Terrifier is a slasher and splatter franchise directed by Damien Leone. It follows Art the Clown, a silent killer clown that roams the streets of Miles County with an unquenchable thirst for carnage. While a slasher franchise at heart, Terrifier takes the usual levels of violence that most are used to and turns them up to a thousand.
Content Warnings
Spoiler Warning: contains major spoilers for all three Terrifier films. I recommend watching the films before reading.
Trigger Warnings: Review contains descriptions of graphic violence, gore, animal abuse, and suicide, which occur during the film. Read at your own discretion.
BEFORE TERRIFIER 3
The first entry, simply titled Terrifier (2016), is mostly known for its extreme gore and depraved kill sequences. All of this is done with a low budget of about $25,000. What makes it even more impressive, is that all of the practical effects are done by the director, Damien Leone himself. While the first film doesn’t add much to the full story, you are introduced to one of the most important characters in the franchise, a former victim of Art the Clown named Victoria Heyes, or Vicky for short. Art the Clown is caught by police officers while eating Victoria’s face. He then pulls his gun out and shoots himself in the head, killing himself. Later, the coroner assigned to examine his body, opens the body bag to reveal a smiling, and somehow living Art the Clown. We then cut to an asylum where we see Vicky, revealing that she survived.
Terrifier 2 (2022), begins right where the first left off, showing a resurrected Art the Clown getting out of his body bag and killing the coroner. He gets cleaned up in a laundromat, where he meets the demon responsible for resurrecting him. The demon is taking the form of a little girl, who is presumed to be a former victim of Art the Clown, with black and white clown make up. Because of this, she’s mostly known as The Little Pale Girl. We then jump a year into the future, where we are introduced to the Shaw family. Here we meet our main protagonist, Sienna Shaw, her brother Jonathan, and their widowed mother Barbara. Since this film is 2 hours and 20 minutes, I’ll try and list off some important moments from the film:
- The Shaw family are in the midst of grieving the loss of their father (and husband), Michael Shaw who committed suicide a year earlier.
- We don’t get much information on Michael Shaw in this film, but we do learn that he drew comics, and specifically drew a character for his daughter Sienna. The character he created is an angel warrior with armor like that of a Valkyrie. Her father also left her a sword which she keeps on her desk.
- Jonathan has been obsessively researching the Miles County Massacre, which we watched in the first film. His reasoning is that his father left behind a sketchbook, where he’d drawn photo-realistic sketches of the victims, as well as a sketch of Art the Clown himself. This makes him worry that Art the Clown will target them next.
- Sienna is preparing her Halloween costume, which is based on the character her father drew for her.
- Sienna experiences a dream where she finds herself in a place called the Clown Café. Here, she watches Art the Clown kill multiple people. Art approaches her with a flame thrower, so she pulls the sword her father gave her out of a cereal box filled with razor blades, and uses it to block the flames. The shock of this event scares her into fully waking up. The flames from her dream manifest onto her desk, burning everything including the wings she’d made for her costume. The one thing left undamaged was the sword her father left her.
- Note: while the dream feels like a nightmare you’d see in A Nightmare on Elm St., it’s actually very different. The main difference being that this dream wasn’t something concocted by the killer. It was instead a test that was given to her by some divine being to see if she has the will to defeat Art and the Demon resurrecting him.
- Jonathan sees Art and The Little Pale Girl while at school. They’re sitting in the hallway playing with and eating the corpse of an opossum. They throw it onto Jonathan, leaving him covered in blood, which they find hysterical. A teacher sees him running by with the blood all over him, and then the opossum corpse on the floor, and believes that he was acting out and vandalizing the school. The school suspends him, leading his mother to ground him and not let him go out on Halloween.
- Sienna goes to a Halloween shop with her friend Allie to replace her wings. While there, They encounter Art the Clown separately. Because of her dream the night before, Sienna becomes even more stressed, so she takes some Xanax when she gets home.
- Sienna plans to go to a Halloween party with her friends Allie and Brooke. While Sienna is getting ready at home, we see Art the Clown arrive at Allie’s front door to trick or treat. She recognizes him from the Halloween shop and refuses to give him candy because he is an adult. Allie throws a handful of candy at him so that he’ll leave. She then notices that the trash bag he is carrying is full of blood soaked weapons and closes her door nervously. She looks out the window and watches him leave to make sure he isn’t coming back.
- Later that night, Allie, currently home alone, hears glass shattering downstairs. She cautiously goes down to make sure everything is alright. Hoping to find her mother downstairs, she instead finds the back door completely shattered, and Art the Clown pouring himself a glass of water in their kitchen. He takes a quick gulp from his glass and then begins chasing her up to her bedroom. This is where the notorious “bedroom scene” occurs, in which Art brutally tortures Allie. I won’t fully describe it here, but it is easily one of the most brutal moments in the entire franchise, and many consider it to be the hardest to watch.
