Terrifier 3 (2024)
Directed by: Damien Leone
Premise: Five years after the events of Terrifier 2, Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) returns at Christmastime and stalks Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera), leaving a trail of mangled corpses in his path.
What Works: The Terrifier films are primarily gore showcases and the third film continues that hook. The filmmakers accomplish their primary goal which is to turn the stomach. This is the kind of picture that dares the viewer to keep watching by piling on the awfulness and bodies are mangled and dismembered in graphic detail. The special effects are impressive. The blood and gore are somewhere between the realism of a war movie and the cartoonish quality of Evil Dead, retaining a certain edge and unpleasantness. The filmmakers also show a willingness to kill off characters that would be safe in a more mainstream picture. Horror requires filmmakers to be ruthless and unpredictable and Terrifier 3 succeeds in creating the impression that no one is safe and that the filmmakers will cross any boundary.
What Doesn’t: Gore is about the only thing that Terrifier 3 has going for it. The gore is audacious but the violence is meanspirited. It isn’t fun in the way of classic slashers but it also doesn’t have any social meaning as in the violence of Cannibal Holocaust. The movie is gross but it is not very scary because Terrifier 3 does not create an atmosphere of dread. That’s partially the fault of the production choices. The gore set pieces look more like special effects demo reels than a dramatic scene. Terrifier 3 also lacks build up or dramatic consequences. People are introduced and then killed and then the filmmakers move on. Like Terrifier 2, the threequel is too long. Terrifier 3 runs over two hours and it does not justify that length. The pacing is slow and not much actually happens. The second film introduced Sienna Shaw and her brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) while also exploring the backstory of Art the Clown. The third film does nothing with these characters. Art kills a lot of anonymous people while Sienna anticipates his return but no one levels up. Neither the characters nor the conflicts are deepened or made more meaningful. The film also does little with its holiday setting. There are plenty of Christmas set horror pictures but Terrifier 3 does not distinguish itself nor does it use the holiday in a creative way.
Bottom Line: Terrifier 3 offers up more of the same. Fans of gore and extreme horror will not want to miss it but Terrifier 3 is a sequel spinning its wheels. It doesn’t advance character or concept and the movie is unpleasant without being much fun.
Episode: #1018 (October 20, 2024)