According to Terrifier director Damien Leone, while some of the horror franchise’s cast, crew, and fans have their own outspoken political opinions, his killer-clown-centric series is intended to serve as nothing more than blood-splattered pieces of bipartisan entertainment.
This latest controversy surrounding the fan-favorite slasher films first arose courtesy of Art the Clown himself, series lead actor David Howard Thornton.
Far from a fan of the newly re-elected President Trump and his administration, recent weeks have seen Thornton taking to his personal Threads and Facebook accounts to offer his own vocal criticisms against the American government’s new direction.
For example, on January 31st, the actor pressed his followers, “Consider what all is happening in our country right now. How do you feel? Angry? Sad? Happy? Apathetic? Impartial? Now you know exactly how you would have reacted during the events in 1930s Germany. I hope you all plan on being on the correct side of History.”
The next day, Thornton would retweet a news report from the LA Times recounting the details of President Trump’s recent order that California open up its Terminus and Schafer Dams and declare, “Time for disobedience”.
“The same people that scream ‘They took our jerbs!’ have no problem with an unelected illegal immigrant Nazi oligarch taking their social security information and taking over the Treasury by force,” he said on February 2nd. “Make it make sense.”
Sharing an update Bryan Tyler Cohen from political YouTuber regarding Elon Musk being granted full, unrestricted access to various government agencies, Thornton indulged in a bit of schadenfreude, asserting, “This is for those that voted for this. Y’all wanted cheaper eggs. Y’all just had your personal information stolen by an unelected foreigner and are now about to be taxed much more due to these tariffs.”
“This is only 2 weeks in,” he added. “Was it worth it putting our country in the hands of a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist that already tried to overthrow our government? Y’all got played like a harp from Hell.”
Given the nature of the internet, Thornton’s sharing of his highly political opinions unsurprisingly drew him the ire of his ideological opponents, many of whom essentially told the actor to sit down, stop talking, and get back to entertaining them.
But rather than shutting up, Thornton instead wrote to his social media accounts, “I grew up around Germans that stayed silent. I learned from them what happens when one stays silent. That is why I continue to refuse to stay silent. If you don’t like that, you can keep scrolling. It’s as simple as that.”
From there, the discourse continued to grow, eventually reaching the aforementioned Leone himself.
Seeking to address the situation, the director took to his personal Facebook page on February 3rd and announced, “I want to make a very important statement regarding the Terrifier franchise in this ugly political climate we’re living in.”
“As most of you know, some of my cast and crew members have a very passionate political presence on social media with extreme and sometimes harsh opinions which is their right,” he wrote. “I’m all for freedom of speech and expression. That being said, Terrifier is NOT in any way shape or form a political franchise.”
“I did not get into filmmaking to become a politician or promote any politcal agendas or ideologies, especially through a killer clown movie,” Leone continued. “I fell in love with horror movies as a form of pure entertainment and those are the films I like to make. Since Terrifier 1, our cast and crew has and still consists of both republicans and democrats and anyone is welcome to be a part of it regardless of their political affiliations as long as they’re a decent human being.”
“That goes for our fan base as well,” he concluded. “If this doesn’t sit well with any fans or cast/crew members that is your right and I respect it. You don’t have to buy a ticket and you don’t have to work on these films. Thank you and I recommend you don’t let toxic rhetoric on either side of the political spectrum deter you from being a Terrifier fan.”