- Sienna and Brooke go to the Halloween party but never hear from Allie. Thinking she’s just running late, the two of them take a shot together. Sienna is unknowingly drugged by her friend Brooke, who slipped some MDMA into her drink.
- Jonathan, sitting in Sienna’s bedroom, brings up the sketchbook to his mom a second time. Out of frustration, she grabs the sketchbook from his hands and rips it in half. Jonathan, in a moment of anger, calls her a bitch, and Barbara slaps him in response. This leads to Jonathan running away.
- Barbara finds her car vandalized. Thinking that it was Jonathan’s doing, she calls Sienna to vent about Jonathan. Barbara then notices that Sienna is inebriated, adding onto her anger. Sienna, in her inebriated state, starts to tell her mother that she loves her and that she feels bad for never saying it, to which her mom responds with “I love you too” and the call ends shortly after. This is easily the most emotional scene in the film, at least to me. Barbara then proceeds to clean her car, only to find Art the Clown with a shotgun in the front seat, who subsequently blows her head off.
- Jonathan encounters The Little Pale Girl outside and runs home, only to see that Art the Clown is serving dinner with his dead mother’s body at the dinner table. He runs to Sienna’s room to try and escape but falls down. He tries to reach for the sword on Sienna’s desk, but Art catches up to him and injects him with a sedative, knocking him out. Art sees the sword and takes it for himself, though he doesn’t seem to know of its significance.
- Back at the Halloween party, Sienna starts to see The Little Pale Girl, which causes her to panic. Brooke, upset at Sienna for freaking out (terrible friend by the way), has her boyfriend drive them home. While on the way home, The Little Pale Girl calls Sienna, mimicking Jonathan’s voice to trick her into meeting them at a nearby Carnival. This is where we learn that the demon has the ability to mimic voices.
- Once at the Carnival, Sienna sends Jonathan a text asking for his location. She receives a response from his number that says, “THE TERRIFIER,” which is an attraction at the carnival. Brooke and her boyfriend wait in the car. Art kills Brooke’s boyfriend in the parking lot and then chases Brooke into the TERRIFIER attraction where he kills her. Brooke’s death in particular is probably the 2nd most brutal kill in the whole film, behind Allie’s. Sienna watches helplessly as Art kills Brooke and is then attacked herself. Art knocks her to the ground and then begins to chase Jonathan. Sienna manages to get up and grab a weapon to chase after them.
- After a long fight, Art takes Sienna to a mysterious red portal. He stabs her with the sword and throws her into the portal. He leaves the sword on the ground next to the portal, which is another hint that Art doesn’t know of its significance. While in the portal, Sienna is back in the Clown Café she saw in her dream, only this time she is stuck in what looks like a large fish tank. She passes out from lack of oxygen. Her wounds from the sword then suddenly start to heal and she wakes up, finding the strength to swim back up and free herself. She grabs the sword and attacks Art.
- After a long battle, Sienna manages to cut Art’s head off with her sword. The Little Pale Girl walks away with his head, and Sienna and Jonathan are left to process everything that just occurred.
- During the after credits scene, we see Vicky from the first movie in an asylum. She is shown pregnant and writing “Art + Vicky” on the walls with her own blood. A few moments later, she gives birth to Art’s head, showing that they’ve already begun the process of resurrection, with Vicky being used as their vessel.
- Final Note: from this point on, we no longer see The Little Pale Girl. The demon has now moved into Vicky’s body.
TERRIFIER 3 REVIEW
Terrifier 3 is an absolute monster of a movie. As someone who is already a fan of the franchise, it would take a lot to make me hate this film. The first Terrifier was an enjoyable showcase of practical effects with some genuinely creepy moments, but as an actual movie, it wasn’t very good. Terrifier 2 was a huge improvement and was also the first one to introduce a proper storyline, though the plot was very ambiguous and to some, disjointed and confusing. I used to agree to an extent, but after watching the third film and seeing how it all ties together, I can confidently say that I disagree. I also really appreciated the amount of comedic relief that was introduced in Terrifier 2, an aspect that is further explored in Terrifier 3.
I say all of this to acknowledge my bias towards this franchise. Essentially, Terrifier 3 would have to either be so awfully written that it’s laughable, or it would have to cross a line that I am not willing to cross. The latter being the one I was most worried about. Luckily, neither of these issues were present, and I was actually shocked by how much more I loved it than the last two films.
THE OPENING SCENE
The movie begins with a still shot of a house decorated from top to bottom with warm colorful Christmas lights. The interior, intricately decorated to the brim with holiday cheer. This is already a big change for the franchise, as both Terrifier and Terrifier 2 take place during Halloween. Living in the house are a married couple and their two young children, a little boy and a little girl.
