TERRIFIER 3 - Mark Reviews Movies

Terrifier 3, Cineverse

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 10, 2024

The first victim in Terrifier 3 is a child. Some horror movies can exploit that unspoken genre rule that children are off-limits to the monster or murderer in order to prove a point: This particular movie means business. Those who know writer/director Damien Leone's series about an unstoppable killer clown already know the filmmaker has proven time and again that he means business with these movies, and that business is showing gruesome killings in unflinching and highly realistic detail. A kid doesn't need to be killed at the start of this movie to make that point, and an unspecified number of children don't need to be murdered in a mass-casualty event later to iterate it.

It's probably only worth mentioning these specific moments because Leone is already walking a fine line with this sequel. It follows a decent thriller, pretty much undone by a scene of grisly sexualized violence that felt out of place, and a follow-up that repeatedly doubled down on the carnage with each new killing.

The filmmaker loudly and proudly announces those intentions in this holiday-themed entry by giving Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton, still utterly chilling in an entirely pantomimed performance) his own jovial theme song. One line goes that Art "is on a journey to outdo himself and top his latest kill." Yes, the idea of a festive Christmas song about an undead clown and the various ways he has killed or could kill people is kind of amusing, but no, it's not a particularly useful tune, because the proof of the statement has been on full, bloody display during this entire series.

What the song does show, however, is that Leone at least has a sense of humor about the single-minded, beyond-gory purpose of these movies—especially this one and its immediate predecessor. The assorted slayings aren't just the point. They're also the punch lines of the joke, which is that, no matter how far one thinks Leone might go with this material, he'll take it a couple—or a couple dozen—steps further.

There was certainly some demented humor to be found in the last installment, which saw Art terrorizing a small town on Halloween and eventually meeting his momentary match in Sienna (Lauren LaVera), a teenager with a mysterious connection to the clown and the demonic realm that spawned. Well, it was something akin to that. The first sequel's mythology is probably best remembered as the momentum-defeating stuff that somehow made a movie about a killer clown almost 140 minutes long.

Leone cuts down significantly on that element in this sequel. However, one would still need a basic understanding of it from the last one to comprehend how Art returns after being decapitated by Sienna, why one of his victims named Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) is disfigured and become his partner-in-crime in this entry, and the significance of a mystical sword that might be the only thing that could actually destroy Art.

Anyway, the plot basically has Art going around town murdering people in over-the-top but sickeningly authentic-looking ways. Mutilation doesn't feel like a word with an appropriate degree of impact to describe these killings. One man's head is flayed while he's still alive. Art takes a chainsaw to a pair of randy college students in a locker room shower, and after violating the back end of those of victims, the clown flips over the guy to obliterate the front. The makeup and practical effects to show these acts of violence are horrifically convincing. As with the previous movie, some will take that as a warning, and others will take it as a promise.

There are more and similar sequences, obviously, and describing them would ruin the point of the movie for those who will see the movie and not be at all beneficial to those who, perhaps wisely, have no interest in it. Some of the ghastly gags are kind of inventive, such as Art using a freezing agent before pummeling someone's limbs, but the violence quickly just becomes repetitive and, somehow, numbing, which can't be said of the nerves of the poor guy who is frozen. Yes, it's all still very disgusting, but one can only see so many severed limbs and slit throats and disembowelments before wondering what the point is.

In Terrifier 3, all of that remains the entire point, but this time, the result feels especially cruel for the sake of it, particularly because of the mass child-murder. It would be ridiculous to say that Leone has crossed a line with this entry in his series about a hacking-and-slashing-and-stabbing-and-shooting clown, since he buried that line in blood, guts, and other organs a while ago. For now, the twisted joke has run its course.

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