Terrifier 3 has launched in cinemas and is already scaring the pants off of fans worldwide, including myself. It looks like director Damien Leone’s promise to make this movie bigger and better than the two that came before has certainly come to fruition as before the movie even hit the mainstream, early screenings had viewers leaving theaters and throwing up in Terrifier 3-branded sick bags that were cleverly provided.
Welcoming back David Howard Thornton as the killer clown, Terrifier 3 swaps Art’s usual Halloween killing spree for the festive period as he suits up as Santa Claus and wreaks havoc on Miles County once again. Of course, final girl Sienna (Lauren LaVera) is back in the firing line, but she may have to fight off more than one assailant this time around. Alongside Howard Thornton and LaVera, the film also welcomes back Samantha Scaffidi as Victoria and Elliot Fullam as Jonathan Shaw.
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But aside from the level of blood and gore the third installment serves up, the most shocking part of the new movie is how Art the Clown manages to be even more scary and creepy every single time we see him. But this is no coincidence or stroke of luck, as Leone and Howard Thornton had a plan on how to make Art as terrifying as ever.
Warning, the following article contains mild spoilers for Terrifier 3, so make sure to watch the film before reading on. But before you head to theaters, read our verdict on the new horror film in our Terrifier 3 review.
Art is back bigger than ever
Presented as an old jester-type clown, Art is actually a seemingly unkillable evil entity. We don’t really know where he comes from, but like Freddy Krueger or Pennywise, he is not human but rather a demon that knows no bounds. As well as his creepy costume and thick white face paint, what makes Art so creepy is his quick animal-like movements, uncanny stares, and the fact that he doesn't talk. When asked if he will ever make the clown speak, the director said, "I think he'll lose his mystique, his allure. I don't think his voice would ever live up to anybody's expectations at this point either." But all of these attributes would be nothing if not coupled with the horrific murders Art inflicts.
After seeing the atrocities committed by the evil mime in Terrifier 2, it is hard to imagine that Art could get any more sadistic. But, trust me, he does. This is something that Howard Thornton and Leone work on to make sure the clown comes back harder each time. "Damien and I just talk about how we want to take him in certain ways. And I know for this one, he wanted to get back to more of his scarier, darker roots," says the Art actor. "But I think it seems like every single movie, he gets a little bit more sadistic and, yeah, he gets more full of himself, a little bit more cocky and arrogant. But he gets angry as he goes along, too. So he's actually out for a lot of vengeance in this one."
So how does Howard Thornton pull it off? Well, in addition to trying to become more comfortable with being naturally violent in fight scenes and wielding weapons, the star also had to learn how to get into the character mentally. "I've done this character, I know him so well now, so I don't really have to think about it anymore. But like the first film, I really had to do a lot of mental prep and everything," adds Howard Thornton, noting that he now is able to switch Art on and off like a light. "It's probably kind of jarring for my co-stars. One second I'm on top of them, stabbing them like crazy and throwing them around, and they say cut and I'm just like, ‘Oh my gosh. Are you okay?’ It's gotta be weird."
Move over, Psycho shower scene
But "stabbing them like crazy" is only the half of it, as modern horror’s scariest clown is responsible for some of the most horrific kills in the genre. And it only gets worse in the third flick. In the Terrifier 3 trailer, we get a peek at Art wielding a chainsaw and attacking a couple in the shower, which is reminiscent of that iconic scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. But I can confidently say that the 1960 movie has been dethroned as having the best shower kill scene – every time I have taken a shower since watching Terrifier 3, all I see is Art.
Aside from Psycho and other classic horror films, we asked Leone where he gets his ideas for Terrifier’s crazy and out-of-the-box kills. "In terms of kill scenes, it's a matter of sometimes I'll go out of my way to research actual medieval torture methods," says the director. But sometimes the filmmaker will simply stumble upon an idea. "I was just in a bookstore, and I saw a book about Jack the Ripper," adds Leone, "then I saw an image of an actual crime scene photo. It was so disturbing. It was a woman horribly mutilated on the bed, all you could see was just clothes, bones, meat. You couldn't even see the person anymore. I said, if that's shocking me, I said that would shock the audience." So, Art the Clown is loosely based on Jack the Ripper? That makes sense.
Will there be bigger kills to come?
But Art is more than a serial killer. One of the scariest aspects of the franchise and Art as a horror villain is the fact that he knows no boundaries. He has no chosen weapon, which he demonstrates perfectly in the third movie using everything from a chainsaw to liquid nitrogen to torture his victims. Moreover, he doesn't target any one kind of victim, the sadistic killer even goes as far as to set his sights on kids in the third installment, which the director and star spoke about in an interview with GamesRadar+. All of this makes Art the most fearsome killer who could quite literally be in any place at any time, even at a shopping mall dressed as Santa.
This makes me wonder, will there be far more gruesome kills and more creepy moments courtesy of Art in Terrifier 4? Leone told us in another interview that he knows how the franchise will end and that it may take more than one movie to finish. Every movie has one shocking kill far gorier than the rest, one that sticks in our minds for months after we see the movie. Terrifier 1 has the hacksaw scene, there's the bedroom scene in Terrifier 2, and, of course, the shower scene in Terrifier 3 (or that Rat Torture Trap, whatever hits your trigger). So what is to come in the fourth, or even fifth, movies?
I can’t imagine what Art the Clown will do next, but if Leone and his team of horror magicians keep going on the path they have been on since the first movie hit screens in 2016, we can expect Art to come back scarier than ever in the next movie. And, although I am worried, I cannot wait.
Terrifier 3 is out now. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.
