The moment a clown in a Santa costume chainsaws a man in half from the bottom, as a song plays about the movie it’s happening in, everything comes together. Terrifier 3 isn’t serious at all… except in its aim to be as gory, disgusting, and shocking as possible. And, to that end, it succeeds and then some.
Fresh off the runaway success of 2022’s Terrifier 2, writer-director Damien Leone is back with the third installment of his burgeoning slasher franchise, one that suddenly has many more eyeballs on it because of the previous film’s success. Even with that added pressure though, Leone raises the bar with this third installment, crafting a story that’s less than satisfying narratively, and not particularly cohesive tonally, but a home run in terms of a jaw-dropping, often incredibly hard-to-watch onslaught of murder and mayhem. Which is exactly the point.
The purveyor of most of this carnage is Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton), a character whose head was chopped off by Sienna (Lauren LaVera) at the end of the last film. Well, Terrifier 3—in grand slasher sequel fashion—fixes that lickity split and puts those two characters on the warpath again. Art comes back and soon Sienna gets out of a mental institution. She’s ready to spend Christmas with her family, except she still can’t shake the terrifying events of five years past.
Terrifier 3 jumps between Art and Sienna’s stories for the majority of the film. For Art, that mostly means walking around, finding someone, and then taking the utmost pleasure and glee in killing them in all sorts of innovative ways. At times he uses traditional horror movie weapons—axes, guns, chainsaws—but he’s got some new tools in his bag of tricks too, like liquid nitrogen and rats. These scenes, while often working against the narrative drive, are by far the most entertaining. Art is why you sat down to watch Terrifier 3. You want to see what new, horrifying ways he’s found to kill people and just how far he’ll go with it.
That’s what sets Art apart from typical horror film slashers like Freddy, Jason, and Michael. Those guys, with the occasional exception of Freddy, care mainly about the kill. Art seems to care less about the kill and more about the dismemberment. He doesn’t just want his victims dead. He wants to savor the act of killing. So he’ll start by chopping off a hand, then the arm, a leg, maybe one of each, and just when you think he’s delivered the fatal blow he keeps going, often leaving nothing but a bloody pile of flesh. It’s incredibly gruesome but that’s Art and Terrifier.
Sienna’s story, on the other hand, mostly shows that she and her brother Jonathan (Elliot Fullam) are doing their best to get their lives back on track after their last showdown with Art. That means moving in with the only family she has left after the previous film—her aunt, uncle, and cousin. In particular, Sienna has a strong connection with her cousin, Gabbie (Antonella Rose), a revelation that fills you with dread as the film gets closer to its climax. Anyone that close to Sienna can’t be in for a happy ending.
The two stories go back and forth with only teases, at least for the first half, that they are on a collision course. You know they have to be. That’s the whole point. But often the editing between Art and Sienna feels disconnected and disjointed, like they’re in two different movies. Then, once the stories do start to come together, it feels rushed, with one particular jump between acts two and three almost seeming as if a scene or two is missing.
You figure it out though. It’s not rocket science. And the film’s third act is its most brutal yet, with Sienna and anyone closer to her having to endure some of the most vile things imaginable. Which, as I said above, is largely the point. Leone isn’t here to make some kind of deep, meaningful film about trauma or survival. Those elements are in there but it’s much more about how much chaos he can put on screen with a story that keeps you just interested enough to care.
Nowhere is that better seen in the film’s shockingly restrained flashbacks. The previous film slowly began to pull the curtain back on the lore that links Art and Sienna, and potentially Art’s origin. So, as expected, Terrifier 3 dives a little deeper into that, but it’s barely a taste. Clearly, Leone doesn’t want to demystify his characters yet, even though you think he’s about to. The film goes so far as to cast Jason Patric as Sienna’s comic book artist father, the person whose sword was able to kill Art in the previous movie. But outside of one specific scene, everything about them is still left as a great big tease. It’s a bit of a bummer.
In the end though, that restraint just makes you want to watch more Terrifier and keeps the focus on the main event, which is Art the Clown killing a whole lot of people. And that he does. So, if blood and guts are what you want from Terrifier 3, you are going to revel in every second. If you go in expecting anything more, you’ll probably be disappointed. But, ultimately, Leone’s passion for pure, unfiltered shock value is what’s truly on display. As messed up as it is, and as offended as you may be by it, it’s hard not to respect it. Terrifier 3 is a big, intense, and freaking insane exercise in blood-soaked mania.
Terrifier 3 had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024 in Austin, Texas this week. It opens everywhere on October 11.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Trending Products
