The Terrorifier 3 Review: Bad, Bad, and Fun

The moment a character in a Santa costume saws a man in half from the floor, as the song plays on the film, it all comes together. The Terrorifier 3 it’s not serious at all… unless its purpose is to be as stubborn, obnoxious, and terrifying as possible. And, to achieve that, it succeeds and then some.

New for 2022 escape success The Terrorifier 2, writer-director Damien Leone is back with the third installment of his growing slasher franchise, which suddenly has a lot of eyeballs on it thanks to the success of the previous film. Even under added pressure, Leone raises the bar with this third installment, crafting a story that’s not only narratively satisfying, and not so much about sound, but a jaw-dropping home run that’s often difficult to watch. murderous attacks and mayhem. Which is the point.

The inspector of these many murders is Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton), the actor whose head was chopped off by Sienna (Lauren LaVera) at the end of the last film. Well, The Terrorifier 3-in grand slasher sequel fashion-fixes that split lickity and puts those two characters on the warpath again. Art returns and soon Sienna is released from the mental institution. He’s ready to spend Christmas with his family, except he can’t shake the terrifying events of the past five years.

The Terrorifier 3 jumps between Art and Sienna’s stories for most of the film. For Art, that mostly means going around, finding someone, and then taking great joy and delight in killing them in all sorts of new ways. He sometimes uses horror movie weapons—axes, guns, chainsaws—but he has new tools in his bag of tricks, like liquid nitrogen and mice. These scenes, while often working against the narrative drive, are very entertaining. Art is why you sit down to watch The Terrorifier 3. He wants to see what new and shocking ways he has discovered to kill people and how far he will go with it.

That’s what sets the art apart from horror movie creators like Freddy, Jason, and Michael. Those guys, with the occasional exception of Freddy, really care about getting killed. Art seems to care less about killing and more about cutting. He just doesn’t want his victims to die. You want to enjoy the act of killing. So you’ll start by cutting off a hand, then an arm, a leg, maybe one at a time, and just when you think you’ve dealt the killing blow you move on, often leaving nothing but a bloody mass of flesh. It is incredibly surprising but that Art and The scary one.

Sienna’s story, on the other hand, mostly shows that she and her brother Jonathan (Elliot Fullam) are doing everything they can to get their lives back on track after the last confrontation with Art. That means going to live with the only family he has left after the last movie—his aunt, uncle and cousin. In particular, Sienna has a strong connection with her cousin, Gabbie (Antonella Rose), a revelation that fills you with dread as the film approaches its climax. Anyone close to Sienna can’t have a happy ending.

The two stories go back and forth with only the teasing, at least in the first half, that they are on a collision course. You know they should be. That’s the whole point. But often the editing between Art and Sienna feels disconnected and disjointed, like it’s in two separate movies. Then, when the stories start coming together, it feels rushed, with one jump between acts two and three it almost seems like a scene or two is missing.

You understand it though. It’s not rocket science. And the third act of the film is the most brutal yet, as Sienna and anyone close to her have to endure some of the worst things imaginable. Which, as I said above, is mostly the point. Leone isn’t here to make some kind of deep, meaningful film about trauma or survival. Those elements are there but it’s more about how much chaos he can put on screen with a story that keeps you interested enough to care.

Nowhere is it better seen in the movie’s shockingly restrained visuals. The previous film slowly began to pull back the curtain on the theory linking Art to Sienna, and Art’s possible origins. So, as expected, The Terrorifier 3 he goes a little deeper into that, but it’s not taste at all. Apparently, Leone doesn’t want to dump his cast just yet, though he thinks he’s about to. The film goes so far as to cast Jason Patric as Sienna’s comic book artist father, the person whose sword managed to kill Art in the previous movie. But apart from one particular scene, everything about them is still left as a huge tease. It’s a bit noisy.

Ultimately, that restraint makes you want to watch more The scary one and ends up focusing on the main event, which is Art the Clown killing a bunch of people. And he does. So, if blood and guts is what you want The Terrorifier 3you will enjoy every moment. If you go in expecting something more, you’ll probably be disappointed. But, in the end, Leone’s love of pure, unfiltered shock value is what really shows. As dirty as it is, and as offensive as it is, it’s hard not to respect it. The Terrorifier 3 it’s a big, intense, and terrifying work of bloody madness.

The Terrorifier 3 had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024 in Austin, Texas this week. It opens everywhere on October 11.

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