My Review of Terrifier (2016)

 

Written And Directed by Damien Leone

Dawn (to Tara, re Art): "That's the nicest thing a guy's done for you all night."

I know it's a tad early to be watching movies set during Halloween but I'm not much of a summer person and I thought it was time to reassess these movies. This first one, yup, it's a bit of a challenge.

Shot on a very small budget and very much looking that way, the movie opened with bitchy talk show host Monica Brown (Katie Maguire) interviewing the badly disfigured Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi) on live television. It turns out that a year ago, Victoria barely survived an attack by a brutal serial killer named Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton).

Victoria might have survived but clearly her encounter with Art did a serious enough number on her that she ended up savagely attacking a mocking Monica backstage. Then the rest of the movie jumped back a year to the night in question.

A year prior, Victoria's sister, Tara (Jenna Kanell) and the latter's friend, Dawn (Catherine Corcoran) had been out celebrating Halloween when they had the misfortune to bump into Art the Clown. At first he seemed like an oddball but it didn't take long for both Tara and Dawn to realise how dangerous he truly was. 

Yeah, one of the main issues with this movie is that Art's brutal attacks on both Tara and Dawn but the latter especially came across as really exploitative and nasty. For a character who doesn't speak a word throughout the entire, there's a not very subtle undercurrent of misogyny from Art in the way he targets women.

That's not to say there aren't male characters who don't get violently killed by the homicidal clown but the emphasis on how he goes after women was far more pronounced here. Especially when Victoria got thrown into the mix by the second half of the movie.

In terms of final girls, the switch up from Tara to Victoria isn't strictly a bad thing but even by Damien Leone's own admission, they're not very well developed as characters. Still though with Art being unkillable and Victoria's dark descent, at least they set up the work a sequel.

- Art the Clown originally appeared in two short movies that got merged into anthology movie All Hallows' Eve.

- Art had a very nasty habit of writing his name, using his own feces. He also has a trash bag of weapons.

- I did feel bad for that poor lady with the doll who foolishly tried to appeal to Art's humanity. It did not end well for her.

- Chronology: Halloween 2017 and 2018 respectively in Miles County, New York.

Terrifier undoubtedly is a mixed bag of a first movie. There's no doubt that Art the Clown works as a horror baddie and it's not hard to see why the character has quickly become a hit with horror fans. Sadly the protagonists are poorly developed, which does derail things a bit here.

Rating: 6 out of 10