Terrifier 3 review – Killer clown is ready for the third helping of the happy gorefest | film

HIt is a film that begins with a self-contained prologue that presents its performance in a cheerful, fair and honest manner. The crime scene is a family home at Christmas time, the victims are said to be family members and the perpetrator is Art the Clown, dressed as Santa Claus wielding an axe. The film's rules are also made clear: anyone can die and being a cute kid won't save you, but while some victims are innocent, others deserve their bloody end – at least according to the logic of horror films. (In the case of this opening scene, the husband who tells his wife, “I have to get up in three hours, you'll take care of it,” is rightly condemned to die.)

Is Terrifier 3 sophisticated cinema? Not quite, but this stuff isn't as easy to pull off as it looks. The number of horror films that promise to twist your soul and clench your stomach is enormous, but the proportion that actually do so is small, especially among experienced horror viewers. I'm happy to report that Terrifier 3 is truly awful; Your own mileage may vary, but this is not for the faint of heart. Art isn't a crazy finance bro like American Psycho's Patrick Bateman – he's a demon clown, after all – but he's just as interested in the deadly potential of a variety of tools, including axes, bombs, dry ice, claw hammers, chainsaws, and live rats, his mere rats Hands, teeth, etc. and writer-director Damien Leone relishes in showing every gory second of graphic chaos and unnecessary cruelty.

Unlike Bateman, however, Art the Clown has a girlfriend with him: Victoria from the first Terrifier film, who operates on the principle of “if you can't beat them, join them”, started out as a victim and then became an accomplice . One mystery Terrifier 3 answers is what these types of characters do while chilling at home; Art the clown likes to sit in a rocking chair and stare out the window meditatively, while Victoria spends her free time reclining in a nice, deep bath of her own blood. It's not for everyone, but for gorehounds this film offers a lot more.