Fantastic Fest 2024 ‘Terrifier 3’ Review – Horror That Honks in Blood-Soaked Happiness
The Terrifier franchise has been a powerhouse for independent horror films. The first film made $416,000 on a $35-$55K budget and Terrifier 2 made $15.7 million on a $250K budget. While Terrifier 3 has the biggest budget of the franchise with $2M, it’s bound to be just as lucrative as the first two films as it is one of the most anticipated horror films of the year.
After the sudden success of Terrifier 2, studios showed interest in financing a third film before writer and director Damien Leone had even finished a script. One of the reasons the Terrifier films are so unflinchingly gruesome is that Leone chooses to finance his films independently and does all of the special effects himself. He’s not only in control of his vision, but no studio is trying to get him to alter sequences to adhere to the MPAA.
The first film gives Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) a Michael Myers type of resurrection as he survives a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. In Terrifier 2, Art is decapitated by Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) but resurrects again. Mutilated survivor Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi) gives birth to Art’s head while in a psychiatric hospital.
Terrifier 3 toys with possession and even wilder aspects to Art’s survival. His headless body roams the streets while making its way to its severed head. The weakest aspect of these films has always been Art’s motive and what he is and isn’t capable of. It feels like Leone is attempting to capitalize on the horror movie trope of elements being scarier when they aren’t fully explained or rationalized.
However, The Terrifier films are milking that aspect with every released sequel since Art can seemingly survive anything just because. A sword that was a gift from Sienna’s father is the only thing that can hurt him, but after chopping his head off and stabbing Art countless times there isn’t much else Leone can do with a magical sword that is seemingly just as indestructible as Art is.
Five years after the events of Terrifier 2, Sienna is struggling mentally with seeing her friends and family get killed. She goes to therapy regularly and spends time with her surviving family members in Miles County including her niece Gabbie (Antonella Rose). Sienna’s brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) is in college and dealing with the tragedy better than his older sister. Since it’s almost Christmas, they plan to spend the holiday together as a family.
Art possesses Victoria and begins using her as an accomplice and mouthpiece. He targets Miles County and Sienna sees him at the mall before his latest slaughter begins. Her warnings fall on deaf ears as most believe that she’s seeing things and needs to return to the psychiatric hospital. Half the town is massacred once Sienna is revealed to be telling the truth.
The first two Terrifier films gained massive controversy for their treatment of women. The goriest kills are often with female victims like the upside-down sawing scene in Terrifier and Allie’s lengthy maiming in Terrifier 2. While Art’s victims have primarily been women it seems like Damien Leone wants Art to feel like he’ll rip anyone apart despite age, sex, or race. As long as Art is covered in blood, he is honking in blood-soaked happiness.
Naturally, Terrifier 3 takes that aspect even further as Art kills so many children throughout the film. The opening sequence features a small boy being his first victim and the mall Santa sequence will leave many with their jaws on the floor. There’s also a sequence where Art defaces a male construction worker with a box cutter and peels his scalp down over his chin to reveal the man’s bloody skull as Victoria watches and masturbates with a shard of glass.
Art kills a couple having sex in the shower with a chainsaw. Highlights include sticking the chainsaw between the guy’s butt cheeks and making a snow angel in all the blood. There’s also a rat torture sequence involving a glass tube and live rats being cut out of a woman’s neck and a man’s white beard being ripped off of his face and worn like a Santa beard.
Art has always had an impressive arsenal of handmade weapons. In this film, he concocts a fire extinguisher that shoots liquid nitrogen. It freezes his victims as he chooses to smash hands and faces with a hammer to shatter their frozen flesh.
The film deals with trauma surprisingly well. Sienna is still reeling from everything that happened five years prior and the events of Terrifier 3 only dump mountainous loads of anguish on top of her already open wounds. Lauren LaVera delivers a believable and genuine performance that illustrates how screwed up she’s become and how Art is affecting her mentally and emotionally in addition to nearly dying at every encounter with him.
It’s always felt like the Terrifier films are written around these carefully choreographed and creative kills. Terrifier 3 is no different, but three films in and Damien Leone is still chiseling away at what Art the Clown really is and what he’ll eventually become. What makes the films work as well as they do is David Howard Thornton’s performance across the trilogy. His body language and charisma despite never speaking or making a sound leave you laughing even at the most brutal of times.
Terrifier 3 offers more of what you’ve come to love or hate from the franchise while also diving into what makes these characters tick. Art’s origins are as murky as ever, but it also isn’t as predictable as you may think. As long as you don’t make the same mistake I did and eat while watching the film, Terrifier 3 is a worthy sequel that leaves you anticipating where Damien Leone will take Art next.
NEXT: Fantastic Fest 2024 ‘The Draft!’ Review – A Basic Outline of Wishy-Washy Horror
Terrifier 3 (2024), Cineverse
PROS
- Creative kills
- Performances of Lauren LaVera and David Howard Thornton
- Decent character development
CONS
- Is senseless at times
- Reveals only entice more questions
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