Movie review and movie summary for Terrifier 3 (2024)

The “Terrifier” franchise is a fascinating history of the industry, a series of extremely low-budget and ridiculously gory horror films that prove that not every genre fan wants “higher horror.” Sometimes you just want a splatterfest, and Damien Leone undeniably provides that, trying to top his own carnage with each gruesome murder and reveling in the fact that people have reportedly puked and/or fainted at screenings. There are aspects of these films that are impressive, most notably the wacky make-up effects and an underrated physical performance from David Howard Thornton, but “Terrifier 3” feels like a sidestep at best, after the notable improvement in filmmaking from the first to the second chapter. Leone continues to evolve as a filmmaker – and it's interesting to see how that develops over the course of the film series – but his screenwriting continues to let him down, mixing his concepts with superficial mythology, atrocious dialogue and ridiculous cutscenes that… another film in this series, which lasts over two hours. I'm still hoping Leone figures it out, but in this case it's not included.

The best idea Leone had when making “Terrifier 3” was to set the film around Christmas, giving the filmmaker the opportunity to play with the iconography of the era and the murderous Art the Clown (Thornton) for putting most of his films in a Santa Claus costume. Leone's playfulness with holiday scenes and his subversion of religious imagery seems like something a wiser screenwriter could really use to greater effect, but even if it's just superficial here, it makes for some impressive imagery – a chainsaw-wielding Santa Claus and Sunglasses clown makeup will definitely grab your attention.

“Terrifier 3” follows up on the last film’s ridiculous ending, in which the scarred Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) literally gave birth to Art’s severed head. Don't ask. One of the things I liked about the second chapter was how it delved into the surreal and supernatural, understanding that something like this works better as a nightmare than a movie where all the storylines have to fit together. So do we need to understand how Art attaches his head back to his body? Not really. He just does it.

Art and Victoria take up residence in an abandoned house while the final girl, Sienna (Lauren LaVera), tries to deal with the trauma of the last film. She returns from a psychiatric hospital to live with her aunt Jessica (Margaret Ann Florence), her husband Greg (Bryce Johnson) and their child Gabbie (Antonella Rose), who in this film is clearly just waiting to be put in danger (or Maybe that should be in “Arts Art.”) Sienna's brother Jonathan (Elliot Fullam) is in college and struggling with his own post-traumatic stress disorder, but that too is just an excuse for Art to make even more victims alive skins. To say that the plot in “Terrifier 3” is thin would be an understatement, and yet it is so much of that. Scene after scene of Sienna talking about her trauma unfolds in a way that, in my opinion, is almost designed to make you want to see another act of cruelty from Art the Clown just for the boredom to alleviate.

And they are cruel. Much has already been said about the killing scenes in “Terrifier 3” and how blatantly they try to push the boundaries of taste even more than in the first two controversial films. They're so over-the-top ridiculous in design and execution that I don't really take them seriously, but wouldn't argue with anyone who's offended by a movie willing to go where this movie does, which isn't just about Mutilation and torture, but across lines that even most horror fans espouse, including the death of children.

So why not write off “Terrifier 3” entirely? Two reasons: First, the DIY aspect of the film reminds me of genre films I loved when I first discovered the genre, and one of the reasons I still love horror – it's not a gatekeeper like other genres, but will allow anyone with the right passion to make a film like this supposedly for less than $2 million, a profit threshold that will be exceeded before school is out on Friday. Secondly, Thornton is legitimately phenomenal, delivering a very physical performance that is more reminiscent of a silent comedy than modern horror. (And adding Victoria to the babble actually reduces the tension of the silent killer in this film. Don't do that again for the fourth film, Sergio.) While Leone and his insane alter ego still have some work to do, esp in the writing department, I'll keep searching for “Terrifier” to find out. After all, everyone loves a clown.