Serial killers in slashers have taken on a more aggressive shape, and vicious figures like Jigsaw have dominated the modern slasher experience. Before any villain could match this menacing and diabolically horrific presence, it would take some time. In 2016, a new villain would emerge, shattering all conventions with what a masked serial killer would bring to the slasher genre.
Director Damien Leone would return to the unsettling nature of clowns popularized by Stephen King's Pennywise but would redress the balance by producing someone far more immediate, vivid, and gory, Terrifier's Art the Clown. When everyone assumed that the slasher's nostalgic spark had been extinguished in the wind, Terrifier proved that it had only lost its way rather than been forgotten.
Slashers are a perfect example of how important it is for movies to have a formula that makes everything flow smoothly. The fact that the rules don't apply in Terrifier is one of its most shocking, yet appealing characteristics, and director Damien Leone works this to his advantage from the outset of the movie experience. With a gut punch of viscerally intense imagery that then gets juxtaposed with these subtle but darkly comedic moments, Terrifier is not about reinventing the slasher. It's about challenging the stereotypes that even the most seasoned horror fan may have about a slasher and showing them that anything may happen at any time.
Although other movies have utilized this strategy, it hasn't been adapted to this length. Even toward the end of the film, it's extremely intentional, swift, and frightening, with no sign of letting things die down.
Terrifier recounts the savage deeds of psychotic killer Art the Clown, who first appeared in the horror anthology All Hallows Eve. An abandoned apartment building soon becomes a hellish playground for Art as he terrifies and kills his victims one by one. What at first appears to be a straightforward slasher quickly spirals out of control, leaving even the most seasoned horror fans unprepared for what happens next.
One of the things Terrifier excels at is subverting the jump scare. It's typical in many slashers for the main character to flee or hide rather than make an effort to flee from whoever or whatever is attempting to kill them. They will emerge from concealment once they believe their assailant is no longer a threat, hoping the killer has vanished, only to discover that they had been there the entire time.
As soon as Terrifier opens, it redefines this in every way. A disfigured woman is shown attacking a television host shortly after her interview on her ghastly ambush that happened a year prior goes wrong. Leone does a fantastic job of establishing straight away that this is not going to be your average slasher experience by giving the audience a taste of what they will encounter. No one expects to be that uncomfortable in the beginning moments of the film as the viewer watches the television host on the phone speaking about the disfigured woman.
The viewer is not only on edge in nail-biting fear because of the dialogue, but also because they know instinctively that she is being watched by the woman and what comes next. In addition to surpassing modern slashers, this film's opening approach to a slasher is unlike any other because it doesn't give you a chance to come down from the high of the moment once it's happened. This wide range of emotions will contribute to bigger moments throughout the movie, but having this brief scene of disturbing violence at the forefront before moving into the next scene distinguishes it from the rest.
The film then segues into the lives of drunk characters Tara and Dawn, who happen to have an innoxious but awkward encounter with Art the Clown at a pizzeria after coming from a Halloween party to sober up. Tara has her reservations about Art, while Dawn is blissfully unaware of who she is dealing with as she decides to provoke him by taking pictures with him and posting them online. The girls decide that enough is enough of this awful experience and leave the pizzeria when they discover that their tires have been slashed. Dawn waits in the car for Tara as she makes a decision to call her sister to get them and then goes to a derelict building to use the restroom. This is where Art enters the scene, and things quickly deteriorate. All bets are off, and it turns into a bizarre, deadly game of who will survive and who will perish.
She dashes toward the abandoned cars parked here in search of cover. To improve her chances of escaping, she tries to get a better look at Art. In keeping with the 80s slasher convention, Tara hides behind the automobiles and is oblivious to the presence of her killer. There is no forewarning before Art comes, which is how Terrifer manages to derail this cliché. He then stabs Tara in the leg while she is kneeling in what should be a safe and secure environment for her. What defies these cliched clichés throughout the film are these anti-climactic events. Terrifier never gives the impression that the audience is in the know; instead, it meets assumptions head-on and entirely undercuts them.
Many modern slashers will also attempt to evoke the gory violence, grainy picture quality, and weaponry of earlier films. Terrifier, with its realistic and nostalgic production standards from the 1980s that combine so well with its heavy use of gore, does these types of archetypes better than most. From women being flayed alive to heads being transformed into Jack-O-Lanterns and the famed "naked woman cut in half" scene, Leone made it clear that no one is simply murdered, and the murderer does not always carry a knife when carrying out his horrific deeds.
When Tara, who viewers believe to be the final girl and the last survivor in the film, finally approaches Art the Clown, she attacks him. He appears to have no way of escaping as she repeatedly strikes him with a plank. She commands him to stand up and turn toward her. He then turns around and takes out a gun, shoots her multiple times, and uses the entire clip. He takes him in search of more rounds, and she lies splayed out, hemorrhaging from the loss of blood. He then continues to shoot her till he completely runs out of ammunition.
This scene is one of the most important in the film because it's deeply ingrained in the viewer's mind, abrupt, and unforeseen. When the murderer deviates from the narrative of his preferred weapon choice and uses a gun to complete the killing instead, the laws of the slasher game abruptly shift, having a startling effect.
Last but not least, Terrifier goes to considerable effort to challenge the dominant slasher cliché that the final girl always prevails. It's true that Victoria, Tara's sister, survives in the end. Victoria is repeatedly attacked before being saved by the exterminator at the opening of the film when his life is ended by having his head crushed in as she attempts to flee the building.
Art is close to capturing her, but she manages to squeeze through a locked set of worn wooden doors. Art the clown smashes through the doors with a truck and strikes her just as it seems the police are about to arrive to save her from this nightmare. Victoria is unconscious as Art proceeds to chew on her face as the police arrive at the scene. He shoots himself in the head when the cops attempt to apprehend him. While it appears that the worst is over, the damage is far from being done.
Leone once again proves that what viewers believe they know is proven wrong. Art is dead, but not truly, showing the viewer that something more demonic is at play here. As far as Victoria? Leone sets a very creepy and stomach-churning tone that, while she did survive, she is not the same person that walked into that derelict building that Halloween night, but has become someone else entirely. Disfigured and changed mentally from her experiences, she is the same woman that attacked the television host at the beginning of the film, bringing things to a "terrifying" close.
The sensations that Terrifier brings are wildly unanticipated. This film does the complete opposite by evoking its influences from the past while being original enough to stand on its own. Many slasher films strive to go against the grain yet come off as uninspired. Terrifier never gives you the slightest inkling that you know what's going to happen; instead, it savagely assaults your preconceptions and flips them upside down. The film's director, Damien Leone, also demonstrates that horror is not always as predictable as it first appears.
Occasionally, rare gems like this push the envelope of what horror can be and succeed in doing so, even though they have a smaller budget than that of a high-end, professionally produced motion picture. It might take another few years before another villain dethrones this one. If there is anything that Terrifier has taught the slasher genre, it's that perhaps it's better to go off the beaten path. The greats will always be there, but maybe it's time for some fresh faces to join the fray.