Terrifier

''Terrifier'' is a 2016 slasher film written and directed by Damien Leone. It stars Jenna Kanell, Samantha Scaffidi, Catherine Corcoran, and David Howard Thornton. The film follows partygoer Tara Heyes (Kanell), who becomes the target of a serial killer known as Art the Clown (Thornton) on Halloween night. The film additionally follows a disfigured survivor (Scaffidi) of Art's attack descent into madness.

It is the second feature-length film to feature Art, following the horror anthology film '' All Hallows' Eve'' (2013)—although it has no connection to this film. Leone wrote the film specifically as means of showcasing Art and Leone's practical effects—such as the controversial hacksaw death scene. Leone has expressed regret for leaving the protagonists underdeveloped. Leone filmed ''Terrifier'' on a low-budget of $35k. It had an Indiegogo campaign, although it ultimately did not reach its goal.

Mike Gianelli, who portrayed all prior incarnations of Art, retired from acting before production began, and Thornton replaced him as Art. It premiered at the Telluride Horror Show Film Festival in October 2016 before being picked up by Dread Central Presents and Epic Pictures for a limited theatrical release in March 2018. The film received mixed reviews, with praise directed towards the special effects and the portrayals of Scaffidi and Thornton, while the writing was subject to criticism. The movie quickly became a cult film. A sequel, ''Terrifier 2'', was released on October 6, 2022.

Plot

A man is watching a small TV where Monica Brown, a talk show host, interviews a severely disfigured woman, the sole survivor of a massacre that took place the previous Halloween. Brown mentions that the body of the killer, known only as "Art the Clown", disappeared from the morgue, suggesting he is still alive. The disfigured woman insists she saw him die. The man furiously kicks the TV and fills a garbage bag with bladed objects. After the interview, Monica talks to her boyfriend on the phone and makes disparaging remarks about the interviewee because of her appearance. The disfigured woman, who'd been eavesdropping, attacks Monica and gouges out her eyes, laughing maniacally.

On Halloween night, two friends, Tara and Dawn, leave a Halloween party. Art the Clown follows them into a pizzeria. The restaurant owner roughly escorts Art from the premises for smearing his own feces all over the bathroom walls. The girls discover that one of Dawn's car tires has been slashed, and Tara calls her sister Vicky to come pick them up. While waiting, Tara asks a pest control worker, Mike, if she can enter the derelict apartment building he's working in to use the restroom. Once inside, she encounters the Cat Lady, a deluded woman who believes the doll she carries is her infant child. Art kills and mutilates the two pizzeria workers before abducting Dawn.

Tara encounters Art inside the apartment building. He stabs her with a scalpel and drugs her. Tara awakens bound to a chair, and Art reveals Dawn, suspended upside-down. He forces Tara to watch as he saws Dawn in half with a hacksaw. Tara escapes but Art shoots her to death. The Cat Lady witnesses this and begs Mike to call the police. Mike dismisses her as insane, but Art knocks him unconscious with a hammer. The Cat Lady discovers Art cradling her doll. In a plea for the return of her "child", she tries to show motherly compassion to Art by cradling him.

Vicky arrives to take Tara and Dawn home but is lured into the basement by Art. There, she discovers Art, who has severely mutilated the Cat Lady and is wearing her scalp and breasts. Mike's co-worker arrives looking for him but is decapitated by Art. Vicky escapes Art but stops to grieve upon finding her sister's corpse. Art then attacks her with a makeshift cat o' nine tails, but Mike arrives suddenly and knocks Art unconscious. The two flee and call 9-1-1 but Art appears and kills Mike. Vicky retreats into a garage, and Art rams through the door with a pickup truck, causing further injury to Vicky. As she lies helplessly, Art begins to eat her face. Police arrive, but Art shoots himself inside his mouth with a pistol before the officers can apprehend him.

Art's body is taken to a morgue, along with the bodies of his deceased victims. When the medical examiner unzips Art's body bag, Art reanimates and strangles him to death. One year later, Vicky is released from the hospital after rehabilitation from the injuries inflicted by Art; she is revealed to be the severely disfigured woman from the film's opening scene and thus the events of the entire movie took place that previous year.

Cast

* Jenna Kanell as Tara Heyes, Vicky's older sister.
* Samantha Scaffidi as Victoria "Vicky" Heyes, Tara's younger sister.
* Catherine Corcoran as Dawn, Tara's best friend.
* David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown
* Pooya Mohseni as the Cat Lady
* Matt McAllister as Mike the Exterminator
* Katie Maguire as Monica Brown
* Gino Cafarelli as Steve
* Erick Zamora as Ramone
* Cory Duval as Coroner
* Michael Leavy as Will the Exterminator #2
*Kearrah Wilson as the doll

Production

The character of Art the Clown first appeared as a supporting character in the 2008 short film ''The 9th Circle'', which Leone wrote and directed. Leone later wrote and directed a short film titled ''Terrifier'', which featured Art as tbe main antagonist and was released in 2011. These shorts were incorporated into the 2013 anthology film '' All Hallows' Eve'', which marked both Art's first feature film appearance and Leone's feature directorial debut.

