Directed By Damien Leone

Starring – Lauren LaVera, David Howard Thornton, Antonella Rose

The Plot – After surviving Art the Clown’s (Thornton) Halloween massacre, Sienna (LaVera) and her brother (Elliott Fullam) are struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. As the holiday season approaches, they try to embrace the Christmas spirit and leave the horrors of the past behind. But just when they think they’re safe, Art the Clown returns, determined to turn their holiday cheer into a new nightmare. The festive season quickly unravels as Art unleashes his twisted brand of terror, proving that no holiday is safe.

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

TERRIFIER 3 Official Trailer (2024) Red band (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Following in the footsteps of its audaciously vulgar predecessor, ‘Terrifier 3’ doubles down on all things violence and brutality to supplant a never-ending bowl of carnage candy for the horror hounds in its audience to continuously feast on. When I say this film is perhaps the most viscerally unapologetic horror film that I’ve ever seen in mainstream cinema, I’m not embellishing, as the heavily indulgent, bone-crunching carnage that Art enacts on his victims is occasionally difficult to watch, and even tougher to swallow through, but it appraises believability in ways that very few films can capably capture anymore, particularly in the depths of pulsating gruesomeness in practical effects, composed by Leone himself, as well as intricacy to the movie’s sound design, which offers us no escape from the devastation, even when we’re not seeing it, during a rare cutaway. That restrain isn’t consistently in the audience’s favor, as victim after victim is put through the proverbial ringer in truly imaginative and unrelenting deaths, with one taking place in a shower, that not only out Texas Chainsaw’s ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, but also surpasses the salt in the wound death sequence from ‘Terrifier 2’, with devilish details in anatomic torture that we’re forced to feel every inch of. Aside from the brutality, this sequel is another example to the franchise that values story almost as much as it does horror, with forwarding of the characters and the surrounding lore that feels like the natural progression to Leone’s direction. Throughout two more hours alongside these characters, we come to understand that Sienna and her brother might be the survivors of the previous film, but they are doing anything but thriving, with a psychological duress within inescapable trauma that gives the conflict a dose of responsibility and maturity that it is otherwise missing in its buckets of blood concept. On top of it, some of the unanswered questions of the fantastical capabilities of Art and Sienna are given satisfying context, without completely resolving everything and shattering the mystique of their respective causes. These aspects give the movie so much more substantially to chew on than just blood-curdling thrills, and while Sienna was already my favorite scream queen of the last decade, the focus here to capture her frail mental state is one that earnestly enacts an empathetic value to the character that balances humanity with her previously accounted for brand of stoic resiliency. On top of this, the film, while not completely perfect in the usage of its minutes, is far better paced than its predecessor, with very little time between violent servings to halt the movie’s continuous momentum. As to where ‘Terrifier 2’ felt every bit the weight of its 140 minute run time, which wasn’t exactly earned in the depth of story that it was telling, two hours even here feels much better, especially considering the minutes burned effortlessly once the film gets past the opening act, on its way to an inevitable confrontation that saves its best surprises for last. I also loved the holiday progression of this franchise, this time in the confines of a blustery Christmas season, which brings its own brand of unique style to the capture of the movie’s set decoration and radiant cinematography. Between Christmas lights and vintage decorations, the film emanates an unmistakable aura to its atmosphere that serves as a faithful throwback to 80’s and 90’s seasons, which unlike the polished and artificiality of current Christmas imagery, plays all the more vividly towards maintaining the dark and ominous nature of Art’s maniacal macabre, feeling a persistent note of dread persisting in the atmosphere, despite Christmas traditionalism finding its way to so much of the movie’s sets. But perhaps the single biggest benefit to ‘Terrifier 3’ is in the return of Lauren LaVera and David Howard Thornton, as their respective characters, who each ooze endless charisma and radiance to any scene they choose to accommodate. As to where LaVera’s performance in the second film was mostly physical, here the psychological wrenching affords some incredible emotional acting that she nails helplessly and aggressively with tender sensitivity, but never the kind of expanding depth that hinder her ability as this unstoppable force as the chosen one meant to kill Art. As for Thornton, he has already cemented Art the kind of iconic status alongside pioneers of the genre, like Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger, but his mesmerizing work here further echoes those sentiments, with the kind of sinister underlining to boldly expressive facial registries during terrifying violence that devilishly devour the kind of comedic subtleties that the film makes audiences feel morally bankrupt for having laughed at. Psychologically, Art is one of the most compelling antagonists of all-time, despite having no dialogue to enrich his appeal, and though the script reveals plenty about the backstory and conception of his character, Thornton still revels in the mystique of the character’s ambiance, giving Art an inexplainable x-factor that you simply can never look away from.

NEGATIVES

Though a fitting sequel to my favorite horror film of 2022, ‘Terrifier 3’ isn’t quite on the same level of effectiveness, as a result of some underwhelming script choices and misusage of its two hour run time that occasionally burdened this brutally indulgent experience. For starters, the opening act takes a bit longer than I was anticipating in reaching a comfortable momentum, beginning as an epilogue to the previous film, instead of the fitting first steps for this installment. While the scenes involved during this section do help fill in some of the gaps to answering some of those aforementioned questions in lore and world-building, they distance our journey to Sienna’s new life in ways that are unfortunately too long-winded, starting things off on a bit of a reflection on past events, instead of starting freshly anew. As for the diminishing returns with the usage of some of its minutes, the film is unfortunately still a little too self-indulgent to excessive fat that should be trimmed, resulting in these throwaway sequences involving characters who serve no point other than to pad the movie’s body count. While most supporting characters fit this intention, some of those do pertain as extensions to Art’s road back to Sienna, but others have no relation or correlation to any of the characters, so it’s quite predictable that they will all meet their untimely fates, and while this has always been an aspect of classic slashers, it’s repeated far too often here, and instead I would rather the script use those minutes to further flesh out more of Sienna’s backstory with her deceased father, especially since it plays such a prominent role in evening the supernatural playing field with Art. Finally, my single biggest disappointment with this film was its direction, or lack thereof, pertaining to Fullam’s Jonathan, who after surviving the wrath of Art during the previous film, is deduced to a supporting role here, with little development paid to his characterization that doesn’t involve Sienna in frame. I was truly hoping for more focus on his character’s psychology since the confrontation with Art, especially considering his embracing of an isolation factor that surmises some unforeseen conflict between him and his on-screen sister, but unfortunately between sharing the screen with so many new characters and one bewildering decision during the movie’s climax, it doesn’t seem like Leone is interested in Jonathan’s value to the story, and instead it wastes away Fullam’s return performance, which couldn’t be more any more disappointing.

OVERALL
‘Terrifier 3’ is every bit the brutally barbaric and bone-shattering sequel into the maniacal that was expected from the most audacious film of 2022, but this time with expanded characterization and tighter pacing that nearly surpasses it. Despite a fun frolic in the snow, with unrelenting suspense and urgency, the film occasionally goes cold with excessively disposable characters and the unfortunate treatment of a series veteran that keeps it from ever reaching the heights of its superior predecessor, resulting in an early unwrapped Christmas present that, like Art the Clown, keeps on giving.

My Grade: 7/10 or B