With a budget of just $35,000, 2016’s Terrifier caused quite a stir among die-hard horror fans. Above all because of the violent escapades of violence by the evil killer clown Art. Over the years, the independent slasher developed into a financial success and home theater sales in particular helped finance Terrifier 2. It became a financial success and led to the franchise’s final breakthrough in 2022.
The obligatory sequel Terrifier 3 only took two years to arrive this time. Although I’m not the biggest fan of the series, the fearsome killer clown Art in parts 1 and 2 was able to captivate even me with his charisma and extreme toughness.
But when you see Terrifier 3 in the cinema, it quickly becomes clear: The franchise is treading water in Part 3 and the once surprising spikes of violence have bored me. Director Damien Leone’s attempt to top his own violent excesses comes at the expense of any build-up of tension. This is reminiscent of the mistakes of many previous horror franchises such as Saw or Halloween, which sooner or later fell into a downward spiral in terms of quality.
Terrifier 3 suffers from a lack of ideas: bigger, harder, without any surprise effect
The content of the third part is largely based on its predecessor. After a really strong opening sequence, it starts off like Terrifier 2 Reviving the killerbefore the clown goes back to work with his trash bag full of weapons. The only difference: instead of Halloween it is now Christmas and the clown costume is replaced by the red coat of Santa Claus.
You won’t find any originality in any of the characters. The Shaw siblings (Lauren LaVera and Elliott Fullam) are the great opponents of the killer clown Art and remain as pale and uninteresting as in the predecessor. Even the new killer sidekick Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi), as the surviving victim of the killer from the first film, is nothing more than an uninspired copy of Amanda Young from the Saw films.
I have already accused Terrifier 2 of a tired plot. But this still benefited greatly from its enormous viral surprise effect. When the film was released in the US, footage of the ultra-brutal violence went viral on platforms such as TikTok and X (formerly Twitter). These clips, along with reports of audience members vomiting, created a buzz on social media that contributed to the film’s global success.
With a budget of approximately $250,000, Part 2 managed to increase nearly tenfold that of the first part. The financial upgrade was good for the franchise and created a framework for increased staging power that the first part simply lacked. The cast was more talented and there was more money for the effects. That was enough to keep me entertained with Terrifier 2. Terrifier 3 doesn’t do that.
Terrifier 3 lacks this surprise effect and the qualitative increase. Leone only relies on brutality. The again increased budget is not a gain like its predecessor. Terrifier 2 already exaggerated with its 140 minutes. However, due to the lack of imagination in terms of content, the 125 minutes of the third part feel even longer.
Terrifier 3 is expected to be the most brutal horror film of the year. The constant cycle of violence wears out extremely quickly. The once entertaining harshness of the franchise is now its undoing. Terrifier 3 stirs up unpleasant memories of many other horror sequels in me.
Annoying sequel problem: Terrifier 3 copies its predecessor and is just brutal
The fact that sequels are too similar in structure to their predecessors is not just a problem in horror. But it is precisely there that it is more noticeable due to the lower budgets and limited show values. In the successful Conjuring films, the simple progression from the first to the second part was fun, but became redundant with the third part and the countless spin-offs. I felt the same way about the Insidious sequels and yours bland copying of the recipe for success.
In series like Terrifier, where violence is in the foreground, the decline in quality is even more noticeable. There is no longer any attempt to convince the audience with atmosphere or horror. The well-known and ultra-brutal torture porn series Saw or Hostel have already messed this up: the story becomes increasingly silly and confused. The build-up of tension is completely pushed into the background and gives way to the eternal bloodbath.
In his third part, Terrifier director Leone even shows how it could actually work. But he doesn’t go through with it. The film starts with a ten-minute sequence in which we follow Art’s attack on a family from the perspective of the victims. Here I could still sympathize with the characters and fear the clown’s first appearance. But this fear subsided at the latest with the third bloodbath of the crazy killer. Leone can’t think of anything better than even more misogynistic scenarios and children as victims for the greatest possible shock effect.
This one was particularly bitter Trend of wear and tear in the recent Halloween remake trilogy (Halloween, Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends) by David Gordon Green. The more the killer Michael Myers was presented to us, the faster he lost all horror and charm. This is reinforced in Terrifier 3 by all attempts to give the killer clown more background. That demystifies him and the good presence of art actor David Howard Thornton doesn’t help either.
The saddest thing is that success usually proves the formulaic work in horror series right. Film series like The Conjuring and Saw now include nine and ten entries, which rarely offered anything new but reliably kept the box office ringing. Terrifier 3 opened in some countries on October 11th and has already tripled the box office revenue of its predecessor. Two more sequels are in the works.
For me, however, Art the Clown was cannibalized.
Terrifier 3 has been running in German cinemas since October 31, 2024.