Terrifier 3 is the third entry in the franchise, picking up 5 years after the events of the second film. Set at Christmas, Sienna is still trying to grasp the horrors she and her brother Jonathan faced. All the whole Art the Clown and Vicky are gearing up to continue their rampage of non-stop slaughter. While substance never is Terrifier’s calling card, I found that this entry was able to continue to build out their world and flesh out Sienna as a character while still providing the unholy amounts of violence we expect from Art.
There’s no getting around it, the amount of gore and violence in Terrifier 3 will have you feeling emotionally drained by the end of the movie. The opening sequence sets the tone that no one is safe from Art’s destruction, no matter their age. While the movie shows restraint in some ways I’m keeping certain kills off-screen, we are still shown the spoils afterward. The movie can be very heavy and while I’d imagine you would not be seeing a Terrifier movie if that was an issue, let alone the third, it’s worth mentioning. I knew that Damien Leone was going to push all the boundaries but there was no getting used to it.Â
To that point, the makeup and effects team to an incredible job making each kill as disgusting as possible. I can not imagine what their blood budget is but they must be spending every last penny. Art’s design is probably the best as he dons a Santa Suit for most of the movie. Meanwhile, Vicky is given a much larger role and her design is given a lot more time to shine. When I said that there were a lot of boundaries being pushed, there’s some in particular with Vicky that I don’t think anyone was ready for.
With our protagonists, Sienna has been in and out of psychiatric care following the attack while Jonathan has started college and is trying his best to move on. It is almost a carbon copy of Scream 6 in that sense. However, Jonathan gets sidelined for this movie. In his place, we meet their cousin Gabby who is the new cute kid that Sienna has to protect from Art. While I think Jonathan should have had more to do in the story, I think including Gabby helped add more depth to Sienna’s character. After everything that happened to her, Sienna has lost her friends and her family. Gabby allows her to feel loved again and it adds a layer of softness back to her humanity, especially as Jonathan becomes more distant at school.
Now, while I appreciated the attempts of a more fleshed-out story, I felt it mostly was underdeveloped. Terrifier 3 opens a lot of story doors but never fully goes into any room. Sienna’s PTSD and seeing her dead friend is an interesting concept really only done once. Jonathan wanting to move on and the divide that has created in their relationship is another interesting angle that the movie never fully explores. It doesn’t help the narrative that these movies are just vessels for the most deranged things you can think of, which is a shame. The movie does add more background as to why Sienna is so important to the Art the Clown lore and why he hates her as much as he does. I do think story-wise it is a step down from the second movie but I do appreciate the gaps this movie fills. Damien Leone has recently come out and said that he envisions only one or two more films to wrap up Art’s story so I’m fascinated to see where we go.
The movie does something that annoyed me, however. The movie will just not show important scenes. There is a very important character in the story that is killed off-screen with no lead-up whatsoever. Of all the places to show restraint, why is this the place it’s done? The character dying isn’t the problem, it’s the fact that it’s meant to lead to an emotional moment, and for us, the audience, it completely comes out of left field. Neither Art nor Vicky have any interaction with this character in the movie, which is why it just feels like they needed to get them to die and then just didn’t film anything for it. There’s another crucial scene of Sienna retrieving the sword used to fight off Art that is just done off-screen as well. It plays a crucial role in her story as well as the third act, and she just has it in between scenes. I wonder if these scenes had to be cut down by higher powers, but it just leaves glaring holes in the movies.
The story splits its time almost evenly it felt with Art and Sienna which I appreciated because it continues to allow David Howard Thornton to shine as Art. His gestures and expressions are perfect, as he conveys everything he needs to without ever saying a word. He adds a lot of humor to the role, especially with how giddy he gets when he sees Santa for the first time. The comedy is extremely dark but it goes a long way to make these movies more enjoyable than just 2 hours of torture porn.
I think the character work is a step up in Terrifier 3. Sienna’s fight for 90% of this movie is internal as she is battling with herself just to be sane. Her trauma is greater than anything most people could feel in a lifetime and I really felt that in Lauren LaVera’s performance. Leone put a great deal of confidence in her to carry a lot of this movie beyond the gore and action and she was more than up to the task. In that last 10% of the movie though, she kicks a lot of ass. LaVera is talented with her stunt choreography and it shows.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Terrifier 3 is a fascinating movie that pushes every boundary of what we’re willing to watch on screen. The kills are extreme and graphic, but in between them, we get an electric performance by David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown. We also get shimmers of a compelling, emotional story, anchored by Lauren LaVera, one of horror’s rising final girls. In a season of clown movies, go see the one the fans love.
