What David Howard Thornton Most Wants To See From Art The Clown In Terrifier 3
This post contains spoilers for "Terrifier" and "Terrifier 2."
Depending on how you feel about these things, "Terrifier 2" was either an impressively tasteless splatter-fest or a triumph of low-budget horror filmmaking. Either way, there's no denying that director Damien Leone did a lot with his $250,000 budget, bringing in over $15 million at the global box office and causing a small but significant cultural stir.
That stir came mainly by virtue of "Terrifier 2" being outrageously gory while also being given a relatively wide theatrical release. Reports of people vomiting during screenings and hardened horror fans struggling to make it through the brutality helped build the buzz, and "Terrifier 3" was quickly greenlit, cementing the return of David Howard Thornton's sadistic serial killer Art the Clown. And it was Art's sickening antics that really made "Terrifier 2" a success, as word of mouth spread about his uniquely grisly kills and horror fans felt compelled to test their mettle against Leone's slasher.
Which was pretty much the way the director planned things back when he was plotting out the original "Terrifier." Speaking at a Q&A, Leone said:
"When I was getting ready to make 'Terrifier' I knew it was going to be so low budget. We had like $35,000 to start shooting the movie and I said, 'Why is somebody gonna watch this movie when they can go watch a $50 million Hollywood horror film?' and I said, 'We have to show the audience things that they would never have the balls to show.'"
That led to the aforementioned ultra-gore of both "Terrifier" and its sequel. Which is all well and good, but it does mean topping his previous work will be a uniquely challenging task when Leone starts to write "Terrifier 3." Luckily, David Howard Thornton has some ideas.
It's all about the body count
If you've been sensible and chosen to forgo the unadulterated butchery of "Terrifier" and "Terrifier 2," allow me to provide a very brief insight into the delights that await you should you change your mind. In the first movie, scurrilous scamp that he is, Art decides to hang a woman upside down before sawing her in half from the, er... pelvic region.
Damien Leone explained his approach to that scene during the Q&A, saying:
"If we could pull that off and actually show all of that where other movies would cut away, I said 'That would really potentially get people talking.' And it did, that's the scene that everybody talks about now when they bring up 'Terrifier.'"
Using that same tactic of prompting word of mouth buzz by depicting utterly depraved acts of fictionalized violence, Leone arguably pushed things further with the bigger and bloodier "Terrifier 2." This time, the scene in question featured Art scalping and skinning a poor woman alive before removing an arm and dousing her in salt and bleach. He then leaves her somehow still-alive body to be discovered by her own mother in a perverted blood and viscera-soaked vignette.
All of which raises the question of how Leone is going to outdo himself next time around. Well, it turns out Art the Clown actor David Howard Thornton has some thoughts. Specifically, he wants to see Art embark on a killing rampage. Speaking to Dread Central the actor said:
"I want to see him do a huge mass kill. That's what I would like to see. Him just put, like, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers and all those guys' body counts to shame in just one huge kill."
Art vs Jason vs Michael Myers
Damien Leone has spoken about the pressure of building on a fan-favorite film, telling Variety that he has "sleepless nights" thinking about not letting fans down with "Terrifier 3." The director spoke about how audiences "expect the next big kill scene, the next big gory set piece," and how he worries about how he's "going to top the now-infamous hacksaw scene" from "Terrifier" and the skinning scene from "Terrifier 2." Ultimately, Leone says he looks to "swing for the fences" when it comes to writing sequels, and I can't help but think David Howard Thornton is on to something with his mass killing idea.
One thing Leone revealed to Variety about his plans for a third "Terrifier" was that he intended to return to a kind of "old school, gritty slasher." Which, considering Thornton directly mentioned Jason Vorhees and Michael Myers, seems as though it would fit nicely with an all-out massacre in which Art tries to outdo his rivals' kill counts.
Look, we've had a woman being hacksawed in half and another being brutally skinned alive so far. So, whatever Leone comes up with, it's going to have to be big. And what's more brutal than two memorably horrific kills? A whole string of them in a row, of course. That said, "Terrifier 2" was reportedly as brutal to film as it is to watch, so I'm not sure how far Leone wants to push himself and his crew next time around.