Clowns are terrifying, we know this. Whether it’s very real monstrous clowns like John Wayne Gacy or fictional horrors like Pennywise the Dancing Clown, these painted harlequins seem tailor made to live rent free in our nightmares. In 2016, TERRIFIER gave us a new tenant in the form of Art The Clown; a maniacal, mute mime who does more with one gesture than most killer clowns do with reams of monologues. It became a cult classic almost instantly and now, finally, director Damien Leone has graced us with more whimsical slaughter with TERRIFIER 2.
Taking place one year after the events of the original, TERRIFIER 2 throws us right back into the chaos of the demented Art The Clown (David Howard Thornton) as he prepares for another Halloween slaughter fest, this time joined by his own hallucination of a companion killer in the form of an unnamed little girl (Amelie McLain). As they return to cause carnage in Miles County, their antics spread outward into the lives of teenage artist and cosplay maker Sienna (Lauren LaVera) and her serial killer obsessed younger brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam). As the clowns close in on them and those around them, the pair must confront dark truths about their late father, and hope that clues he left behind in a mysterious notebook can provide them with salvation from the hell around them.
Thornton, once again, provides a phenomenal turn as Art the clown. The lengthier run time of TERRIFIER 2 gives him almost double the time to mime his way into an intense physical performance the likes of some of Doug Jones’ best work. Even a small raise of an eyebrow can be used effortlessly to turn an expression from slapstick and vaudevillian, to grotesque and bone chilling. A performance and a character that Leone stated as being formed in the editing room due to the amount of improvisation involved, Art The Clown begs for an entire reel of cut content to be released in the future. Thornton’s performance has absolutely succeeded in creating a modern slasher icon that will take its rightful place in the pantheon of Voorhees, Myers, Krueger, Pinhead, and his brethren Pennywise. His gory ballet is, of course, the highlight of the film, and even when the scenes get almost oppressively brutal (the hacksaw scene of the original is officially tame by comparison), it’s impossible to look away.
However, there’s more than one cook in the clown cafe now, and it must be stated how well McLain steps into her role as Art’s deranged child companion. From the first moment she appears on screen she matches Thornton’s energy beat for beat with the greatest of ease, at times actually becoming scarier than Art himself. It was an astounding physical performance from a breakout young actress, and establishes her as a force to be reckoned with as well as someone to follow with interest as her career goes forward.
LaVera plays an interesting take on the final girl trope as Sienna, portraying the triggers and panic attacks of extreme trauma with shocking fidelity. It feels real, it looks real, not the often over the top wailing that should have been left in the 1940s when mental illness was ostensibly a synonym for batshit insane in film. She finds her own strength through her adversity, and as she takes her own hits as a protector of her brother and dishes out vicious retribution upon the clowns in the guise of an armored Valkyrie, her character blossoms into a more than worthy adversary for a seemingly immortal, unstoppable force of torture and pain.
The practical effects are astounding and some of the most realistic from any film of ANY budget that I’ve ever seen. The audience had extreme visceral reactions to a majority of the carnage, with one voice screaming out in the darkness after a particularly brutal scene, “What is WRONG with you!?” which was met with cathartic laughter. Laughter, as well, is an important aspect of this film. With the hyper realism afforded by the prosthetics, injections of humor even into the kill scenes make what could have been punishing to an exhausting degree easier to digest. It’s a wild emotional ride that could almost give you whiplash with all of its contradictions, and it’s great for it.
This all said, it is a long film, and it doesn’t need to be. It does tend to drag at times, and as much as the family drama becomes an interesting dynamic, some scenes feel more like a forced injection of plot to justify more sequels than as an organic extension of the narrative. Yes I have a lot of questions, yes there is more “there,” but it’s more a confusion than an intrigue. Hopefully, further entries smooth this out retroactively.
This, however, should not stop you from checking out TERRIFIER 2. If you love killer clowns, if you love a good slasher film with incredible practical effects at a time when that feels like a dwindling commodity, if you want to see a continuation of a character whose actor has some of the most impressive physicality in the industry: get your friends, go to the movies, and get ready for the gory madness. Art The Clown is back baby!
TERRIFIER 2 premieres on October 6th, 2022.
Tags: Amelie McLain, Casey Harnett, clowns, Damien Leone, David Howard Thornton, Elliot Fullam, Elliott Fullam, Fantastic Fest 2022, Felissa Rose, Horror, Kailey Hyman, Lauren LaVera, Paul Wiley, Samantha Scaffidi, Sarah Voigt
No Comments