‘Terrifier 3’ is a surprise horror hit. Yes, there are three!
Note: This article contains spoilers for the “Terrifier” movies. Not to mention some pretty gross stuff!
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Among the many things horror movies have going for them, one is the shock value they can bring to the box office: When things go right, a cheaply made slasher can become a big hit.
The latest example is “Terrifier 3,” which has made over $40 million on a $2 million budget since opening in theaters on Oct. 11. In its first weekend, it even bested that other clown movie, “Joker: Folie à Deux.”
The yuletide horror film, directed by Damien Leone, follows Art the demonic clown (David Howard Thornton) and his pale sidekick as they pave a path of blood across middle America. What’s also shocking is how involved the Terrifier franchise, with its sequels and loosely tied precursors, has become. Its cinematic universe might not be as large as Marvel’s and DC Comics’ — but it might be as complicated, and it’s certainly more gruesome. (How gory are we talking? Consider the dozens who have left the theater after the third film’s intense opening scene, which featured … well, material not fit for a newspaper.)
The first feature-length “Terrifier” movie came out in 2016, but the characters and lore go all the way back to 2008 — the year Robert Downey Jr. kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Iron Man.” Could Art the Clown become as iconic a character? Either way, you might as well beef up: Leone says he’s developing “Terrifier 4.”
Art’s beginnings
Art first appeared in Leone’s “The 9th Circle,” a 2008 short in which the murderous clown kidnaps women to be offered as demonic sacrifices. Three years later, Art inflicted further terror in the “Terrifier” short film. Both were then part of the anthology film “All Hallows’ Eve,” watched by a babysitter on an in-film VHS tape. That movie ends with Art breaking through the television and going on a murder spree. (Fans don’t consider these stories to be part of the “Terrifier” canon.)
The real (and fake) heroines
The Laurie Strode to Art’s Michael Myers took some time to arrive in the cinematic universe.
Tara (Jenna Kanell) is the first heroine of the “Terrifier” trilogy, with her cat-and-mouse game with Art taking up a chunk of the franchise’s first proper full-length film. It’s a fake-out. After she and her friend Dawn (Catherine Corcoran) are dispatched by Art, Tara’s sister Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) becomes the true protagonist of the movie.
It’s not until “Terrifier 2” that we meet Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera), a more typical horror-movie Final Girl. After she and her brother Jonathan kill Art in “Terrifier 2,” she and the resurrected clown return in “Terrifier 3.”
Why Art might be an iconic horror villain
Art might not be your first-round pick in a draft of horror movie villains. But you could make the case that he belongs at the top. Not only does he rack up 44 kills across all “Terrifier” projects (with 23 in the third film alone), but Art also simply refuses to stay dead.
Art is also willing to think outside the box. In the most recent film, he decides to pull a Jack Skellington by stealing the costume from a mall Santa Claus after dry-freezing his body and smashing it to pieces.
The deep lore of ‘Terrifier’
Art is a lot more than a killer clown — something the increasingly complex “Terrifier” lore makes clear.
Art is first discovered by Sienna and her brother Jonathan as a character in their late father’s sketchbook. He also gave Sienna a seemingly magical sword and a picture of a Valkyrie angel — suggesting that this murderous clown story has more than a touch of “Paradise Lost” to it.
In “Terrifier 3,” we learn that Jonathan had a theory that demons (like Art and Little Pale Girl) need vessels so they can attack our world. And only those with angelic powers, like Sienna, can stop them. Later on, there’s a battle of souls between Vicky/Little Pale Girl and Sienna, whose glowing eyes indicate where they stand.
Still, this is a lot of reading-between-the-lines stuff. We’re still not sure where Art comes from, but there’s a red portal that has shown up around him. We’ll surely see more of that in “Terrifier 4.”
Another sign there might be some more lore on the way? The final scene in “Terrifier 3” links everything together. We see Art hop on a city bus where he sits across from a woman reading a book.
The title? “The 9th Circle.”