Terrifier 3 Director Will End Trilogy With An 'Old School' Slasher Vibe

After "Terrifier 2" became more popular than the original and gained major traction at the box office, "Terrifier 3" is set to see an expanded budget and another go-round in theaters sometime in the fall of 2024. While "Terrifier" was a traditional blood-and-guts slaughterfest, "Terrifier 2" added a few fantasy elements to the first film's brew of unremittingly bleak violence and pitch-black humor. 

It appears that Damien Leone, creator of the "Terrifier" series, is planning on leaning harder into the hard-core horror elements of the series as opposed to the lighter more fantastical elements. During a June 2023 interview with Variety, Leone indicated that "Terrifier 3" is set to be more of a body count heavy slasher, like the first film in the series. 

"I want to shift back a bit to the tone of Part One, which I felt was a little more simplistic and old school, gritty slasher." Leone said. "I want this one to go back in that direction, and I want this to be the scariest one of the trilogy." 

Damien Leone admitted to Variety that the series' shift into magical elements during "Terrifier 2" seemed to displease certain members of the film's fanbase. For those worried that the storyline established by the second film will be completely abandoned in "Terrifier 3," they need not fret. Leone plans on paying off the world building he established a bit more in Art The Clown's (David Howard Thornton) third outing. 

"There's a lot of people who didn't love the fantasy, or at least they need more explanation as to why that's all happening. I didn't want to explain everything in Part Two, so I am going to explain as we go," Leone told Variety.

Leone also expressed concern that fans aren't as fearful of Art as they should be. He plans on fixing that in the third film, as part of a deliberate shift back toward a darker, horror aesthetic. 

"The biggest mistake I could do now is double-down on that fantasy aspect," Leone said. "That's why I want to course-correct a bit; let's go back to 'Nightmare on Elm Street' Part One, as opposed to going further into 'Dream Warriors.' That could be very helpful criticism and help me make a better movie moving forward, but we'll see," he said.