MOVIE REVIEW: Terrifier 3 (2024)
NOTE: This review was written without seeing the prior installments in the Terrifier franchise: the 2016 original and the 2022 sequel.
The first time I saw Art the Clown, villain of the Terrifier franchise, it was a costume worn by a YouTube movie reaction video maker Ashkhan “Just Trust Ash” Javdani. He likes to dress up in costumes for certain movies he likes, and sometimes for holidays. What I learned about Terrifier through Ashkhan’s Halloween costume is that Art is a spooky and iconic character…the perfect look for a serial killer! Ads for Terrifier 3 made by the movie’s marketing team sold a bloody good time and that’s what I got from Terrifier 3, the latest in a series of horror films garnering high acclaim for its gore and practical effects. What I did not expect was a Christmas movie…or a comic book movie. That last part might only make sense to people who have seen the last two, but not really.
**Spoilers for Terrifier 3; you’ve been warned.**
After bouncing around in time between reestablishing the villain’s origins on this plane of existence and subsequent murders, the Satan-spawned murderer Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton, The Mean One [2022], Steamboat [2025]) finds himself on the trail of Sienna Shaw (stuntwoman Lauren LaVera, Split [2016], Not for Nothing [2022]) — a scarred survivor from one of his earlier murder sprees. She was blamed for murders Art committed, but her brother Jonathan gave sworn testimony in court which kept her away from a life sentence in prison; instead she spent 5 years in a mental institution. Serena was finally able to get out for the Christmas holidays, and there are presents for her waiting at the home of her aunt Jess (Margaret Anne Florence, The New Daughter [2009], Family Games [2018]), her husband Greg (Bryce Johnson, Hulk Vs. [animated, 2009], “Popular” [TV-the WB]) and daughter Gabby (child actress Antonella Rose, “Fear the Walking Dead” [TV-AMC]).
Meanwhile Jonathan (singer Elliott Fulham, “Get Rolling with Otis” [TV-appleTV+]) is struggling with fitting in at university, with his roommate Cole (Mason Mecartea, Popular Theory [2023], “Stranger Things” [TV-Netflix]) using his fame to get laid. It backfires when the girl Caleb hooked up with, a true-crime podcaster named Mia (New York Knicks dancer Alexa Blair Robertson, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul [2017]), wants to interview Jonathan…because she’s a big fan of the “Miles County Massacre” story (another name for Art‘s handiwork). Mia’s callousness to Jonathan’s emotional needs is enough to drive him back into the trauma of what he and his sister Serena survived roughly five years ago. He just wishes it all to go away and wants just to be normal and happy.
Thankfully, Art is in the business of granting wishes for happiness’ sake! Unfortunately, it’s his own happiness…and given he’s a Satanic killer clown/mime, you know what makes him happy is gonna be nasty. He’s even brought back a willing participant in the re-animated corpse of previous victim Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi, The Networker [2015], Sarah Q [2018]). Chainsaws, knives, shards of glass, hammers, pipe bombs, guns, live rats, and eventually liquid nitrogen all start showing up in each victim’s murder. Though some of the well-rendered gore and blood is shown on screen, what’s kept off screen helped the movie avoid an NC-17 rating so we all can see it. Considering the cliffhanger Terrifier 3 ended on, here’s hoping we get final closure in a 4th installment and it doesn’t drag on like other horror franchises (Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, the Witchcraft series).
Two big things about Terrifier 3 made this a gruesome pleasure to watch: the practical effects and the tone. I have to hand it to the practical effects team on the corpses, as they straddle the line between real and entertainingly fake. So much is absolutely filthy in this movie, covered in human viscera obtained by violent means...and sometimes left to age and spoil. But Art’s overall look and personality makes me think Art is just a serial-killer version of Bugs Bunny. The makeup and colors help to contrast against all the blood, and his cartoonish behavior (in light of his presenting as mute) is a big contributor to both his and the film franchise’s popularity. It goes without saying that Art is a contender for best horror movie villain, because the humor he brings mutes the shock of the violence and aftermath. I found myself laughing as much as holding up my arms in defensive posture as I grimaced in disgust at the flying fluids on-screen.
There were other elements that made it seem like I was watching a live-action independent comic book from the 80s and 90s. Representation of the female form in fiction, the Biblical struggle made physical, and the hoary “Chosen One” storyline truly brought me back to the days when someone would always find a comic like this problematic and the book would need defense from the CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund). But times have changed and it’s included in the movie, and I was here for it —a special treat that made dealing with the foolishness of the Satanic panic all worthwhile.
CHOICE CUTS:
- CAMEO: Blink and you’ll miss cameos from Jason Patric, nepotism legend Clint Howard, pro wrestler Chris Jericho, and the late Tom Savini — one of the American pioneers in practical gore effects.
- Knowing everyone is relatively new to the game is amazing; I can say the future of movies is bright with stars like these!
- Lauren LaVera is such an expressive actress (and an amazing stuntwoman), and we’re glad to have her.
- I understand rubbing glass is a positively-charging effect; not so in this movie, as its effect is purely negative and the scene featuring this instance was designed for the most twisted of human-passing creatures.
- Art has a sense of response and retribution to his kills, making sure your kill will be unique to something you said recently.
- PRICELESS QUOTES: “Pass the rice.” You’ll ask yourself who’s saying that when everyone else is already talking…
- They put steam from the inner body heat in one of the corpses, you guys. Steam.
- Because the temporal setting for the story is Christmas, Terrifier 3 counts as a Christmas movie. That puts it in the same boat with all three versions of Black Christmas (1974, 2006 and 2019), Krampus (2015) and Gremlins (1984).