The little girl hears noises on the roof and alerts her parents, thinking the noises are Santa Claus delivering presents. They brush it off and the mother walks her back to bed, promising to leave milk and cookies out for Santa. When walking back towards her bedroom, the mother hears a sound on the roof, and notices that the front door is slightly cracked open. She closes the door, brushes it off, and then joins her husband in bed.
The little girl begins to hear more noises, only this time they’re coming from their living room. She wakes up her brother so they can see Santa together, but he tells her to leave him alone. She sneaks down the stairs on her own, and next to their Christmas tree is standing a tall man in a Santa Claus suit with a big red bag. She quickly finds a hiding spot and continues watching. The little girl obviously believes that this is actually Santa Claus, but as the audience, we know that this is really Art the Clown. Art reaches into his big red trash bag, and pulls out an axe. With his axe in hand, he begins walking up the stairs towards the kids’ bedroom where the little boy is sleeping. This is where I, and many others in the audience began to get really nervous. You could literally feel the tension in the room getting thicker. I already had a general idea of what he was going to do, considering he had an axe, and well, he’s Art the Clown.
Art walks into the kids’ bedroom and proceeds to murder the little boy. Instead of being shown the murder, or being forced to hear a child scream in agony, we actually only hear the sounds of the axe, and some “mushy” sound effects that are meant to simulate a body being torn apart. Ultimately, I believe this was the best possible way they could’ve approached a scene this depraved, as it can be easily shot without exposing child actors to anything potentially traumatic. The scene was also just as disturbing and unrelenting with the sound alone, since it paints such an awful image in your head. I’ll never forget the complete shock that fell over the audience as they processed the horrific scene.
Art walks out of the kids’ bedroom and goes down the hall into the parent’s room, where he begins killing the father in his sleep. The noise causes the mother to wake up. As she gains consciousness, she becomes horrified at the scene presented in front of her. Art maniacally laughs and taunts her, adding insult to injury. She runs towards her children’s room to make sure they’re okay. Unfortunately, we know what happened in that room, and as expected, she finds her son completely torn apart, limb by limb. Here we are shown the aftermath of the first kill, made up of little prosthetic limbs meant to look like the child’s body. This is the most we see when it comes to the children’s deaths in the film. For some, this is already crossing a line, but for me personally, it wasn’t. The mother runs out of the room and rushes downstairs. She gets to the front door, but as expected, Art catches up to her and kills her with his axe. Proud of his accomplishments, Art takes a seat and eats the milk and cookies that were left out for Santa Claus. When done, he washes his plate in the sink. This was the first moment of comedic relief in the film, which I felt was incredibly effective and necessary after such a depraved scene. The way that David Howard Thornton has managed to bring comedy into a character that is so sadistic is truly amazing. After washing his plate, Art hears a noise in a cabinet next to him, and opens it to reveal that the little girl has been hiding in there the whole time. He waves at her with a smile, and then the movie cuts to 5 years prior, when Art was killed at the end of Terrifier 2.
Holy. Shit. Before I continue, I think I need to catch my breath.
This was easily the opening sequence of the year for me. I think one of the things that makes Art so terrifying is the way he moves so swiftly and without hesitation to do the most heinous things you’ve ever seen someone do. He’s genuinely a psychopath to the fullest extent. It also doesn’t help that he’s smiling and laughing while doing most of these things. He makes everyone in his path feel completely hopeless, and it is horrifying.
ART AND VICKY RETURN
Five years prior to the opening scene, we see a headless art the clown laying on the ground where Sienna killed him. A police officer approaches his body and calls it in. Thinking the body is dead (like anybody would) he turns his back to it without a second thought. He is then choked and killed by Art’s headless body. Art’s body takes public transport (we love an eco-friendly king), holding the officers severed head on his neck to not stand out in the crowd. These moments of absurdity add a lot of charm to the franchise and remind you not to take it all so seriously, as it is still just a movie.
We then cut to the asylum which we saw in the after credits scene of Terrifier 2. Here Vicky has given birth to Art’s new head and has begun killing a staff member. The headless Art the Clown appears and helps her finish the job. To me, the most interesting part of this scene, is that while Vicky is killing the staff member, she can be heard screaming for help. This shows that the demon hasn’t fully taken over Victoria’s body, as her soul still seems to be “leaking out” so to speak.
Note: from here on, I’ll be referring to the demon as Vicky, and to the original victim as Victoria.
Art and Vicky head off to an abandoned building to hide out. Art finds a nice rocking chair in the attic to sit in, in a shot that directly references one of my favorite horror films, Black Christmas (1974). Vicky, in the bathroom, is looking in the mirror and saying things like “you used to be so hot.” I believe this is Vicky acknowledging that Victoria’s soul is still present. She smashes the mirror, grabs a piece of glass, and steps into the bathtub next to her. Vicky proceeds to slits her wrists. From this point on, you no longer hear glimpses of Victoria, so I believe this was to show that the demon has fully taken over Victoria’s body and soul. Art and Vicky then go into a hibernation state, staying still for five full years.
