‘I was gonna do the blood thing too, but I was just worried about the cleanup…’
While horror has never been as critically and commercially successful as it is right now, particularly in comparison with the rest of Hollywood, the most successful movies of the era have tended to be more sophisticated high-end fare (or ‘elevated horror’ as idiots call it). The Terrifier franchise is neither high-end nor sophisticated. Indeed, Art the Clown is closer in tone to Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees and Pinhead. These are films that rely on hot, young people being savagely murdered by a cruel and nightmarish foe. For that reason, I should probably be more forgiving of Terrifier 3, but I just couldn’t love it no matter how much I tried…
Art (David Howard Thornton) is back. As is Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) – the final girl from the last entry. Also returning are the horribly disfigured Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) from the first film and Sienna’s annoying younger brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam). There isn’t much of a plot. Art is revived by Victoria in a suitably gruesome manner and he goes on a festive rampage that sees him chop up a kid, murder some horror legends in a bar and erm… force-feed someone a live rat. Merry Christmas!
It’s a tough one the third sequel in a horror franchise. The desire to change things up inevitably leads to us learning more about the mythos of the killer. For better or worse. One fantastic example of this is A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, in which Freddy is made to appear even more sinister the more we learn about him. This approach has limited success here and often diminishes the power of Art himself. That being said, there are some excellent horror set pieces here, one of which being so horrific that I found myself muttering ‘Jesus Christ…’ out loud to an empty room. But a horror film can’t function on kill sequences alone, and Sienna isn’t a compelling enough character to carry the scenes in which Art doesn’t appear. It’s not a bad performance from LaVera by any means, but she doesn’t have much to play with, although she has developed a fittingly toxic chemistry with Thornton, who is once again gleefully vindictive in a role that he has very much made his own.
Some of Leone’s choices must be applauded, however. The Christmas setting casts a tragic cosmic irony over the whole thing, as well as a welcome touch of camp kitsch and the decision to reposition Victoria as a central character after being largely absent in Terrifier 2 also pays off. She really is creepy. Not just the make up but that laugh… eesh. Nightmare fuel.
Terrifier 3 is great for what it is – the third entry in a film about a killer clown. And perhaps time will be kinder to it than I have been. But I left the experience with a feeling of disappointment and missed opportunity.
