Directed by: Damien Leone
Distributed by: Bloody Disgusting
Written by Alexander Reams
90/100
Damien Leone’s first feature outing with Art the Clown (portrayed in all 3 projects by David Howard Thornton) was with the horror anthology “All Hallows Eve” and the popularity of the degenerate clown exploded, and in 2016 he was given his own feature entitled “Terrifier,” a beautiful, disgusting, and slightly nauseating splatter film that harkened back to the 1970s and brought a mainstream audience to the attention of this sidelined genre. The popularity proved to have legs as 6 years later Leone’s sequel, “Terrifier 2” was unleashed to audiences.
Leone has been very open that he wanted to make a character piece (as a response to criticism of the first “Terrifier”) and he introduces Lauren LaVera as Sienna, who will go down as one of the best “final girls” in horror, and is clear from the start that she is not just more fodder for Art to play with. Sienna, along with her mother, Barbara (Sarah Voigt), and her brother Jonathan (Eliott Fullman) are in the midst of grieving a family loss and the arrival of Art in their lives proves to be more trauma, and more kills. LaVera is playing second fiddle to Thornton, but her screen time is much greater, leaving a lot of the film to ride on her performance, and she doesn’t disappoint. “Terrifier 2” is a thoughtful “character first kills second” script that allows the film to get away with its very sizeable runtime of 138 minutes.
David Howard Thornton’s portrayal of Art has been near-universally praised and for good reason, its a physical performance, the only time Art might make a sound is when he gets shot, stabbed, maimed, or claps his hands (which is more terrifying than any of his violent acts). It’s a demented sense of joy seeing Art go on rampages, the opening scene alone left my audience jeering, laughing, and covering their eyes at the acts on screen, I won’t get too far into specifics because it’s essential to go in blind. What I will leave you with is that Leone has crafted a horror epic, it is long, it is mean, and it leaves you craving more.
“Terrifier 2” Trailer
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