Terrifier 3 Is A Gory, Creepy Success Despite Its Sequel Obstacles
Terrifier 3 is a scary clown slasher gorefest that lives up to the previous two installments of the series, even if it has the same struggles as previous horror sequels. While Art the Clown does not disappoint, giving us the disgusting, bloody, disturbing ride we signed up for, the franchise is coming up against the same diminishing set of possible outcomes for their villain as many other horror series have faced. The story begins to suffer under its own weight, even as the creepy, spooky hijinks continue.
The Mythology Is Piling Up
As the story of Terrifier 3 progresses, the protagonists need to develop a set of tactics to fight the monster and they need to come up with some backstory for those tactics. The characters are fighting a villain that’s been at least partially vanquished before, but as they learn to defeat the scary clown, they come up against their previous solutions, and the number of possible scenarios shrinks. As the world of Terrifier 3 becomes more and more defined, so do the characters and even the main villain, Art the Clown.
Limiting The Characters
Make no mistake, David Howard Thornton was born to play Art the Clown, and Lauren LaVera reprises her role as Sienna with skillful, tortured protagonist determination. The return of Elliot Fullman as Johnathan and the addition of Antonella Rose as Gabby round out a phenomenal cast, giving Terrifier 3 a robust and talented team. The problem with Terrifier 3, as with so many sequels before it, is that it can’t escape the universe it built for itself, and as a result, it winds in on itself, narrowing the scope of the protagonists as well as the villain.
A Stomach-Turning Horror
Makeup and practical effects giant Tom Savini makes an appearance as a bystander in Terrifier 3, signaling his approval of the talented makeup and practical effects department led by Jason Baker. All the blood, guts, and gore in the film, as well as their decidedly rude presentation, are in keeping with the Terrifier universe’s vintage grisly look. They came through with creative prosthetics, eviscerated corpses, and partially animated heads, shoring up the creepy and stomach-turning Terrifier world.
Doesn’t Reinvent The Wheel
The basic premise of Terrifier 3 is the same as the previous two chapters, with protagonist Sienna being plunged into a horrific battle against evil Art the Clown, with all the creepy mimery and all the disbelieving civilian doubt playing into a sadistically arranged, emotionally charged final battle. The resurrection of Art and his accomplice, Victoria (played by Samantha Scaffidi), is a masterpiece of gruesome, malevolent, and disturbing horror. The new protagonist, Sienna’s cousin Gabby, gives Sienna some updated motivation to fight Art the Clown, and the build-up to the final battle has a lot of satisfyingly gory scenes.
Art The Clown Is A New Horror Icon
REVIEW SCORE
The stumbling block for Terrifier 3 is that as it increasingly defines good and evil and shades in more of the backstory for the villains as well as the protagonists, it becomes less surreal and more righteous. The beauty of the first installments of Terrifier is that we don’t know exactly what Art the Clown is, so he could come from anything scary that we dream up.
The same is true for the protagonists, as we can’t tease out how much of the action is fueled by their terror and how much of it is objectively what happened, and so the world they build together is scarier. Similarly to other horror sequels, the more the story hones in on the specifics, the less power Art the Clown has in our imaginations.
