Terrifier 3 opened up in theaters this past weekend, and a lot of people flocked to theaters to watch it. Director Damien Leone has promised that the movie would be the goriest film in the franchise, and this one gets savagely extreme.
Some people are calling the film: “Terrifier: F*ck Them Kids” and there are a good amount of people that feel the violence is very close to crossing a line, and that’s even coming from seasoned horror gore hounds!
The film is stirring up some controversy. The opening sequence, in particular, has resulted in some outrage.
The scene is a flashback to before the events of Terrifier 2, and it features Art the Clown dressed as Santa Claus visiting a family on Christmas Eve, but not to spread joy and cheer, but to spread blood all over the house.
Art viciously murders the mother and father with an axe, and while the movie doesn’t show Art kill their young son, audiences are treated the sounds of the murder in graphic detail and witness the aftermath.
Later on in the film, Art blows up a number of children with an exploding Christmas present.
Look, other horror movies have shown kids being killed, but it’s rare, and it hardly ever goes crazy overboard. WhileTerrifier 3 does show a bit of restraint, these kid-killing scenes have caused uproar among some people who don’t think this kind of violence against children should be depicted on screen.
While speaking to Total Film, Leone and star David Howard Thornton weighed in on the controversy and explain why they didn’t have any reservations about including these scenes.
Leone said: “Everything I write has to be true to the character and organic. I kind of feel that sometimes with Art, where I might reach a scene or a taboo subject, and I’m like, ‘Oh, what if that’s a little much, that’s gonna freak people out.’ And he’ll be like, ‘I would do that.’
“And I have to say, ‘You’re right, you would do that.’ And I have to put it in there. That becomes a really kind of exciting challenge; can I dabble with these taboo subjects and keep the audience in their seats? We’ll see.”
Thornton adds: “I think what’s important is that we’re not doing some kind of like, you know, alley kill with children in these movies, where I’m not going to be sitting there torching a child, and that’s something I would have a problem doing.”
That makes me chuckle because he blows up a bunch of kids in the movie. Look, I love horror movies, but the Terrifier franchise isn’t for me. All the over the top blood and gore just for shock value isn’t interesting to me.
Have you seen Terrifier 3 yet? If so, what are your thoughts? Do you think it crosses the line?