In 2015, Leone launched a campaign on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo to finance ''Terrifier'', a feature-length spin-off of ''All Hallows' Eve''. After being notified of the Indiegogo campaign, filmmaker Phil Falcone provided the necessary funds for the project in exchange for a producer credit. In ''The 9th Circle'', the short film ''Terrifier'', and ''All Hallows' Eve'', Art was played by Mike Giannelli, who opted not to return to the role for the feature film ''Terrifier'' due to not wanting to pursue anymore major acting roles. Instead, the role of Art was recast to David Howard Thornton. Thornton was already familiar with ''All Hallows' Eve'' when he auditioned for the role of Art in ''Terrifier'', and was cast in the role after improvising a kill scene in mime.

Release

''Terrifier'' premiered at the Telluride Horror Show Film Festival in 2016. It was later screened at the Horror Channel FrightFest on October 28, 2017, and was subsequently picked up by Dread Central Presents and Epic Pictures for a limited 2018 release.

Home media

''Terrifier'' was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Dread Central on March 27, 2018. The release features audio commentary from Damien Leone and David H. Thornton, behind-the-scenes footage, an interview with star Jenna Kanell, deleted scenes, collectible reversible cover art, and several other bonus features.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, ''Terrifier'' holds an approval rating of 53% based on 19 reviews, and an average rating of 5.8/10. While Scaffidi and Thornton's portrayals and the special effects were well received by critics, criticism of the film was directed mostly at the dialogue, the acting in certain scenes, and the lack of character development of the protagonists.

John Higgins ('' Starburst'') praised the performances of Kanell and Corcoran in that they "are attractive leads and hold the attention." Higgins also praised the film's balance of suspense and gore.
Anton Bitel of the British Film Institute described the film as a "subtext-free thrill-and-kill ride which openly advertises the sheer senselessness and gratuity of all its on-screen cat-and-mouse deaths by numbers" and "an unapologetically ‘pure’ genre entry, confronting – and amusing – us with all the sinister masked vicariousness of the Halloween spirit." Cody Hamman of Arrow in the Head awarded the film a score of 8 out of 10, calling it "a very simple film, providing 84 minutes of stalking and slashing that occurs largely within the confines of one location. Leone directs the hell out of that simple scenario, though, milking every possible bit of tension from each moment. It's a thrilling, brutal, gory '80s throwback that I recommend checking out, especially if you have a fondness for the same decade of films that this movie obviously holds in high regard." Sol Harris of the magazine '' Starburst'' gave the film a score of 6 out of 10, writing: "Presented as something of a throwback to horror B-movies of the '80s, ''Terrifier'' has far more style - both visually and audibly - than the average film of this nature. It's a surprisingly nice looking film for a movie about a clown chopping people into pieces." Jeremy Aspinall of ''Radio Times'' praised the film, writing "But despite the unsparing gore, there's also plenty of atmosphere and a gnawing tension that's maintained all the way to the sequel-hinting climax." In a thesis by M. Keith Booker, he writes that rather than evolving the slasher film genre in different directions, ''Terrifier'' acts as a homage to the 1980s films of the subgenre but with better special effects and higher production values. Booker also observes similarities with Dawn's (Corcoran) hacksaw death scene and Freddy Krueger's pursuit of Nancy Thompson in the bathtub scene in ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (1984).

The film was not without its detractors. Amyana Bartley of ''FilmInquiry.com'' felt that the film's script lacked both clear protagonists and depth, writing, "Art the Clown has the potential to be a formidable, gruesome, franchise horror character, he just needs more seasoning and cultivation." Felix Vasquez Jr. of Cinema Crazed called it "fairly mediocre slasher fare", stating that the film lacked any creativity and tension while also criticizing its story line. Vasquez concluded his review by stating "As a film ''Terrifier'' aims high, but feels like a very disposable party favor you'll have forgotten once the credits roll."

Accolades

The film received three ''Fangoria'' Chainsaw Award nominations: Best Limited Release, Best Supporting Actor (Thornton), and Best Makeup FX (Leone).

Sequel

In February 2019, Damien Leone stated that a sequel for ''Terrifier'' was in production, with the other sequel's script having already been written. The film went into production in October 2019 with Fuzz on the Lens Productions as co-producers along with Dark Age Cinema. The film was initially delayed during production of its final days of shooting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but finally resumed in September 2020 and wrapped shooting in 2021.
The film debuted at the Arrow Video FrightFest in London, England on August 29, 2022, before receiving a nationwide US cinema release on October 6, 2022, and was released to streaming platforms on November 11, 2022.

References

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{{Damien Leone

2016 films
2016 horror films
American slasher films
American splatter films
Fictional clowns
American supernatural horror films
2010s monster movies
2010s slasher films
Horror films about clowns
Halloween horror films
Film spin-offs
2010s English-language films
Films directed by Damien Leone
2010s American films