Editor’s Note: I have been holding this one back for quite some time. At the time of the release, one of the other contributors really wanted to review Terrifier 3 and I did not want to distract from their work. It has been a few months so I letting this one rip.
Terrifier 3 hit theaters last year and we are just over the 50% point to the supposed finale of this series. Damien Leone’s supernatural maniac clown, Art, is coming back for one last gorefeast. Art proves even more audacious and out of control than ever as he carves his way through Christmas. Fans of the series got a lot more of what they love, but for me it felt like maybe I have finally had enough. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but it left me asking some serious questions.
- How much human suffering am I willing to watch?
- How long can a mute clown slash his way through films with little to no cohesive story to tell?
- Is there and end to this, and it worth f****** around to find out?
Where to Watch
Terrifier 3 – More of the same, but better execution
I was under no delusions as to what I was in store for. Immediately, the film launches into the style of ultra-violence that both Art and Damien Leone are renowned for. After Leone directs the senseless slaughter of a loving family a few days before Christmas, the running saga of Sienna Shaw begins its next chapter.
Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) recovers, heavily medicated in a mental institution, from the massacre that she witnessed 5 years prior. Uncle Greg (Bryce Johnson) picks her up so that she can finish her recovery in a loving home with her mom’s sister Jess (Margaret Anne Florence) and her daughter Gabbie Shaw (Antonella Rose). It’s a much needed break for Sienna, and the this arrangement will certainly will help heal.
Little does she know, Art is recharging his batteries in his lair with his brutally disfigured side-kick Vicky. Some clumsy blokes awaken Art, and he immediately resumes his reign of terror with one critical target in mind, Sienna Shaw.
Right out of the gate this film shows an major evolution in Damien Leone’s filmmaking. Terrifier 2 struggled with pacing and seemed to operate under the assumption that more runtime is better. Leone did a decent job navigating it, but undoubtedly the film would have benefited from a tighter edit. Terrifer 3 was much tighter and intentionally paced. More importantly, the story unfolded in a much more natural manner. Still, Leone has more more opportunities to tighten it up as the resulting film is still long at over 2 hours.
Lauren LaVera is the magic holding this thing together
Lauren LaVera absolutely holds this clown show together. Her ability to convey both honest weakness and magnificent strength allows her to jump off of the screen. Her ability to take her character to the depths of insanity and to the heights of self-actualization provides something other than murder to enthrall the audience. Her character demands respect, care and sympathy. I sincerely hope that she breaks out of the confines of scream queen because she has serious potential.
LaVera’s character deals with severe trauma to the extent that she has hallucinations of her former friends slaughtered bodies lambasting her for letting them down. When she sees Art, she really can’t be sure if it’s real or fantasy. LaVera’s performance is one of the best examples of post-traumatic stress that I have seen since Laurie Strode’s (Scout Taylor-Compton) struggle in Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2. She is the jewel in a morass of mercilessly chainsawed bodies, coagulated blood and grease paint.
An Otherwise Strong Cast
Damien Leone really ups his game with respect to character development, and he really drives up the stakes by producing lovable characters. This turns out to be a double edge sword. This attention to character development really ratchets up the sense of dread, yet the audience knows the depths of depravity that Art will go. This leaves the audience knowing full-well that most of them are going to die horribly.
First up is Greg, Sienna’s uncle. He picks Sienna up from the mental institution and treats her with the warmth and kindness that her situation deserves. He does his best to support Sienna, but he is a complex animal. He will support Sienna only to the extent that he can protect his immediate family. Greg is married to Jess, sister to Sienna’s murdered mother Barbara. She is warm, loving and wants to do the best that she can for the niece that she loves and the sister that she mourns. Greg and Jess have a daughter named Gabbie, cute as a button and a super-fan of Sienna.
The family unit is relatable, realistic and above all, likable… which makes for some hard times to come.
Rounding out the cast, Elliot Fullam returns as Jonathan Shaw. Strangely, he feels a bit like a 5th wheel that Leone needed to write out of the script… unceremoniously (Maybe).
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So how much suffering am I willing to watch?
I don’t know, but if this isn’t it, I am not sure that I want to see where that line really is. The fact that these characters are likable and imperfectly human makes their massacre hard to watch. It all feels a bit depraved and a little bit dirty. I have never had more fun being this offended.
David Howard Thorton is Masterful
Everyone’s favorite clown is once again played superbly by David Howard Thorton. He’s only getting better and conveying comedy through unrepentant brutality. Incredibly, he continues to improve with every film. In this one, Leone provides a perfect backdrop for Thorton to ratchet up the physical comedy. C’mon, its Christmas. Nothing like a little egg-nog and tinsel to drive the insanity.
In one of the best scenes in the film, Art comes across a mall Santa played by Daniel Roebuck in a bar with Clint Howard. We all know that Art is going to look good in that big red suit. Just before he dons that suit, David Howard Thornton displays some of the best physical comedy of the series. He’s like a kid in a candy store full of cotton-candy unicorns. Absolute comedy. Gunshots and golden showers… but who doesn’t love Santa, right?
