I didn’t particularly like the original Terrifer. Terrifier 2 was a bit better, with more of a plot and the introduction of stellar Final Girl Sienna, played by talented and attractive Lauren LaVera, but it still was a lot of gory violence without much purpose. Terrifier 3 demonstrates another positive evolution of director Damien Leone’s craft, but it’s largely more of the same: violence, gore, and near-zero entertainment value.
The guy sitting next to me would disagree. Anytime Art the Clown, played to creepy satisfaction by David Howard Thornton, did anything from smile to ripping the scalp off an already dismembered but still alive victim, the dude would laugh with glee. Let’s just say I don’t want to be left alone with that guy, who was a lot more terrifying than anything in Terrifier 3.
That so many people are praising Terrifier 3 is beyond me. Yes, Leone’s attention to gory detail, and willingness to not shy away from on-screen violence (including toward small children), demands a certain level of appreciation. Art the Clown is indeed a frightening incarnation of evil. And Sienna has an appeal similar to Neve Campbell’s Sydney Prescott.
But the movie, and the franchise, is more tedious than terrifying. I enjoy good gore and don’t mind some nasty violence, but it’s best when delivered in the context of a compelling story. The violence and gore in Terrifier 3 lack purpose other than to be shocking. It’s disturbing and depraved but without the surrounding material to make it all worthwhile. Art the Clown does his dirty work, and while it’s fine to have his motives be entirely sociopathic, he’d be so much more terrifying if surrounded by quality characters and a plot with a beginning and end–not just a sketch of a story designed to let Art put his nasty victim work on display.
Terrifier 3, and the franchise as a whole, just isn’t entertaining. Leone injects no sense of suspense or urgency into the picture, so it just exists as a series of scenes pasted together to form some kind of semi-narrative. Imagine an Art the Clown movie where the action in part centers around Sienna, and relies more on the question of “How is she going to defeat him this time?” versus “How is she going to escape this seemingly inescapable torture scene?”
There are things to appreciate in Terrifer 3, and assuredly some of the kill scenes are wickedly original, but barring some massive change to the formula, I’ll leave this franchise and its inevitable sequels to the laughing guy who sat beside me.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.