Poster // Bloody Disgusting via IMDb
Art or schlock?: “Terrifier 3” review
By: Magnus Blanchard-Rockhill
Staff-Writer & Advertising Co-Manager
This review will contain some spoilers for the ending of “Terrifier 3” (2024).
This is going to be different from the reviews I have written thus far. For one, this movie was reviewed too highly on IMDb to fit my “bad movie” criteria. Second, I do not want to go into much detail on the plot since it is a new release, and it also has some disgusting content that you should watch the movie for if you want to know about.
I love this franchise. The visual effects are stunning, the acting is good and it is apparent that a lot of care went into the production for all three. Each one looks more polished than the last, but even the first one looks great for something so grimy and gory. Art the Clown is a great slasher, with his own music video and Spirit Halloween animatronic already. That said, this third film does fall short of the first two on a few fronts.
“Terrifier 2” had some of the grossest visuals I have ever seen in a film, and that combined with the third movie having eight times the budget left me with high expectations that were unfortunately dashed. The movie still looked great and had stomach-churning gore, but it was not as effective as the second film.
The plot was another place that felt weaker here, despite being more coherent than the first two. “Terrifier” was a straightforward slasher that felt self-contained. The second two both follow a new character, Sienna, as she is mercilessly pursued by our main antagonist: Art the Clown.
The problems with the plot in the third film seem to mostly stem from too many different ideas being presented in too small of a time frame. There’s demons and angels. God versus the Devil. Possession. When did we start watching “The Conjuring”? There are a lot of things happening off-screen so that the audience and on-screen characters find out at the same time. This isn’t a huge deal, but when you present the audience with so much information so quickly and STILL manage to make the scene feel slow then that is a problem.
I did enjoy the final fight scene. I loved the over-the-top ridiculousness of Sienna, portrayed excellently by Lauren LaVera, being the actual sent-by-god hero of the people with the crown of thorns and stigmata to prove it. Taking the “Final Girl” trope to its most extreme is something I always enjoy, but Sienna is the most extreme version of this I have ever seen. She swears vengeance. She has powers or something now, at least instant healing. Maybe at the end she’s heading to the garage to get her mech suit. I don’t know.
David Howard Thornton, actor for Art the Clown, is also completely captivating on screen. This is the type of horror antagonist that falls closer to the Freddy Krueger side of the spectrum than the Jason side, despite being completely silent. He manages to be funny enough that the movie has to keep reminding you that the guy you’re laughing at is like, the worst ever. The bar scene in particular is well-done, starting very comedically but gradually making the audience realize that *something* is about to happen that nobody (except, well, Art) is going to enjoy.
One aspect of the film that I thought was an interesting inclusion was a side character whose entire “thing” is being obsessed with True Crime. In the film’s universe, Art the Clown is obviously real and is a serial killer who has never been caught. Sienna and her brother are famous for being living victims of the “Miles County Clown” and are both approached by a person with a True Crime podcast.
She wants to interview them, but Sienna very loudly shuts her down in a rant about how she is not going to go on a podcast to speculate about the nature of the guy who ruined her and her brother’s lives forever, and who is still out there. There are some other scenes later on involving the podcast host that explore the idea of things being reeaalll fascinating until they are actively happening to you or someone you love, but I don’t intend to fully spoil this movie.
This is not a dark comedy. This is also not a slasher. It has elements of both of those, and of fantasy, and more. Most horror movies operate on a cycle of tension and terror, but this one operates more on a cycle of comedy and disgust. It is horrifying and upsetting in a way that sticks with you. It is also my favorite movie that I have seen so far this year, and I had a great time watching it. It’s well-made and does exactly what it intends to, which is to stun the audience into either silence or gasps as many times as possible.
I would say check the website “Does the Dog Die” for any big triggers you may have before watching (I do NOT suggest this lightly; there is some very upsetting content), but if you like the later “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies and have a pretty strong stomach, I would say “Terrifier 3” is worth the watch.
