Clowns are a symbol of humor, innocence, and happiness. Made to cheer up audiences at the circus and always have a smile painted on their face. Although meant to be a positive image, clowns have been shown much darker over the years. Novels, plays, and films have used clowns as menacing monsters, adding to the coulrophobia of the audience: the fear of clowns.
Killer clowns have been a subject of horror films for decades. The origins of the modern evil clown archetype are unknown, but it is said to have shown up around 1874 in Catulle Mendè’s play La femme de Tabarin, which has killer clowns as the main antagonists. DC Comics popularized the killer clown with the Joker character in 1940. The most prevalent killer clown is Pennywise from Stephen King’s 1986 book It, adapted into the iconic 1990 mini-series and the 2017/2019 remakes.
Over the decades, there’s been an extensive array of killer clown films, including comedy horror films such as Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) to more sinister films like Clown House (1989). With Halloween coming up, the typical killer clown movies will continue to be watched, but Damien Leone’s 2016 film Terrifier deserves the spotlight. The film is about a killer clown named Art, who was also the subject of Leone’s 2013 film All Hallow’s Eve, in which he stalks and kills a babysitter. In this film, Art is on his next venture: stalking and trying to murder three women on Halloween night. Terrifier has everything horror and clown film fans could ask for, iconic killer clown makeup and extreme gore.
Looking beyond the scares, Terrifier is a nod to 80s slasher films and touches on how slasher films of the past have misogynistic killers and use women's bodies as a spectacle. Terrifier touches on these stereotypes (ex: the women’s kills are much more gruesome than the men). Beyond this message, Terrifier is just a genuinely blood-filled film that takes place on Halloween night. What else could one want?
The film received mixed reviews, with critic Mary Beth McAndrew’s calling it “torture porn with nothing to say.” In contrast, others claim that Terrifier is what horror should be: not watered down for the audience.
The kills are fantastic. Art chops off people’s heads, stab their eyes out, all while extreme bloodshed transpires. The kills are borderline disturbing: a man’s completely mutated face with his tongue twitching and a woman’s naked body completely cut in half, adding to the stereotype of women’s bodies as a spectacle. Aside from this, the clown himself is terrifying: His menacing eyes, razor-sharp teeth, and unnerving smile.
Terrifier is perfect for the Halloween season because it doesn’t try to be something it isn’t. It isn’t trying to relay a critical message; it is trying to be a slasher film reminiscent of its precursor, with gruesome and unnecessary kills. This is because Terrifier doesn’t waste time with character development; it gets straight to the point of slasher films: evil killers and gore! The kills happen quickly, giving the audience almost no time to be introduced and feel connected to any victims.
Terrifier begins with the camera focused on a television, slowly zooming in to showcase Monica Brown, a talk show host. She is interviewing a severely mutated woman, the only survivor of a massacre that happened last Halloween. The killer, “Art The Clown,” brutally murdered her two friends, among many others. The film then cuts to a scene between two friends, Tara and Dawn, leaving a Halloween party. After encountering this clown in numerous places, including a pizzeria, the girls noticed someone slashed their tires. Tara calls her sister Vicky to pick them up. Having to use the bathroom, Tara goes into an apartment complex. Hell breaks loose from there as Art goes on a murderous rampage, with his main targets being the three girls.
Terrifier is similar to Saw and other splatter films because it doesn’t even try to not be gory. It has scenes of Art cutting off Dawn’s leg while she is hung naked upside down, with her insides gushing out. It shows the pizzeria worker’s eyes brutally popping out of his head. It may be a lot for some viewers, but fans of original slasher and splatter films won’t be able to get enough of it.
Everything about Terrifier screams OG 70s/80s slasher films, from the opening title in an old-school font in bloodshot red to the over-the-top bloodiness. When referring to movies for the spooky season, it’s hard not to think about iconic killers such as Michael Meyers from Halloween (1978), Chucky the doll from Child’s Play (1988), and Pennywise from It (1990). Art the killer clown fits right in with these killers, from his masked face to his evil, dark eyes.
The film ends with a complete bloodbath. Art murders everyone in the apartment, including himself when he shoots himself in the head in front of the police. After a quick montage of the months following, Terrifier shows that Vicky was the mutated girl at the film’s beginning. She is shown leaving the hospital in a wheelchair with her parents, her face completely disfigured.
Terrifier is the ultimate Halloween night film. The entire set is Halloween-ready: jack-o-lanterns, spooky posters, and the bright, flashing colors of orange, red, and yellow. Tara’s skeleton sweatshirt, at first a scary costume, yet seemingly foreshadowing her dim future. The ominous music throughout and the somewhat over-the-top acting perfectly encapsulates what makes a perfect Halloween slasher film.