Five years later, two construction workers walk into the abandoned building. While looking around, one of them finds Art the Clown, and the other finds Vicky, both still in hibernation. Vicky wakes up and kills the construction worker with the same glass shard she used in the bathtub. Art kills the other in one of the most brutal kills in the movie, involving skinning his head. This scene is made even more disturbing when Vicky approaches them and begins masturbating with the same glass shard. This was one of the most disturbing moments in the entire franchise and received one of the biggest reactions from the audience during my first viewing. We then see Art the clown making a new weapon with liquid nitrogen, which he tests on rats living in the abandoned house.
SIENNA’S RETURN TO NORMALCY
Sienna Shaw has been in a psychiatric hospital following the events of Terrifier 2. She is picked up by her Uncle Greg who is taking her to his home. There lives his wife Jess (Barbara Shaw’s sister), and their daughter Gabbie. Here, Sienna gets her first taste at a normal life after all of the traumatic events she experienced five years prior. She excitedly greets her Aunt Jess and her cousin Gabbie, who idolizes her. This moment in the film feels so surreal after watching an entire family be murdered. The Christmas lights have the same warm tint that many will recognize from their childhoods. The home itself is nice and tidy, and the family living in it is kind and welcoming. It all feels comfortable, nostalgic, and safe.
The cozy Christmas feeling only lasts for so long though, as we learn just how much Sienna’s life has been affected by Art the Clown.
SIENNA’S TRAUMA
Sienna has tried her best to work on herself following the events of Terrifier 2. She shows signs of survivors guilt, and displays various symptoms of PTSD. There is one particular scene where the family is gathered around the dinner table, and all is going well until Sienna begins to see her friend Brooke’s corpse sitting across from her. Brooke is shown with the same wounds she had when she was killed in Terrifier 2. Brooke’s corpse begins screaming at her to pass the rice, berating her until she finally reaches her breaking point, and rushes up to her bedroom to take some medication and calm herself down.
GABBIE’S CURIOSITY
Gabbie idolizes Sienna and desperately wants her approval, occasionally making comments about her own scars and comparing them to Sienna’s. She has no knowledge of Sienna’s trauma, and in an attempt to learn more about her older cousin, she reads Sienna’s diary. Sienna finds out about this because Gabbie makes a comment at the dinner table about how Sienna doesn’t like cereal, something Sienna has only mentioned in her diary. This begins to stress Sienna because she doesn’t want Gabbie to know of her past. Not wanting to scare her by telling her the truth, Sienna tries to convince Gabbie that she only wrote those things because she was crazy.
SIENNA AND JONATHAN’S RELATIONSHIP
Sienna has been struggling with the distance that has grown between her and her brother Jonathan, who is currently in college. Jonathan is talking with his roommate Cole and Cole’s girlfriend Mia, when he receives a call from Sienna. The call is short and awkward, with Jonathan clearly wanting to avoid lengthy conversation. Sienna invites Jonathan to hangout with them on Christmas, but he declines, saying that he plans to attend a Christmas party at his dorm.
Sienna decides to visit Jonathan, where she meets his new friends. Mia begins asking Sienna intrusive questions about her experience with Art the Clown. This causes Sienna to lash out and yell at Mia, exclaiming “can’t you act like a human being for one fucking second?” For me, this scene was one of the most heartbreaking, mostly due to Lauren LaVera’s gripping performance as Sienna. The way she portrayed trauma and grief throughout this movie was just so raw, real, and convincing. I was able to genuinely feel the hurt and anger Sienna was feeling in this moment.
The following scene shows Jonathan arguing with Sienna for causing a scene. We also later see Jonathan trash his own dorm out of frustration.
COMMENTARY ON TRUE CRIME OBSESSIVES
Mia runs a True Crime podcast. She has been trying to convince Jonathan to guest on it since they first met. She is especially obsessed with the Miles County Massacre, claiming to be part of the “fanbase”. Her character is clearly meant to represent the people in real life who become obsessed with serial killers, almost to the point of supporting their actions. Her lack of empathy is put on full display during her interaction with Sienna.
Mia is later shown having a conversation with Cole, where she justifies the questions she was asking Sienna, claiming that she did nothing wrong and that Sienna needs to “get over it”. Cole tries to argue with her, telling her that she’s being crazy and disrespectful, but she doesn’t budge. She instead begins to seduce him, in an attempt to get him to speak with Jonathan about being a guest on her podcast.
