Terrifier 3

NOW IN THEATERS! Displaying a surprising amount of restraint and sophistication in its delicate depictions of knife f*****g and chainsaws up the a*s is the holy grail of horror sequels Terrifier 3, written and directed by the auteur of agony, Damien Leone. It is Christmas time, and little Juliet (Luciana VanDette) hears a clatter on the rooftop. She wakes her parents and her mother, Jennifer (Krsy Fox), is annoyed to find the front door slightly ajar. After her mom returns to bed, Juliet spies a jolly stranger all dressed up like Santa in the living room. Turns out Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is back in a fancy new bloodstained yuletide get-up and a nice big axe to play with.

We then flash back five years ago to the immediate aftermath of the second movie. A security guard in the asylum finds the horribly mutilated Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) sitting on the floor of her cell, sucking out the contents of an intestine while the cut-off head of Art the clown chews on a fresh corpse. Once everything is straightened out there, we jump ahead five years to Christmastime. A traumatized Sienna (Lauren LaVera) will visit her favorite niece, Gabbie (Antonella Rose), for the holidays. Her brother, Jonathan (Elliott Fullam), is in college and being hassled by Mia (Alexa Blair Robertson), the girlfriend of his roommate, Cole (Mason Maecartea). Mia runs a true crime podcast, and the Miles County Massacre episodes are the highest-rated. However, both siblings are still devastated from surviving their encounter with the killer clown and never want to see him again. So obviously, they are not going to have a very good Christmas, as Art is back and just spotted a guy (Daniel Roebuck) in a bar wearing a Santa suit…

“…Art the Clown is back in a fancy new bloodstained yuletide get-up…”

By the time you read this, Terrifier 3 will have made history as the first horror movie to top the box office without an MPAA rating. As an audience member who grew up with all the best parts removed from our scary anti-social entertainment, our day in the bloody sun has arrived. And bloody it is, as Leone has really carved out his own section of the screen for spectacular extremities. Even the work of Fulci, the director of the most violent films of the 20th century, plateaus at the level where the blood geysers of Leone are just beginning. Leone goes for the most nerve-ripping section of splatter, which is his specialty for unrelenting dismemberment. Most slashers are merely content to stab, but Art the Clown goes for pulling pieces of flesh and limbs off like the victim was a Mr. Potato Head. And it is all being served up with the finest bloody rubber FX that slides down the screen in the most awesome way.

The signature here is how humor elements from death by clowns increase the gravity of the murders instead of diminishing the horrific reaction. You are guaranteed to see s**t you have never seen before, even if you are the sick critic who has gone out of his way to see the sickest s**t imaginable. This is why it is notable when Leone exercises surprising amounts of taste. All child murders occur off-screen, but in really clever ways that make them even scarier. In fact, Leone’s judgmental use of after-kills deserves study, even if the graphic slaughters steal the focus. Every time a kill is left offscreen, its reveal is more chilling than seeing the act itself. It also gets used strategically in the 3rd act to great success.