Spooky Season 2022: Terrifier Review

When it comes to terrifying clowns in film, most would probably think of Pennywise the clown from the It franchise. However, he is far from the only one as the equally-terrifying Art the Clown hopes to literally carve out a place for himself upon that pantheon. With the recently-released Terrifier 2 making headlines, good or bad depending on one’s interpretation, let’s take a look at how it all started with the original Terrifier. An indie horror film that came out of nowhere, amassed a large and dedicated following that had since led to the making of the sequel. A shorter film based on the short film of the same name by writer/director Damien Leone who writes and directs this film along with the sequel, it is quite brutal and graphic which has and will inevitably continue to divide viewers but for those looking for a horror film with some edge, this one may very well be up their alley. That being said, it is also as ridiculous as it is brutal for better or worse as it lacks any semblance of a script. It’s ultimately best to not even bother trying to make sense of what happens over the course of its sub-90-minute running time and surrender, something that will be easier said than done.

Terrifier takes place on a Halloween night as most horrors do as a pair of women named Tara (Kanell) and Dawn (Catherine Corcoran) find themselves the target of Art the Clown (Thornton), a sadistic killer. It’s normally wrong to judge those based on their appearance but after glancing upon Art for the first time, it was clear that something just wasn’t quite right about him. Thinking that they had dispatched of him, he suddenly struck the moment where they were the most vulnerable and suffice it to say that things from there only got increasingly worse for them and anyone else in their wake. Art’s motivations are unclear but what was is that he wanted to wreak havoc and was willing to go to any length to do so, leaving Tara and Dawn fearing for their lives. Not providing much in the means of depth, the film is merely chaos for chaos’ sake that aims for shock value more than anything else which is likely to go either way with viewers. While it’s bloody and it’s brutal, there’s little point to any of it.

The film does not hold back and that fact should be commended. In spite of its indie circumstances, Terrifier makes the best of them. It may not be a Hollywood production by any means but for what it is, it succeeds for the most part. Though the script and dialog were not there, the atmosphere was and for a film like this, atmosphere can trump such shortcomings. At the end of the day, all that matters is Art the Clown and the film does some interesting things with him and most of the credit for that goes to Thornton’s who delivers a roller coaster of a performance. Full of personality, underneath his playful exterior, Art is the epitome of creepy and is absolutely chilling to watch. Meanwhile, everyone else is basically fodder.

Terrifier is essentially an empty calorie horror film that brings very little to the table other than shock value that will leave a large portion of jaws dropped. It obviously won’t be for everyone but in spite of its issues, there is still some entertainment to be had.

still courtesy of Epic Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.