THE BAR SCENE – ART MAKES A SNOWMAN
While going on a stroll, Art notices three men in a bar, including a Santa Claus impersonator. Art excitedly rushes in, barreling through two women who were leaving, knocking them over. He runs up to Santa Claus with a child-like glee that you wouldn’t expect from someone so, murderous. Art sits on Santa’s lap and begins joking around with the three men by pulling out his bicycle horn and doing goofy dances. He also takes Santa’s hat and puts it on. Santa and the other man sitting at the bar have a lot of fun joking around with him and start referring to him as Clowny Claus, but the bartender isn’t as thrilled.
Santa tells the bartender to give Clowny Claus a drink. He reluctantly agrees after Art presents the ID of a man named Maurice Jackson (Maurice Jackson is one of the construction workers killed earlier in the film). This whole bar scene was simply hilarious and got one of the biggest laughs from the audience. David Howard Thornton has seriously mastered silent comedy. His ability to convey so much humor with just body language and facial expressions is a seriously impressive feat, and his comedic timing is impeccable. It also helps that the four actors were allowed to improvise the entire scene, making for a natural and comedic moment in this dark disturbing bloody mess of a film.
All of that said, in regular Terrifier fashion, things do not go well for the three men at the bar. Art the Clown attempts to take a shot, but disgusted by the taste of liquor, spits it straight into Santa’s face. Santa begins to get annoyed by Clowny Claus, which isn’t made better when Clowny begins to urinate on his lap. At this point, the three men try to throw him out of the bar.
Fun Fact: this scene features two horror legends. Clint Howard as a customer at the bar, and Daniel Roebuck as the Santa Claus impersonator.
Art’s facial expression completely changes as he gets angrier. He pulls out a pistol and shoots two of the men, leaving the Santa impersonator alive. We then cut to the man tied up in a chair, stripped down to his underwear while Art puts his Santa Claus suit on. Once Art is fully suited up in Santa gear, he begins freezing the man’s limbs with his liquid nitrogen weapon and using a hammer to break them. He then does the same to his face and sticks a carrot in the wound, turning him into a human snowman.
Note: for those confused about the timeline, the opening scene takes place right after the bar scene.
THE MALL
Sienna is at the mall with her cousin Gabbie, looking for a gift for Jonathan. Suddenly, she begins hearing the same song she heard in the Clown Café dream from Terrifier 2. It only lasts for a short moment, but she notices someone with a Santa suit and mask walking by who waves at her. She never actually sees Art’s face in this scene, but she feels positive that it is him. This moment also further proves that it isn’t actually a dream, and is instead some form of interference from the divine. The Clown Café scene in Terrifier 2 seemed to be a test, while this scene seems to be a warning.
After a while, when Sienna has already left the mall, we see the same Santa figure still strolling through the mall. He notices the area where Mall Santa is seated, with multiple families gathered around waiting to meet him. He then takes off the mask, revealing that it was indeed Art the Clown under the mask (kind of hard not to tell when his hands are covered in blood). Mall Santa has one of his elves tell the crowd that they’re going on break. Seeing the empty seat, Art decides to take his place. He waves to a nearby little girl who excitedly runs up to him. Art reaches into his big red trash bag and begins handing out toys and wrapped presents to all the little boys and girls in the area.
Note: the toys Art is handing out to children are the same toys that were under the Christmas tree in the opening sequence.
Mall security notices Art and forces him off the chair. Art begins taunting them by pointing at them and making faces. Simultaneously, a little boy is shown holding one of the presents he received from Art. Excitedly, the boy begins to open the present, exclaiming, “I wonder what I got!” only to be met with a massive explosion once the box is fully open. The explosion leaves five people dead, and multiple in critical condition, involving both adults and children.
This is the second and last scene involving the murder of children. Like the opening sequence, all you really see is bloody prosthetic limbs. This was also another scene which caused a huge reaction from the theater due to the unexpectedness of the explosion. The scene ends with Art smiling from ear to ear as he watches the result of his explosion.
SIENNA TELLS JONATHAN THAT ART IS ALIVE
Sienna reveals to Jonathan that she believes that Art is still alive. Jonathan dismisses her concerns, wanting to move on. Sienna shows him letters that he had sent her during the five years after Terrifier 2. Through his letters, it is revealed that Jonathan was obsessively researching demons until he went crazy.
Here’s Jonathan’s full note:
“Sienna, We have to destroy the little girl before it’s too late. Destroy her because she’s inhuman… a DEMON. Sometimes demons try to break into our world, only they can’t do it alone. They have to choose a vessel, someone recently deceased who functions as a bridge between worlds. But not just anyone, someone sinister, depraved, the worst kind of EVIL, like a serial killer. If a demon enters this world in the flesh, a counterpart must be appointed to stop it from becoming too powerful. It’s you Sienna, as long as you’re alive, they’re vulnerable. And they know it. – Jonathan”
After five years of nothing happening, Jonathan has given up on his demon research, trying to go back to a normal life. He tells Sienna to move on and let it go, just like he wants to do. Sienna tells him that she believes he was right in all of those letters, and that she wants to go back to the TERRIFIER attraction to retrieve the sword she used to kill Art in Terrifier 2.
