‘Terrifier 3’ Review
Stars: Lauren LaVera, David Howard Thornton, Samantha Scaffidi, Elliot Fullam, Daniel Roebuck, Antonella Rose, Jason Patric, Bryce Johnson | Written and Directed by Damien Leone
Murderous mime Art the Clown returns once again in the third instalment of writer-producer-producer Damien Leone’s gorily gruesome slasher franchise. This time around, rather than dishing out his singular brand of homicidal mayhem on Halloween, he has his sights set on a different holiday, meaning that Terrifier 3 might just be the goriest Christmas movie ever made. Ho, ho, ho.
After an extended prologue in which Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) slaughters an entire family while dressed in a Santa suit, the film picks up where the jaw-dropping post-credits scene to the previous movie left off, effectively adding a supernatural element to Art’s mythology, while also establishing that he is now up and about again, despite having had his head cut off.
As indicated by the conclusion of the second movie, Art has an accomplice for this one, in the shape of disfigured former victim Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi, the star of the first film) and it isn’t long before the pair are festively murdering their away across Miles County. Meanwhile, traumatised survivor Sienna (Lauren LaVera) attempts to reconnect with her remaining family members, including her besotted young niece Gabbie (Antonella Rose), but she soon realises that Art is back, setting the stage for another violent showdown.
Leone has built the Terrifier franchise on three things: inventively gory kills, imaginative use of practical effects and the distinctive character of Art himself, who performs each grisly murder like it’s an exaggerated mime routine. For the third film, Leone doubles down on the nastiness of the kills, pushing the bad taste envelope just about as far as it will go – terrifying highlights include Art bringing a chainsaw to a shower scene and a sequence involving a length of plastic pipe that will have even the hardest horror fan wincing in revulsion.
As with the previous films, Leone goes hard on practical effects in Terrifier 3, ensuring that there are buckets and buckets of the red stuff sloshing about at any given moment. Similarly, the various body parts that get mutilated are horribly impressive, thanks in part to some impressively gloopy sound design work.
The performances are superb. David Howard Thornton makes Art a truly terrifying creation and if he hasn’t yet eclipsed It’s Pennywise as cinema’s scariest clown, it can only be a matter of time. Similarly, LaVera makes a terrific final girl, investing Sienna with deeply crippling psychological trauma, but still capable of fierce resilience, particularly when family members are threatened.
There’s also strong, scary support from Scaffidi, who gets a lot more to do this time round (a deliberate course correction from Leone, who felt she was underused in the second film), as well as a colourful turn from Daniel Roebuck as a department store Santa.
That’s not to say the film is entirely without flaws. For one thing, the film is inexplicably missing a scene where Art reattaches his head, which seems like something the audience ought to have been privy to, not least because of how it affects his mythology. Similarly, at least two important kills happen offscreen and the climax falls slightly short, in part because it is trying too hard to avoid the same conclusion as the previous film. As a result, the ending feels weirdly mundane, a black joke that doesn’t entirely come off.
*** 3/5
Terrifier 3 is released in UK cinemas on Friday, 11th October.
