When you go and see a Terrifier movie, horror movie fans know exactly the kind of bloody and gory madness they are getting themselves into. This is the kind of horror franchise that wants to intentionally make audiences queasy and uncomfortable.
These films feature some horrifically brutal murder scenes that aren’t for the faint of heart. In fact, Terrifier 2 has audience members throwing up in theaters. Franchise director Damien Leone is now teasing the opening sequence for Terrifier 3, calling it “controversial.”
In the upcoming sequel, Art the Clown poses as Santa, waking up kids in the house he breaks into, and during an interview with JoBlo, Leone explained that the opening scene of Terrifier 3 is so insane that movie studios would never let it get made. He said:
“So mark my words, I guarantee you the first 5 minutes of this movie is going to be very controversial. But that’s not even the big kill scene. So like that’s why I was like, I need to just make this movie on my own, because it’s just too… it’s too insane.”
Judging from what we know about Terrifier 3 so far and what he’s saying here, it seems to me like audiences are going to watch Art The Clown brutally kill young children on the eve of Christmas. It’s the only thing I can think of that would take this already insane franchise to a controversial level.
It’s explained that the third installment of the movie will see “Art the Clown unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.”
When previously talking about the pressure of topping the bloody insanity of the second film with Terrifier 3, the filmmaker said:
“There’s sleepless nights sometimes where, ‘Oh my God, I can’t let the fans of this franchise down.’ They always come to expect the next big kill scene, the next big gory set piece. How am I going to top the now-infamous hacksaw scene in Part One, and now the second movie? I get asked at the conventions, ‘How are you going to top the bedroom scene?’ I always want to swing for the fences and try and see if I could outdo myself from the the previous installment.
“There was actually a kill that I was going to put in Terrifier that happened to Jenna Kanell’s character Tara. After the hacksaw scene, it was another torture scene. I knew putting those back-to-back was going to completely lose the audience because it would be way too much to handle. So that was a kill that I kept on the back burner… I didn’t even put it in Part Two. So that’s one I may explore. But there’s another one I thought of about a month ago, where it clicked and I said ‘That’s going to be the next bedroom kill scene’ — you’ll know it when you see it. I can’t say for sure I’ll ever top any of these scenes — it’s always going to be subjective — but you will know it when you see it.”
David Howard Thornton will return to play Art again, and he will be joined by Lauren LaVera. It’s also been revealed that Terrifier 3 will have a much bigger budget to work with. That budget is “intended to give the filmmakers more creative freedom, and let them be as wild as they can be. And, all jokes aside, we are going for that Oscar this year.”
Leone has said, “I will continue to push boundaries in Terrifier 3, and I can’t wait for you to see what’s in store for Art the Clown.” This kind of horror isn’t for everyone. It’s sadistic stuff and it’s even hard for me to watch this kind of stuff, and I love horror movies!
Terrifier 3 is set to be released on October 25, 2024.
