Why Terrifier's Art The Clown Was Recast

Ever since "Terrifier 2" scared up big wins at the box office, making $15.7 million on a $250,000 budget, its homicidal antagonist has become somewhat of a slasher star. Art the Clown, portrayed by the inimitable David Howard Thornton, is a silent, psychopathic harlequin who becomes positively gleeful in the presence of all-out human carnage. But despite the murderous clown's horrific exploits, he's started to enjoy slightly more mainstream exposure since his little movie became a modest hit, popping up in a cameo on Pete Davidson's "Bupkis" and preparing for what will surely be an even bigger hit with the upcoming "Terrifier 3."

The character has come a long way since his inception as one of many eldritch creations used in the short films "The 9th Circle" (2008). Director and creator of the "Terrifier" series, Damien Leone, originally created Art the Clown after being struck by the idea of a woman being menaced by a creepy clown on a bus. As Leone told Entertainment Weekly:

"She's all alone, coming home from work or whatever, in the middle of the night, and then this clown gets on, and sits across from her, and starts staring at her and toying with her. It's awkward and uncomfortable, and maybe even funny, but then it gets progressively more intimidating and aggressive."

Thus, Art was born. But while David Howard Thornton has now come to define the character's ghoulishly comedic presence, back when Leone first decided to realize his vision of a sinister harlequin taunting public transit passengers he used a completely different actor.

Art the Clown was inspired by iconic horror killers, combining elements of Michael Myers, Freddie Krueger, and Jason with an extra sprinkling of twisted trickster-ish energy. But before he really came into his own as a burgeoning slasher star, the character was one of many to feature in Damien Leone's short films. The first of these was 2008's "The 9th Circle," in which Art appears at an empty train station on Halloween and chases a young woman named Casey (Kayla Lian). In this film, the character appeared alongside an assortment of other horrific beasts, including witches, demons, and monsters, and was portrayed by Mike Giannelli.

Giannelli is therefore the first actor to play Art on-screen. The actor spoke to The Square Round Table podcast about meeting Leone in 2002 and becoming friends with the director. He explained how Leone "always doodled everywhere" and recalled how one day, after sketching the first idea for Art, the director asked him whether he wanted to play the character in "The 9th Circle." Giannelli agreed to what was then a small role, but would actually go on to play the bloodthirsty clown in two other projects.

Mike Giannelli wasn't simply a stop-gap solution before David Howard Thornton could fulfill the role of Art. He was there for the inception of the character and the evolution of Art's distinct look, modeling the various creations that Damien Leone produced. The actor told The Square Round Table podcast about the initial look for Art, recalling how he was originally supposed to have "white eyes or red eyes" but the contact lenses kept popping out so Leone scrapped the idea. The original makeup was also supposed to be just "my face painted, maybe a little nose prosthetic, it was just like clay or something, nothing crazy." But after viewers of "The 9th Circle" seemed to respond well to Art, Leone began improving on the look for 2011's short film "Terrifier."

For his second on-screen outing, Art took center-stage, butchering yet another poor woman who happened to witness one of his murders at a gas station. By this time Leone had created a mold of Giannelli's face and had been slowly building on it over time. The actor recalled that during the evolution of Art's makeup, he was working as a security guard at a mall, and Leone convinced him to call out sick just to test a black eye he'd built. Unfortunately, it seems the process of developing, applying, and then removing this extensive makeup was part of the reason Giannelli eventually left Art behind.

In 2013's "All Hallows' Eve," Mike Giannelli once again portrayed Art the Clown, who this time carried out a series of hideous acts, all of which were captured on VHS tape. The footage itself is actually taken from "The 9th Circle" and "Terrifier," and is discovered by two kids and their babysitter, who ultimately suffer a similarly gruesome fate. While "All Hallows' Eve" was technically Damien Leone's feature directorial debut, much of it was just re-purposed footage from his previous short films. Therefore, his actual feature directorial debut became 2016's "Terrifier," in which Art the Clown finally got the full-length treatment he deserved — unfortunately this proved to be, as /Film's Chris Evangelista put it, "little more than a plotless, storyless, valueless" exercise.

But when Art ventured out for this first feature-length massacre, it wasn't Giannelli behind the make-up, but David Howard Thornton. The actor got the gig after a nasty bit of improv during his audition, in which he mimed salting a severed head to taste — a glimpse of the sadistic humor Howard Thornton would bring to the role (you can actually watch the audition here.) But what happened to the man who had first animated Damien Leone's homicidal harlequin?

Well, it seems there was no controversy here. As Giannelli told the Square Round Table hosts, "I was offered the role to do 'Terrifer' and I turned it down. I just wasn't a big fan of filming. It's long hours, the makeup really takes a long time to go on, it just wasn't my thing."

Mike Giannelli elaborated on his filming frustrations with the Square Round Table boys, revealing that he would have to spend hours at the end of every day removing the mask that Leone applied, adding:

"It was horrible [...] I had fake fingernails, he was making all these pus-filled holes on my arm [...] it was crazy, I hated every second of it. Love the outcome, love Damien but as you can see from this I can't sit still, so having to be there for hours, it's not fun."

On top of all that, the actor recalled how Leone always filmed during the winter, so shooting was always a chilly affair, especially considering the clown suit itself was remarkably thin. What's more, Giannelli wasn't a fan of the "sticky" corn syrup blood, and in one instance found himself confronted with real pig organs that Leone had kept in a cooler all day for a scene in which Art was supposed to "put a chainsaw through a girl's stomach."

With that in mind, you can't really blame Giannelli for bowing out. Considering David Howard Thornton was almost shot by real cops during the filming of "Terrifier," it seems the former Art actor dodged yet more on-set stress by declining to return. Still, it seems there's no bad blood (syrup-based or otherwise) between Giannelli and Leone.

It might sound as though Mike Giannelli abandoned Damien Leone just as he was preparing to give Art the Clown the feature-length treatment. But it seems the director holds no ill will or bitterness towards the erstwhile Art actor. In 2022, he told The Austin Chronicle that Giannelli is still his "buddy," before going on to explain the difference between Giannelli and David Howard Thornton:

"Mike may as well have been a guy dressed as a clown, whereas David is a clown. ... If you know him in person, he is a walking cartoon. He is Roger Rabbit in real life, and you'd never believe that he's Art the Clown, but he knows how to flip the switch and bring it to a dark place."

It seems, then, that while Giannelli might well have chosen to bow out from his career as Art the Clown, Leone might just have been aware that the character had more potential even prior to Gianneli's departure. After all, barring the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, it's rare for a slasher franchise to immediately find the perfect actor. Meanwhile, Giannelli has all but retired from acting, and seems quite comfortable raising a family and generally staying away from pig guts — which is just as well since "Terrifier 3" reportedly features a scene that made even the typically unflappable Howard Thornton sick. So, while Howard Thornton has undeniably put his stamp on Art, Giannelli deserves recognition for not only being the first to don Leone's increasingly complex prosthetics, wardrobe creations, and interact with his makeshift gore, but for sticking it out across four projects.