it was announced that Terrifier 3 was in the works and in May 2023, it was announced that the sequel was expected to begin filming in November or December of 2023 for a late 2024 release.
References
External links
2016 horror films
2010s American films
2010s English-language films
2010s monster movies
2010s slasher films
American slasher films
American splatter films
American supernatural horror films
Fictional clowns
Film spin-offs
Films directed by Damien Leone
Halloween horror films
Horror films about clowns
Terrifier (film series)