Terrifier 3 Review: The Biggest, Grossest Art Attack Yet

When a horror movie is greeted with breathless headlines declaring it the scariest ever made, its release complimented by numerous reports of people passing out and needing medical attention in theaters, it can box the creator into a corner. For Damien Leone, writer-slash-director of the cult "Terrifier" saga, that may have been the case following the unexpectedly successful 2022 sequel, which hugely benefitted from shocked word-of-mouth reporting. His films are merciless slashers, in which demonic serial killer Art the Clown terrorizes entire towns, killing whoever he can with no motive beyond a pure love for the game.

But they're saved from being exercises in grim nihilism by their playful streak of jet-black humor, with lead actor David Howard Thornton channeling the silent movie greats with his masterclass in physical comedy. It's what elevates Art above the endless string of killer clown antagonists in contemporary horror: he's genuinely very good at his job, even if his prop comedy features more dismembered organs than any circus would allow.

The opening 10 minutes of "Terrifier 3" are as grim and nihilistic as the franchise's detractors would have you believe the previous films were, as a family with young children is coldly dispatched by Art on Christmas Eve, with nothing in the way of levity to make the sequence an easier pill to swallow. It's a masterfully executed exercise in dread, but feels like a filmmaker forcing himself to the darkest extremes — it reminds the audience that Art is a horror villain who can't be reclaimed as a complicated hero like many slasher icons before him, even though this is a character who is menacing because he already walks that line between comedy caricature and force of terror. Removing the former from the equation, if only for a single scene, means it takes a long while before even those with the darkest senses of humor in the room will feel comfortable to laugh again.

Which is a shame, because even at a shorter length than its predecessor, "Terrifier 3" is by far the most fleshed out to date — and yes, we mean that in more ways than one. Picking up five years after the prior effort, we're reintroduced to Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) as she's being discharged from a wellness center, still unable to process the grief and torment that comes with being a rare survivor of Art. As she arrives at her extended family's home for Christmas, she finds herself overcome with survivor's guilt, making it the worst possible time for Art, joined by the newly undead — but severely disfigured — Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi), to return to the town and embark on a new Holiday massacre.

Previous "Terrifier" films have, like many exploitation horrors before them, been accused of misogyny for Art's elaborate murders of women. This seems to be a criticism Damien Leone is conscious of, not just through the evil reincarnation of a character even he criticized for being underwritten in an earlier film, but through the recurring motif of a strong female character. The emotional undercurrent of "Terrifier 3" is all framed around a simple question: when faced against a supernatural character who doesn't conform to any set of rules, is it possible for the designated final girl to maintain any power against them? It's explored as unsubtly as you'd imagine from the "Terrifier" films, but that's by design — after worrying a female protagonist was underdeveloped elsewhere, Sienna's distressing emotional journey has every single interior beat telegraphed as loudly as possible to the audience. Yes, this does mean "Terrifier 3" is the latest horror movie that's not-so-secretly about trauma, but when you consider what Art puts his victims through, it's easy to justify that genre cliche reappearing here.

Of course, nobody comes to a "Terrifier" movie for the dramatic meat that Damien Leone puts on the bones, but for the flesh that gets torn off it. The writer/director's self-confessed attempts to up the ante this time result in some of the most revolting images to have ever appeared on a cinema screen — not just through the ingenious methods of dismemberment, but the ways in which even the most grotesque moments can be unexpectedly transformed into slapstick set pieces. One shower kill sequence, which dares to ask "what if Norman Bates murdered people with a chainsaw up the butt," keeps pausing so Art can use various body parts as props; another sees him get into a bar fight with a Santa Claus that's proceeded by an extended bit where he acts like a teenage girl meeting Taylor Swift upon encountering the Father Christmas impersonator. David Howard Thornton's performance continues to be the key to why this franchise never feels as distasteful as it so clearly is, although this time, any laughs feel transgressive. We're reintroduced to this character murdering children in cold blood — to be won back over enough to laugh along with him again is far more disturbing than any of the kills that follow that cold open.

Leone was in the editing suite as recently as the start of September, on a mission to ensure the film didn't surpass the two-hour mark to the same extent as "Terrifier 2." When the movie suddenly transitions to a home-invasion third act seemingly out of nowhere, this desire for a brisk pace becomes all too apparent, relying on exposition to paper over several crucial moments not depicted onscreen. Yes, it's still rare for a horror film to be longer than two hours, but it's especially rare for a horror film of that length to feel rushed. "Terrifier 3" progresses to its climactic living nightmare too fast to be properly processed; this is likely to mirror Sienna's mental state in that moment, but it is still in dire need of an extra couple of beats to build tension before all hell breaks loose. You could say this is testament to how the "Terrifier" movies feel much shorter than their runtimes, but it doesn't feel as impactful as it should because of its suddenness. The movie surprises because it ends up needing more of what Art would never give his victims: some room to breathe.

"Terrifier 3" premieres in theaters on October 11.