Score: 4/5
Art the Clown returns to spread holiday cheer and bloody bits of bodies in the third installment of the Terrifier series.
Not for the faint of heart or stomach, Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3 continues the trend of the first two movies, detailing the brutal, graphically violent acts and darkly comedic antics of the psychotic and demonic clown called Art. Along with delivering much of what you’d expect from a Terrifier movie, this movie does everything better.
The movie’s practical effects, acting and plot are all significantly improved. No longer is Terrifier a micro-budget series: while the first two films had infinitesimal budgets of $35,000 and $250,000, Terrifier 3 had a budget of $2 million. Similarly, while the first two movies made great money for their budgets, Terrifier 3 is currently the top film in the United States, securing a whopping $19 million in its opening weekend alone.
So how did a movie notorious for making people vomit become so successful? The Guardian describes the film as less of a film than a “challenge of endurance,” but I would argue that while the first two movies might fit that moniker, Terrifier 3 is not only a successful film but a damn good one.
Of immediate note is the movie’s controversial first scene, which made all those people expel their popcorn or leave the theatre outright, arguing the film had gone too far. The scene is, truthfully, quite disturbing, including the murder of a child, but in an interview with The AU Review, Leone said that there are some lines even he won’t cross:
“To me, it’s too off-putting to go that graphically violent with murdering a kid […] The idea of what we’re doing is so horrible that you don’t need to show the graphic. You get the same impact. It’s hearing it or seeing the aftermath. So yeah, I do have lines. I cross a lot of people’s lines, [but] I do have a personal taste metre, and I don’t want to alienate too many people, which is very easy to do.”
Some might say that if showing such an act goes too far, why include it at all? Well, the scene is perhaps the most ingenious part of the movie.
By introducing Art in this way, the audience immediately sees just how cruel and evil he truly is. The scene is gut-wrenching and tense, warping the childish excitement of a visit from Santa Claus by giving Santa an axe and murderous intentions.
Terrifier 3 sets the tone right away, proving itself to be not just a schlocky, violent slasher by setting up astronomical stakes.
If this kid can be killed not even 10 minutes into the movie, then how will the newly introduced Gabby — the young cousin of main character Sienna — fare when she’s face-to-face with the killer? This is a movie set in Christmastime: how will any kid fare when Art immediately proves he has no moral qualms about whom he dismembers, no matter how old they are?
The solid acting and character-building only raise the film’s stakes higher. While Terrifier 2 provided the groundwork for the story of Sienna, as her friends and family became targets of Art’s rampage, Terrifier 3 solidifies her as a horror icon. Here, she must navigate her grief and guilt, which manifests in the form of visions of those who were killed. Sienna is at her lowest point, struggling to cope and return to some semblance of a normal life, when Art returns and drags her deeper into hell.
Terrifier 3, despite its reputation, has some seriously emotional scenes and performances that make the horror even more horrifying.
Also, this movie is hilarious.
Art has an interesting way of flipping moments between frightening and funny. He is sick and depraved, mutilating and torturing people while cackling in silence, but even despite his evil nature, he can always make the audience laugh.
Whether it’s his petty treatment of Sienna during an otherwise brutal climactic scene or him getting childishly excited when he sees a mall Santa and mistaking him for the real deal, Art is funny. The movie knows its comedic capabilities as well. One of the most disgusting scenes, an homage to Psycho, has a particularly funny moment that makes you laugh, then cringe at yourself for laughing — even as you continue laughing — all while a Terrifier-themed Christmas carol plays in the background.
However, despite the film’s many victories, I do have one criticism regarding the film’s entrance into the third act. The transition into the climax is so jarring that I thought it was a dream sequence until the dream just never ended. What’s worse, two major characters are killed off-screen here, which felt very weird for a movie that revels in its violence.
I think I know why it happened though. Terrifier 3’s most savage and hard-to-watch moments happen when characters we know and grow fond of are killed — that, or when children are murdered. The third act is already hard enough for our main character. Lauren LaVera puts on a gut-wrenching and excellent performance, making it all the harder to watch. For all its lighter moments, and the fun it has with its kills, if Terrifier 3 showed each of our beloved characters brutally butchered one after the other, the ending would be significantly more drawn out — one of my criticisms from the second movie — not to mention more bleak and tough to stomach.
These off-screen kills save the audience from a truly harrowing final scene, but it still feels like the rug is pulled out from under you when there is next to no explanation or depiction of their deaths. I suspect one of these deaths is a red herring, but that theory must wait until Terrifier 4. Regardless, once you get back into the movie it’s a good ride until the final credits roll.
Seeing Terrifier 3 in the theatre provides an unsettling and unforgettable experience — you can’t escape the gore when it’s staining your entire field of vision red. If you can stomach it, and even if you can’t, I recommend seeing this film in theatres to get the most out of this violent thrill ride of a movie.
You probably won’t regret it, but you’d better bring a barf bag just in case.