We don’t actually see when she retrieves the knife. Gabbie goes to the Christmas tree, likely to sneak a peak at her presents before Christmas. This is a habit of hers that Uncle Greg mentions earlier on in the film. Gabbie catches Sienna putting a present under the tree and then notices dirt on her hands. She asks what happened to her hands, and Sienna lies to her, saying that she tripped outside. She then goes upstairs and washes her hands. This scene implies that she just retrieved the sword. Many feel that this should have been shown, but personally I don’t know that seeing it would have added much.
Sienna walks into the living room where Uncle Greg is watching a news broadcast about the mall explosion. Sienna begins to spiral and tries to explain to Uncle Greg that she saw Art the clown at the mall earlier that same day. He believes that she is just having another episode. Sienna begs him to pick up Jonathan, worried for his safety. Uncle Greg reluctantly agrees in order to diffuse the situation and not scare Gabbie any further, who was in the room the whole time. Uncle Greg finally calls Jonathan and begins telling him about the situation. Sienna, knowing that Uncle Greg isn’t taking her concerns seriously, grabs the phone from his hand and explains everything to Jonathan. Jonathan agrees to be picked up and asks her if she has retrieved the sword yet, to which Sienna responds that she has. Sienna goes upstairs to wait for Uncle Greg to return with Jonathan. She takes some medication to calm down and falls asleep.
Fun Fact: The man being interviewed on the news is played by Tom Savini, the horror legend known for his groundbreaking work in practical effects over the years.
UNCLE GREG’S RELUCTANCE
When Sienna first moved in, Uncle Greg was very welcoming towards her. This changes overtime as they became more aware of Sienna’s mental state. Sienna’s multiple outbursts being the main catalyst. He not only worries for Sienna’s well-being, but he also worries for Gabbie’s safety. This creates tension between him and Aunt Jess, who wants to be there for her sister’s daughter. His argument is that it is unsafe to have her in the house with their daughter Gabbie, and hers is that Sienna has been through a lot and just needs time to adjust to normal life.
After witnessing Sienna panicking due to the mall explosion, Aunt Jess changes her mind. When Uncle Greg is leaving to pick up Jonathan, Aunt Jess shares a short interaction with him, telling him that he was right. She also agrees to have a conversation with him once he returns regarding Sienna staying with them.
Uncle Greg arrives at Jonathan’s college and calls him on the phone. Jonathan asks Uncle Greg where he is. Uncle Greg, confusedly responds “I’m parked right where you told me, I’m in front of your dorm.” We then hear Vicky’s voice reply with “I’ll be right there.”
GABBIE’S FEAR
After seeing Sienna panicking, Gabbie begins to worry. Having read Sienna’s diary in full, she begins asking her mom if the Miles County clown is back. Aunt Jess tells her that Sienna is just scared and that nothing bad is going to happen to anyone (famous last words).
SIENNA’S DREAM
Sienna recalls a moment from her childhood when her father, Michael Shaw, was still alive. It shows them sitting in his studio, where she tells him that she wishes he’d draw more female characters, since all of his characters tend to be male.
After taking her medication and falling asleep while she waits for Uncle Greg and Jonathan, she begins to dream. The dream shows her as a child talking to her father, again in his studio. At this point, her father has completed the angel warrior character that he drew specifically for her. When Michael hands Sienna the drawing, he begins to see a vision of an angel forcing what looks like demon to create a sword or some kind of armor. Because this is Sienna’s dream, she finds herself in that vision for a moment, seeing exactly what he saw. This is the first real hint we get as to the significance of Sienna’s father. It isn’t much, but we now know that he was seeing visions. This could be why he drew all of the victims of the first Miles County Massacre as well as a sketch of Art himself. My theory is that Sienna’s father was seeing visions of all of Art’s murders, including the murders of his family members which drove him insane, to the point of wanting to end it all.
THE SHOWER SCENE
Every Terrifier film has that scene. In Terrifier, it was the hacksaw scene. In Terrifier 2, it was the bedroom scene. I am personally of the belief that Terrifier 3 has multiple scenes like this, but the one that has been most widely recognized as that kill is the notorious shower scene.
Art arrives at Jonathan’s dorm in the middle of the Christmas party. He grabs his trash bag from the back of his stolen van, and walks in through the front door. Cole and Mia are speaking privately in their dorm room. Mia believes that she didn’t go too far during her interaction with Sienna. Cole disagrees and tries to explain why Sienna reacted the way she did. Art, walking through the hallway, notices them having a conversation and begins listening in from outside their door. Mia begins a monologue where she talks about wanting to know how it feels to be in the presence of “that kind of evil.” She compares Art to Jack the Ripper, which causes art to get flustered as he listens in. She claims she wants to know what Art smells like, and what it feels like to look him in the eyes in the middle of such terror. Cole jokingly responds with “Jesus, you sound like you want to fuck him,” to which she responds saying she doesn’t. We then see a disappointed Art the Clown, making this another one of the funniest scenes in the film.
