Christmas comes early in this ultra-violent sequel

It’s been an amazing journey for Art the Clown, the central villain of the Terrifier universe. From his humble beginnings in a very twisted short film from 2008, to a now surprisingly successful series of theatrical hits. More amazingly, he got there without losing his essence: utter depravity.

Terrifier 3 is the latest in writer-director Damien Leone’s popular series of extreme horror movies, and just like the previous entries, fans can expect plenty of blood and guts. This time, though, there’s a big twist. The first two movies were set on Halloween, the perfect environment for Art the Clown to blend in among all the trick ‘r treaters. In this third film, the terror takes place on Christmas, and Art really gets into the spirit of the season.

The film opens in a house on Christmas Eve. The kids are put to bed, and mom and dad are getting to sleep themselves. But in comes Art, dressed up as Santa Claus, sneaking around the house with an ax. Things quickly get extremely upsetting, with father, mother and children all being chopped to bits in gory detail. The opening sends a message to the audience: if you were worried Art the Clown was getting tame, put those worries away.

From there, the movie jumps back in time, to five years ago, right after the events of Terrifier 2. We see Art the Clown get his head back, and get together with Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi), who fans will remember as one of the characters from the first movie. After watching her friends and family die, and having her face mostly eaten off by the demonic clown, she is now in a mental institution, where she has also developed supernatural attachment to Art. The two escape and go off to wreak havoc.

Back in the present day, the second film’s hero, Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera), is checked out of hospital, where she has been trying to deal with her mental state following her own encounter with Art the Clown. She goes to stay with her older sister and brother-in-law, and forms a bond with their young daughter Gabbie (Antonella Rose). But she gets spooked when she believes she’s seen Art walking around, dressed as Santa, during a trip to the mall.

She must try to band together with her family, including her younger brother Jonathan (Elliot Fullam), who also survived the events of the second film, and is now adjusting to life as a freshman in college. While Art goes on his twisted, murderous rampage, with the help of the demonically possessed Vicky, Sienna tries to find a way to put a stop to the terror once and for all.

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Release date, rating, and runtime

No rating could be too high for this twisted, gory nightmare

Terrifier 3 is being released in theaters unrated, which is just as well, because there is no way, with all of its extreme gore, would the movie be rated anything less than an NC-17. And even that might not be a high enough rating to convey just how violent the movie is. The film runs 125 minutes, which is long for a horror movie, but mercifully a bit shorter than the 138-minute Terrifier 2.

What I liked about Terrifier 3

Lovers of blood and guts will have little to complain about

Jesse Korman; Courtesy of Dark Age Cinema

It’s funny to say you “like” a movie like Terrifier 3, given how completely depraved the whole thing is, but that’s also the fun of the franchise. In fact, while I enjoyed the simplicity of the first film, I thought Terrifier 2 was a bit of a step down, because in adding more characters and emotion, the movie didn’t feel suitably mean enough. There is no such problem with Terrifier 3. Sienna Shaw is back in the picture, and there are emotions and traumas being worked through, but it’s much better balanced with the rest of the movie, which is mainly made up of Art the Clown and Vicky murdering people in the most disgusting, vomit-inducing ways possible.

The opening scene lets you know what you’re in store for, with shots of a child chopped up by an ax. Things only get uglier from there, which will be a turn-off for most viewers, and is almost certainly objectively tasteless, but provides plenty of fun for fans of truly twisted horror. The mean streak is back in spades, right through to the film’s ending, which does leave room for another sequel, which has already been confirmed by Leone.

I also appreciated the new visual style of the film, which abandons the overly clean, very cheap looking digital visuals of the first two movies, and opts to emulate the look of old ’70s horror movies like Halloween, with fake film grain, darker shadows and bolder colors, perfect for capturing all those Christmas lights. Leone has also improved as a director of suspense. Some of the sequences are edited well for maximum tension, which makes the eventual terror of seeing people disemboweled, decapitated, and otherwise mutilated that much more sickening.

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What I didn’t like about Terrifier 3

Too much drama in this horror movie

Jesse Korman; Courtesy of Dark Age Cinema

Though I appreciate that Leone is attempting to add some real weight to these gross-out horror movies, and though things are a little more balanced in Terrifier 3 than they were in Terrifier 2, there is still altogether too much character drama. LaVera is a great horror hero in the role of Sienna, but the filmmaker seems too invested in exploring her traumas, not to mention the demonic mythology she’s been caught up in. The writing in those scenes isn’t quite good enough, and some of the performances are just a little too stilted to make it work. The result is that every time the movie leaves Art to check in on Sienna, the movie sort of grinds to a halt.

As for that demonic mythology stuff, there is some hint of the hellbound horror that’s in store for future installments, and it looked cool, but I much prefer the simple killing Art the Clown gets up to. Whenever the movie brings in the magic, or the supernatural, I get a little less interested in what’s going on. It’s a little too comic book-y, which feels at odds with the franchise’s more grindhouse and exploitation movie roots.

It should also be said, that while I enjoyed the depraved violence of the movie, there’s no getting around the fact that seeing people chainsawed in half and worse is going to be unpleasant for most audiences. I am able to find some delight in the film’s impressive practical gore effects, but at the same time, that quality is used to create some genuinely sickening images, which will be too much for a lot of people.

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Verdict: Should you see Terrifier 3?

It’s almost impossible to recommend a movie like this

Jesse Korman; Courtesy of Dark Age Cinema

It’s sometimes hard to know what to do with a movie like Terrifier 3. It does exactly what it sets out to do, and does so pretty well. In that sense, it’s a good movie. I also enjoyed the movie, because I have a high tolerance for very depraved horror. So it’s good in that sense, too.

But be warned, if you’re at all squeamish, or if the sight of murdered children and flesh being torn off people’s faces sounds like too much for you, stay away from Terrifier 3. It is more sickening than you can possibly imagine, and it’s mean-spirited about it on top of it all. There’s a place in the world for that kind of horror, but it’s certainly not for most people. Still, the appeal must be strong enough, because the movie is all set to make a killing at the box office. Deservedly so. It’s easily the best killer clown movie in cinemas this season.

If depraved horror and a lot of mutilated bodies and blood sounds like a fun time at the movies to you, you’re sure to get a kick out of Terrifier 3, especially if you see it with a good crowd of people, all reacting to the disgusting images onscreen.

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