Directed By Damien Leone

Starring – Lauren LaVera, Elliott Fullam, David Howard Thornton

The Plot – After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown (Thornton) returns to the timid town of Miles County where he targets a teenage girl (LaVera) and her younger brother (Fullam) on Halloween night.

Rated R for gruesome violence, brutality, drug use, and adult language

Terrifier 2 | Official Trailer | In Theaters October 6 – YouTube

POSITIVES

What “Terrifier” lacked in heart for a story that was virtually non-existent, “Terrifier 2” makes up for in balls, with one of the most fearlessly provocative directions that cements Leone as a vitriolic force to be reckoned with. Naturally, I mean that as a compliment, as every single aspect of the movie is improved upon and expanded to not only gift us a sequel that totally blows the original out of the water, but also one that for me was among the most gruesomely diabolic films that I have ever seen in my vastly knowledgeable history with the genre. For anyone affected by that statement, it’s best to stop now, but for anyone gleefully riveted by the promise, Leone’s unflinching depiction for gore and endless torture afford a brutality for shock value that is second to none in terms of unapologetic nature, and considering all of it is rendered seamlessly with a commitment to practicality in special effects, it elicits an air of believability that it shamelessly revels in with sinisterly indulgence, and one made all the more endearing with the sardonically twisted sense of humor that it uses to inspire more than a few legitimate laughs in the balance of such terrifying sequences. Equally vital to this aspect are the other elements of production, such as the synth-heavy musical score from Paul Wiley, meaningful merit in expressive make-up designs from Jackie Hughes, or the gritty cinematography from George Steuber. Each of them triggers a conscience in the tangible essence of the film’s atmospheric dread, and when combined provide the most bang for the buck in a production budget that isn’t afforded the same freedoms of artistic expression as bigger films, but never one that suffers because of it. If anything, its cheapness ($300,000) is exactly what a film like this needs to maintain the chilling essence of its original installment, making this look and feel like a film that continuously proceeds in the same world that was only hinted at in the original installment, and not just because the story picks up where the previous installment left off. In digging deeper this time around, the benefit of a corresponding narrative is much appreciated on its own merits, but all the more compelling with an expansion on the lore of Art the Clown that further enhances his capabilities, all the while maintaining the mystique of the monster inside. In the same breath, it uses the generous run time to equally flesh out a resilient female protagonist in the form of Sienna, a reeling survivor with her tragic guilt, but one who refuses to be weighed down by the grief that could eventually paralyze her. Sienna’s arc has plenty to unload, yet it’s unraveled naturally in ways through the dialogue that aren’t always the focal point of the conversation, requiring audiences to sometimes hang onto every word of the characters, and rewarding those who make the sacrifice. On the subject of those characters, Thornton is once again the pulse of the movie’s prominence, hypnotically entrancing audiences with an expressive range in facial registries and communicative hand motions that maintain their grip on the attention of the scenes he casually dominates. Thornton is co-anchored by LaVera, who not only dominates throughout a variety of scenes that are physically grueling, but emotionally she’s able to supplant the air of her grievances to the motivations of her character, leading to a heroine whom we value for all of the heart and humanity that keep her as a driving force in the narrative, and not just a final girl because the film requires her to be.

NEGATIVES

Even for a film this continuously gripping and grueling, there are a couple cases of diminishing returns that sedate its progress at least from being exceptional. The most obvious is the editing, which with the immense responsibility of a run time at 138 minutes long requires a lot of influence to keep from testing the patience of its audience. Unfortunately, it isn’t quite successful at such a mission, leading to a barrage of moments, primarily during the opening act, which bleed the momentum practically dry due to a scene’s prolonged duration, and give us padding for the sake of such during dialogue-heavy instances that stack the minutes between conflicts like the bodies it continuously shovels towards the screen. The problem doesn’t necessarily require complete scenes being omitted from the cut, as I feel every scene in the film adds something tangible and further elevates the tension and anxiety accordingly, but rather trimming them in ways that concludes them once we have the answers we were looking for. Because of such “Terrifier 2” feels like the kind of director’s cut that is often reserved as a special feature on a DVD, and not necessarily the kind that makes for the most consistently entertaining of engagements. Besides the run time, the only other problem stems from some creative decisions made during the climax that led to more questions and unanswered resolutions with the characters, and not exactly those pertaining to Art the Clown. They’re the kind of supernatural aspects that don’t lend itself to the character they’re supplanted to, nor the genre they’re decorating, leading to a resolution that feels like it is making up the rules as it goes along, and one that with it brings an assortment of questions in the form of plot holes that at least momentarily leave me concerned for the future of this franchise.

OVERALL
Anything “Terrifier” can do, “Terrifier 2” can do better. With an expansive script, tangibly transfixing elements of production, and a doubling down of gore indulgence that would make even the most hardcore horror hounds blush, this is one of the rare horror sequels that surpasses the original, solidifying one of the most unpredictably twisted engagements that proves Leone isn’t clowning around.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+