The “Terrifier” franchise has always been Art for Art’s sake, as its magical killer clown randomly slashed, bludgeoned, bit, scourged and even shot his way through whomever happened to be around. The third entry is mostly brimming buckets more of the same with Art the Clown going to town, but there are some important changes. “Terrifier 3” settles on a franchise hero and attempts to, ahem, flesh out a character or two. The real shock is that it seeks to build an arching narrative. Oh, and it’s a Christmas movie.
In “3” (the fourth film, after “All Hallow’s Eve” established Art as a demonic entity), the sister and brother who survived “2” are dealing with their trauma five years after they found the clown of renown down to drown their family and friends in their own blood. Sienna (Lauren LaVera), who assumed a sword-wielding, avenging-angel guise from her comic-artist father’s drawings to behead Art (before he reconstituted in a new flashback), is fresh out of the mental hospital and living with her aunt, uncle and beloved young cousin, Gabbie (Antonella Rose). Brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) is alarmingly tall now and in college, pestered by his roommate’s girlfriend to appear on her true-crime podcast. You probably already know who’s marked for death.
What there is of a plot involves Art (David Howard Thornton) gleefully wending toward a reunion with Sienna and Jonathan, jingling all the way in an entrails-adorned Santa outfit. Meanwhile, desiccated Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi), the outlandishly disfigured survivor of the first “Terrifier,” has gone to the dark side after a pregnant pause. The new film establishes rules involving demonic possession – Gasp! Actual motivation for Art and Victoria? – and Sienna accepts her mission. Don’t think too much about it; there are narrative holes aplenty, but who cares?
Torture porn slashers are generally review-proof, which only makes sense. If you’re interested in “Terrifier 3,” how much do you care about some stodgy old guy pooh-poohing uninspired dialogue and arbitrary barbarity? But while it remains a mystery why the overlong and underwritten “Terrifier 2” got the positive reactions it did, the new movie unquestionably steps up its gory game.
In cinematic terms – writing, acting, cinematography, production values – it’s a clear improvement over the previous entries, mighty low bar though that may be. “3” enjoys eight times the budget of its predecessor, and it shows. Not that $2 million is anything but a drop in the bucket, Hollywood-wise, but it’s enough to get some familiar faces to show up (the ubiquitous Clint Howard; veteran Daniel Roebuck; horror makeup great Tom Savini; Jason Patric, of all people) and for the visuals to achieve a contrasty, oversaturated, filmic look.
Not that any of that exactly matters to fans … what they want to know is whether writer-director Damien Leone & Co. surpass previous levels of carnage. The answer, which they’ll eat up, is a blood-spurting, intestine-whipping, naughty bits-chainsawing “Yes.” “3” is dismemberments and disembowelings galore, just what the menu is supposed to offer. There are campy comic bits, with gross-out laughs generated by Art’s joy at doing his thing. Fans will get a kick out of his severed noggin gnawing on someone’s face and his heads-up disguise for his decapitated form. LaVera is at home in her role now and delivers a solid, grounded performance. She’s a good fighter and stunt performer. Thornton’s high-spirited mugging has become iconic in current horror, with the interesting addition of something resembling depression, as if Art suffered from an occult version of borderline personality disorder. Seriously.
“3’s” running time is slightly less terrifying than the second one’s (2 hours and 5 minutes, or 13 minutes shorter), though the movie is still plagued by overlong scenes with slow pacing and ineffective fake-outs. The introductory massacre takes more than 11 minutes and seems unrelated to the plot – unless one of its characters returns in the upcoming “Terrifier 4.” It’s the torture porn equivalent of one of those “Saturday Night Live” cold opens that goes on forever with one joke and really good makeup. There’s still nothing genuinely frightening, just jump scares, fountains of viscera and one slow setup for mayhem after another.
Looking past that, it’s a clear “improvement” that the new one spreads its brutality around after the first one disturbingly focused its most graphic and extreme acts on women. Men get it pretty much as badly in “3,” which we’re going to consider a good thing in that it smacks less of celebrating violence against women. Art is now an equal-opportunity mutilator.
With stabs at humor, elevated production values and a continuing story, “Terrifier 3” improves on previous entries while spurting out the blood and guts in increasingly elaborate fashions that will have Art lovers laughing and screaming.
“Terrifier 3” hits theaters Oct. 11.