Later that night, Cole and Mia are having sex in a communal shower. The camera pans around to reveal Art the Clown, peeing in a nearby urinal and then washing his hands (by the way, if Art the Clown can be hygienic, so can you). He then walks up to his trash bag and pulls out a chainsaw.
Thus, begins the shower scene.
Art the clown stands outside of the shower door and begins cranking the chainsaw. Mia notices the noise but doesn’t register what it is until Art smashes the chainsaw straight through the glass door. He begins swinging the chainsaw at them, cutting Cole’s wrist. Cole manages to block the chainsaw for a moment, until Art cuts his leg, causing him to fall. At this point it is just Mia left inside the shower, and Art the Clown gives her exactly what she asked for in her monologue. He cuts her body all over with the chainsaw and then does the same to her face, causing so much damage that she is unrecognizable. Mia, unable to move anymore, sits still as Art puts some festive sunglasses on her. He then looks her right in the eyes with a big smile on his face. The practical effects on her face during this scene are phenomenal, making this one of the hardest scenes to look at for me personally.
Already, this kill sequence is one of the most violent and aggressive in the franchise, but it truly is just beginning. Art, now done with Mia, walks up to Cole who is still trying to crawl away from him. He grabs Cole’s leg and pulls it straight off. Seeing an opportunity, Art sticks his chainsaw into Cole’s rectum. He then flips him over and begins cutting him in half, starting from his crotch. The practical effects during these scene are equally impressive and grotesque.
Once Mia and Cole are both dead, Art lays in a pool of their blood and begins making a blood angel. One of my favorite parts about this scene is the song that starts playing that says, “it’s a Terrifier Christmas.”
THE FINAL SEQUENCE BEGINS
Sienna wakes up from her nap and immediately runs down the stairs when she realizes she fell asleep. She hears Aunt Jess and Uncle Greg talking about her. The conversation gets gradually more insulting the closer she gets. When she gets downstairs, instead of seeing Uncle Greg and Aunt Jess, we see Art and Vicky decorating Uncle Greg’s corpse which is mounted on the wall. Vicky was mimicking both of their voices. Sienna tries her best to escape but Art catches up to her and in a camera shot that directly references Black Christmas (1974), knocks her out with a mallet.
Sienna regains consciousness to find that she and her Aunt Jess are tied to chairs facing each other. Art has decorated the Christmas tree with Uncle Greg’s intestines as ornaments, and his head as the star. Vicky pulls out a cage containing a skinless head that is being eaten by rats. She tells the both of them that it is Gabbie’s head.
Art is then seen with a large clear tube and a torch. He and Vicky put the tube into Aunt Jess’s mouth and begin hammering it with the mallet. They put rats into the tube and heat it at the top, forcing the rats to go down and eat their way out. Those of us who have seen 2 Fast 2 Furious probably saw this coming. Art then slices her throat, letting the rats free and killing Aunt Jess.
With Sienna losing hope, it is at this point that Vicky reveals the truth about the head in the cage. She pulls out Jonathan’s glasses and puts them on the skull, revealing that it is actually the head of her brother. Art walks back into the room with Gabbie as a hostage, proving the head isn’t hers.
Note: There is a lot of speculation about this scene within the fanbase, specifically pertaining to Jonathan and whether or not he is actually dead. There are so many people that get killed in this movie, that it isn’t unreasonable to believe that it could be someone else, especially because it happened off screen. I’m personally unsure of whether I believe he’s dead or alive, so I’ll just wait until the next one to find out.
Thinking that she has lost all hope, Vicky puts a crown of thorns on Sienna’s head and tries and possess her, but fails to do so because Sienna’s will hasn’t been broken yet. Not only does Vicky fail at possessing her, but Sienna actually causes Vicky to be knocked back slightly due to her resistance. Vicky then says, “Now I know why they chose you,” implying that some divine group specifically chose Sienna, presumably to defeat the demon possessing Vicky as well as Art the Clown. This is also in-line with what Jonathan wrote in his note.
Vicky decides that Gabbie needs to die next, claiming that she is the one thing keeping Sienna’s will intact. Art holds a knife to Gabbie’s throat, waiting for Vicky’s signal. Gabbie, scared for her life, tells Sienna “I’m sorry you didn’t get to open my present.” Vicky asks which present is hers, and grabs it from under the tree, insulting her wrapping job in the process. She hands the box to Sienna and makes her open it, likely planning to kill Gabbie right after, in hopes that it makes her death hurt Sienna even more. Art doesn’t want this to be easy for her, so he begins crushing Sienna’s hands with his mallet while she tries to open the present. Finally, having unwrapped the present, Sienna begins to open the box slightly, only enough for herself to see what’s inside. Gabbie then says “I hope you like it,” to which Sienna responds “best gift ever.” Sienna then pulls out the sword her father gave her from the box.
