Terrifier 3 (2024)
8/10
Horror fans have a new Christmas classic on their hands with Terrifier 3, the latest in writer-director Damien Leone’s goretastic slasher series. Shifting gears from the Halloween setting of the first two movies, Leone uses the Christmas backdrop to keep pushing the boundaries of good taste and the contents of audience stomachs as he further expands the series mythology. Terrifier fans will not be disappointed.
The third film follows protagonist Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) in the runup to Christmas as she and her younger brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) try to rebuild their lives, having been traumatized by their battle with Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) at the end of Terrifier 2. Unfortunately for the siblings, a resurrected Art is back in Miles County along with his new accomplice: a possessed Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi), the final girl of Terrifier who was disfigured by Art and driven murderously insane.
The opening scene of Terrifier 3 gives audiences a good indicator of what they’re in for. Dressed as Santa Claus, Art invades a home and gleefully slaughters an entire family. Targeting children is a horror taboo the Terrifier movies have shown they are willing to break: Art’s first action in the film is to hack a boy to death with an axe, though the murder takes place offscreen. The blood-soaked killer then treats himself to milk and cookies and, in one of many moments that drew laughter from the audience, makes sure to wash his plate afterwards.
It’s this juxtaposition of horrific sadism and whimsical mime that makes Art such a captivating villain. Thornton’s performance is a crucial part of that, aided by his now-iconic clown costume and makeup. Somehow Art is both comedically playful, even childlike at times, and one of the most brutal, terrifying villains ever put to screen. Take Art’s genuine excitement when he sees a man dressed as Santa Claus (Daniel Roebuck) at a bar, in a scene which is funny and delightful before it gets dark and gruesome—yet still funny, thanks to Thornton’s exaggerated mime and Leone’s inventive violence, which is so over the top it becomes cartoonish.
An added-value element in this latest Terrifier is Victoria, now in full villain mode after being possessed by the Little Pale Girl who accompanied Art in the second film. Victoria has an interesting dynamic with Art. Initially I thought of her as Harley Quinn to Art’s Joker. But as the film goes on and we learn more about the demonic forces at play, it appears that the entity possessing Victoria is calling the shots. YouTuber The Vile Eye believes the Little Pale Girl is none other than Satan himself, with Art acting as the devil’s agent of evil in the world.
Sienna, in turn, has become increasingly identified as the agent of good chosen to combat this evil. The religious, specifically Christian undertones of Terrifier 3 show how far the supernatural elements have increased over the course of these films. Aside from the return of Sienna’s magic sword, Leone incorporates overt Christian symbolism. Art strings a disemboweled victim on the wall in a crucifixion pose, which he mimics. Victoria places a literal crown of thorns on a bloodied Sienna, while Art whips her with the intestines of his victim. It’s all very Passion of the Christ, another notoriously violent film.
Once again, Sienna represents the emotional core of the movie, here attempting to deal with her trauma until she is faced with no option but to actively fight its source, embodied in Art. While the visual symbolism presents Sienna as a Christ-like saviour, her story brings to mind another biblical figure: Job, who is battered by a series of disasters and misfortunes that Satan engineers to test his faith by taking away everything Job holds dear. In battling Art, Sienna too appears to lose everything, yet resolves to continue the fight.
Despite all these thematic elements, the main attraction of the Terrifier series—as with any slasher film—involves its set-piece kills. Terrifier 3 offers some new twists such as Art’s use of liquid nitrogen, a shower murder that pays homage to Psycho, a truly disgusting weaponization of rats, and the most nightmarish Christmas tree you’ve ever seen. Unlike other slasher villains, Art is happy to use guns and explosives. He also shows his love of torture more than ever. Expanding on a scene in the first Terrifier, Art restrains more people in chairs and forces them to suffer unspeakable pain, or to watch it inflicted on others.
Critics will rail at the fact that so many moviegoers can watch such scenes of sadistic murder and torture as entertainment. But this is a debate that goes back to the beginning of horror films, and has continued through trends such as the 1980s slasher boom and the 2000s torture-porn era. Horror allows us to face our fears, which in some sense is always the fear of death, and in doing so provides catharsis.
Obviously this kind of film isn’t for everyone. But in a world where governments, media, and big business support the torture and genocide of hundreds of thousands of people, including children, the cartoonish kills of Art the Clown pale behind the body count and suffering inflicted by slick politicians in suits. There’s a character in Terrifier 3 who hosts a true-crime podcast. The obsession with true crime, which involves profiting from the suffering of real people, is more exploitative in every way than horror films portraying fictional murders.
The icing on the cake of the Terrifier movies is the synthwave music on the soundtrack. Along with Leone’s use of anamorphic lenses to make the film look like a “vintage John Carpenter movie”, synthwave further augments the retro 1980s slasher vibe. “Chrissy” by DreamKid, an instrumental with layers of synths and guitars that plays over the end credits of Terrifier 3, is the standout. Leone also incorporates plenty of Christmas tunes, used ironically in the best tradition of action and horror films set during the holiday season. We even get an original song, “It’s a Terrifier Christmas”, which plays as Art makes a “blood angel” after a murder.
If the ending of Terrifier 3 is less satisfying than the first two, with the fate of some major characters unresolved, it’s arguably a cliffhanger that could pay off should we see a Terrifier 4. Given the immense profitability of this one, now the highest-grossing unrated film of all time—as of this writing, it has earned $68 million at the box office on a mere $2-million budget—I have no doubt Art the Clown will return.