As horror fans eagerly await Terrifier 4, which promises to reveal all about Art the Clown’s elusive origins, creator and director Damien Leone seems to be looking to the late great David Lynch for inspiration on how to paint Art’s backstory in the fourquel.
"Once I wrote part 2, I decided to really start telling the story. I wanted to tell it almost in a Lynchian way," said Leone of Art’s backstory, in an interview with Collider. "I could never be on the same level as David Lynch. He’s one of my heroes. But I love the way he tells stories, and they’re very abstract. He doesn’t give you answers. If he ever tried to articulate, it would trivialize and diminish the beauty of what he’s done as an artist. His voice is his work. He’s not supposed to just tell you what he did."
It sounds as though Leone is taking a leaf out of Lynch’s book in the art of not revealing everything all at once, and holding onto “the mystique." The director continued, "That’s the most important part, even if people don’t realize it because they’re just so hungry to know what his deal is. I think a lot of people don’t realize the reason he works so well is because of the mystique. If you pull the curtain back too far, and you lose that mystique, it’s over... It’s almost always a disappointment."
From the moment fans met serial killer turned horror icon Art the Clown in the first Terrifier movie, viewers have been desperate to know who he really is, where he comes from, and why he is so hard to defeat. Played by David Howard Thornton, Art is described as a 'supernatural entity' who, after being shot in the face in Terrifier, was 'murdered' by Sienna in Terrifier 2, and then resurrected in Terrifier 3, so he's definitely not human.
However, we don’t think that Art is wholly immortal, as, instead of finishing the job and killing Sienna at the end of Terrifier 3, he ran away. On top of this, bringing Art back to life is no easy feat, as the clown had to possess original victim Victoria at the end of Terrifier 2 and have her give birth to his head in order to resurrect himself at the start of the third movie. He then took quite some time to recover in an abandoned house before being found by two construction workers, whom he happily feasted on.
It sounds as though our burning questions will finally be addressed in Terrifier 4, which may be the last Terrifier movie in the franchise. However, although Leone promises to reveal "a lot of answers" in Terrifier 4, the director says the movie will still have "that Lynchian vibe."
For more, check out our list of the best horror movies, or keep up to date with upcoming horror movies heading your way this year.