Trouble in Plotville
Damien Leone had a bit of a dilemma to deal with after his original Terrifier. What 40 years of Michael Myers sequels taught audiences is that a silent killer with no motive can only demand interest for so long. To deal with that dynamic, writers and directors tried to inject a supernatural story into the franchise. Lack of dedication to the cause across multiple films ultimately caused the demise of the franchise.
Damien Leone knew that for his franchise to be successful that he had to add something other than pure gore. He too chose a demonic element to his story. The problem that he is facing is that he either hasn’t committed to what that vision is, or he is not able to fully articulate it. So far it has been really messy.
At the end of Terrfier Art blows his own brains out to avoid being arrested by the police. At the time, the mechanism was not entirely clear, but Art’s mini-me, The Little Pale Girl, heals and resurrects Art to set the stage for Terrifer 2. Supposedly, the Little Pale Girl is a demon from hell working on behalf of Art in support of some sort of unholy mission.
On the other side of the equation is Sienna, a righteous counterbalance to this evil duo. Sienna’s deceased father acts as her spiritual wingman. The battle of Armageddon will not be decided by a 7 headed beast rising out of a boiling ocean. It will not be fought with the 7 Daggers of Megiddo. It will be decided by college student and a dude in clown shoes.
Uhh huh.
Then inexplicably, the Little Pale Girl is unable to resurrect Art directly after being beheaded, so she possesses face mauling victim Vicky to give birth to a freshly animated Art the Clown head. This plot point is barely discernible without commentary from the director.
Leone has a decision to make, he could shroud his characters immortality in secrecy or he could take on the challenge of explaining it. The business of explaining it requires a strategy that makes sense or it would better left alone. It’s not like Art would be the first slasher that inexplicably came back from the dead. Just walking away from this plot trap IS and option.
Leone chose to confront it, and right now this story feels like is is being put together by a bunch of guys doing bong-rips while jamming huge piles of cash in the money counter. This leaves real fear that the story never comes to a satisfying conclusion.
The good news is that things are tolerable up until this point because Lauren LaVera’s anchor and David Howard Thorton’s performance carry the film. Still, Terrifier 4 needs to bring some sort of closure to this cockamamie story.
So how long can a mute clown slash his way through films with little to no cohesive story to tell?
It’s hard to answer definitively, but all signs point to “not very much longer”.
A Vertiable Bloodbath
One thing that absolutely does not disappoint is the depravity of violence in which Art and Vicky dole out. Likewise, the special effects department is on full display for this film. This is the first film in the series that Damien Leone steps back from the direct creation of the special effects, although he certainly maintains some sort of visionary control. He enlists the help of Christien Tinsley and Tinsley Studios to do the real bloody work. The results are nauseating in the best way possible.
Before getting into the real gory bits, it’s worth mentioning that Leone does commit an enviable amount of violence off-screen. One of these bombastic off-screen mega-kills is certain to evoke a hearty laugh just before questioning one’s own sanity. I guess Leone isn’t a morally corrupted psychopath and rather a clever filmmaker with a penchant for dark humor.
Bodily dismemberment takes center stage in this film. The camera hovers painstakingly long to ensure that you not only see the initial impact, but also the separation of the limb. Some of the more brutal to watch concerns Jonathan’s roommate Cole as his body weight crumbles his freshly chainsawed Tibia. It’s further exacerbated by Art gleefully tugging on the limb as it struggles to cling to its last connection through the the thinnest of tendrils.
Art, always one for building new implements of disaster, fashions himself a liquid nitrogen powered “Freeze Ray”. What I love most about this effect is that instead of rolling with the tried and true shatter mechanics, the special effects team makes sure that inside of the crusty shell of deep frozen flesh is a chewy center that still gushes gore. The overall effect ifs cringe inducing as Art smashes rats, hands and faces.
Finally, the coup de grâce for this special effects extravaganza leads back to our buddy Cole. For anyone that thought that Art’s bisection of Dawn via her naughty bits was both disgusting and misogynist will be glad to learn that Art is an Equal Opportunity whack-job. It feels like this scene will never end and seriously, how to you get the beans above the frank anyway?
Is there and end to this, and it worth f****** around to find out?
In conclusion, I am sad to say that there might be a point where Art outlives his welcome, especially within this branch of the known Terrifier universe. Still, the series hasn’t quit reached the point of no return. In fact, I found this Terrifier to be one of the most purely entertaining of the three. I worry that the underlying religious undertones involving angels, demons and mythical swords might be too cumbersome to land, but right now I am all in on Terrifier 4.
Regardless, the slasher genre needed a shot in the arm, and Terrifier is the cure. Undoubtedly, Leone will get my money for at least Terrifer 4, and if he can write his way out of this quagmire that he is creating, I could be in for more. In retrospect my Terrfier 2 star rating might be a bit high considering that I liked this one better than that, it is still far from a perfect movie
Regardless, I plan to F*** around and find out what Art and Damien have in store for the near-future.
Terrifier 3 - How much is Art is enough? (A Johnny come lately review) - Malevolentdark
Director: Damien Leone
Date Created: 1970-01-01 00:33
3.5