Sienna catches Art by surprise and cuts his throat with the sword and then throws it directly into Vicky’s chest. Sienna finishes the job and cuts Vicky’s head off, killing her, or at least killing the vessel. Vicky being dead leaves Art vulnerable since she is the sole reason he has been able to stay alive for so long.
For a moment, things seem to be okay until Art returns, swinging his chainsaw at them full force. Sienna manages to block the chainsaw with her sword, which begins the most badass fight scene in the whole franchise. The two fight all throughout the house, dodging each other as best they can and destroying all of the furniture around them. The choreography here is seriously impressive, and not what I expected from this franchise. It felt like we just entered an unrated MCU film, and I mean that positively.
Sienna manages to get the upper hand and stabs Art in the gut with the sword. Vicky’s body suddenly starts to melt, burning a hole into the floor. This creates a portal like the one we saw in Terrifier 2. The portal opens right under Gabbie, causing her to fall in. Sienna manages to catch her with the sword, holding the blade so Gabbie can grab it by the handle. This scene is clear symbolism of the lengths Sienna is willing to go to protect the people she loves. Unfortunately, as much as Sienna wanted to save her, Gabbie can’t hold on any longer and falls through the portal.
As of now, we don’t really know where the portal leads, though it is very likely to be hell. Sienna notices that the window is open and Art has escaped. Heartbroken and traumatized from the events she just went through, she sits still on the floor. Her palms, which were cut from holding the blade, begin to heal. This reveals that the sword cannot hurt her. A similar scene happened in Terrifier 2 when she was in the portal and her stab wounds which were inflicted by the sword begin to heal. She vows to save Gabbie..
Art the Clown is seen getting onto a bus, where he sits across from a woman reading a book called “The 9th Circle.” He stares at her with his eyes wide, making her uncomfortable. He lifts up his bicycle horn and honks it at her, officially ending the movie.
Fun Fact: For those that aren’t obsessive nerds about this franchise like myself, the book in this scene is actually a reference to Damien Leone’s short film, The 9th Circle, which includes Art the Clown’s first ever appearance in a film. At this point, Art was being played by Mike Giannelli, who was a close friend of Damien. While this is Art’s first appearance, it isn’t actually canon when it comes to the franchise. Another cool fact about this ending scene is that it resembles Damien Leone’s original idea that led to the creation of Art the clown. He had imagined a clown with black and white make up tormenting a woman on a bus. As the scene goes on, the woman gets more uncomfortable and the clown begins doing more depraved things. This idea led to the creation of Art the Clown, and now we actually see this happen at the end of Terrifier 3.
FINAL THOUGHTS
What a fucking ride. This was such a huge improvement from the last two that it was honestly jarring. Terrifier 3 took the tone of the first film and perfectly blended it with the campiness of the second. Sienna’s character is even more fleshed out in this film, making her one of the best final girls the horror genre has seen. Lauren LaVera is truly the perfect person to play Sienna. Elliot Fullam, who plays Jonathan also did a phenomenal job in this. In Terrifier 2, I liked his character, but it was hard not to feel like his acting was a bit awkward at times. I didn’t feel that way at all during Terrifier 3, in fact I think it is very clear that he has been working on his acting chops. The pain I felt from his character here felt incredibly real. David Howard Thornton’s performance was also incredible as usual. He brings a charm to the character that no other person could, and you can tell he genuinely loves playing Art the Clown. I’d also like to take a moment to appreciate the directing. Terrifier 3 had a budget high enough to allow Damien Leone to hire a team for practical effects. Doing so took some stuff off of his plate, as he made the majority of the practical effects in the last two films. This allowed him to put more focus towards directing and communicating with the actors. I think this resulted in a huge step up in quality, directing wise. The editing also felt much tighter and more concise. I never felt like it dragged the way Terrifier 2 started to towards the end. In fact, I actually found that it felt shorter than its runtime. All of that said, I can’t say I don’t miss Damien’s practical effects work at least a little bit.
I can’t wait to see where the next Terrifier goes. Will Sienna ever defeat Art or will this franchise end up going the “evil never dies” route and kill her off and continue with new victims? My hope is the former, but either way, I will absolutely be seated for the next one to find out. I can confidently say that this is my favorite entry in the franchise so far, and this film has further cemented Art the Clown’s place in horror as a slasher icon, as well as Sienna’s place in horror as a truly iconic final girl. The comedy, mixed with the truly horrifying visuals, and deeply emotional scenes, makes for a wild rollercoaster ride that is not for the weak. Damien Leone and his team have truly created something special here.