Walking in the theater we didn’t know what to expect. Sitting down and staring at the gory scene of a family being murdered playing from the projector, we didn’t dare blink as we didn’t want to miss anything. The two different reactions the movie was getting out of us: me slurping my Icee being internally shocked and Ava with her hands over her mouth, looking back and forth between me and the movie wondering if this is really happening.
The slasher film resumes after a cliffhanger where Art the clown (David Howard Thorton) is reborn by his new vessel Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi), a disfigured survivor from the first “Miles County Massacre”. Victoria is now possessed by an evil entity. Damien Leone has made it unclear what entity is possessing Victoria, but we can assume it is Art, or potentially a different demon from another world that is hinted at in the 2nd and 3rd movies.
SCENE 1-
The opening scene shows a sleeping family in their home, decorated like a hallmark staple. In the scene, an innocent youngster scampers to her mother, claiming she heard santa on the roof. The scene continues as you might assume: the youngster heads back to bed, hears sounds from the roof, and eventually sees the eerie rear of a Santa suit.
Art immediately kills the entire family which gives the movie a hard-start; reminding the audience that there are no “rules” when it comes to Terrifier.
“It would just be disingenuous that he wouldn’t harm a child, it just doesn’t make sense he doesn’t have any codes that he lives by, he doesn’t have any lines he won’t cross,” says Leone.
SCENE 2-
In this scene, Art shows up to a college and sees the typical couple that can’t keep their hands to themselves. He, of course, kills this couple but not the typical Voorhees style. Art erupts his chainsaw and immediately gets to work on the guy going from his crowned jewels to his head and then proceeds to make a snow angel in the guy’s blood. I feel like this scene really ties in with the first Terrifier movie because in the first one he cuts open a woman from down under to her head which became a very popular kill in the horror film world.
SCENE 3-
The climax of the movie follows Art and the protagonist (Sienna) through an intense battle. Art’s goal is to kill Sienna because she could potentially defeat him. In the scene, Sienna and her older sister are tied up and mentally tortured. Art shows them a skull making them think it’s Sienna’s niece. This scene disturbed me in countless ways. Relating it to real life made it extremely gruesome. Just picturing my niece in a room like that made shivers go down my spine. Later on we find out that the skull is actually someone else. What made the scene less horrible later on is that Art kept making really animated faces and was smacking Sienna’s head anytime he walked past her which made me laugh. He just has this personal beef with her and the way he made that known made the scene feel a bit lighter.
From bombing a children’s santa event at the mall, scalping a construction worker and a woman pleasuring herself with glass, the movie surpasses the first two with its gore and unethical slaughtering. It was very bold of Leone to release this without rating considering this slasher does not clown around.
