Welcome to Knockout Horror. We are continuing our Festive Frights season today with a movie that actually only released a few months ago. Despite being set during the Christmas holidays, Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3 was actually given an October, Halloween, cinema release. I can only imagine this was done to double dip on the holiday season. Dragging people into the box office to watch on the big screen on Halloween and then grabbing the Christmas crowd on streaming services.
If you have missed any previous entries into our Festive Frights season, you should check out our Awful Advent Category for a bunch of Christmas themed horror movies. Terrifier 3 continues the blood soaked legacy of Art The Clown (David Howard Thornton) as he recovers his head and teams up with the possessed Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi) to seek revenge on the previous movie’s survivor Sienna (Lauren LaVera).
More of the Same… But at Christmas
Terrifier 3 picks up on the plots of the first and second movie. It’s five years later and Sienna has been spending a lot of time recovering in a psychiatric hospital. She is suffering from some serious survivor guilt and has moved in with her aunt and uncle. It’s not just the plot that Terrifier 3 picks up with, it’s the violence and kills, as well.
The movie kicks off with a particularly tasteless scene that features a family being butchered in their house by Art who is wearing a Santa costume. If the site of a mutilated minor isn’t to your taste, you might want to check out of this movie right now. There is a lot more tastelessness to come.
Terrifier 3 looks glorious, filmed with Panavision, anamorphic lenses to offer the picture that very specific, 35mm, retro horror look. This is a movie that is, visually, absolutely brilliant throughout. Leone has set up some excellent shots that are ultra reminiscent of the Golden era of slashers. It’s great throughout and a treat to behold.
It isn’t just the classic aesthetic that Leone was going for with Terrifier 3. It was the mindless, senseless, brutality that was oh so common in movies from the 70s and 80s. The only difference here is that it is turned up a rather significant notch. With the gore being at a level that can only be described as ludicrous.
Actually a Bit Corny
Limbs are chopped off, people are decapitated, bodies are sliced from taint to tongue. It’s extreme even by slasher standards. The practical effects look fantastic and the realism of some of the kills is fairly stark. This isn’t a movie for the weak of stomach but gore fans are going to be in heaven. A lot of it is tongue in cheek but I do get the sense that Leone went out of his way to offend.
It’s actually a little bit cheesy and slightly embarrassing, at times. Almost as if the movie was directed by a 14 year old boy rather than an actual adult man of 40. Terrifier 3 is something of a horror movie equivalent of a nearly 30 year old Gerard Way singing about how he is “not okay” while surrounded by high school kids. Something written by adults that is squarely aimed at edgy teens. I can’t shake the feeling that it is all a bit weird and a bit cringey.
Terrifier 3 goes out of its way to shock but never in a way that could be deemed all that interesting or creative. A character pleasuring themself with a shard of glass and a number of young children being blown up in a mall feels, for the lack of a better word, desperate. It almost screams of “please share this on TikTok” and, honestly, feels very try hard.
Kind of a shame
It’s kind of a shame because there is a very watchable movie, here. Terrifier 3 has a lot of nods to classic horror like Black Christmas and feels like it fits into that “oh so specific” niche of great Christmas horror movies quite well. But only when it isn’t going out of its way to offend. When it is turning up the gore to 11, it doesn’t really work as it just gets lost in its attempts to be the bloodiest horror ever. When it is placing the focus on its strong, and relatable, protagonist and its genuinely great villain, Art the Clown, it is a ton of fun.
Art is fantastic and actor David Thornton (The Mean One) does a brilliant job. He is menacing but, also, completely hilarious and every scene featuring him tormenting people or miming his reactions to overheard conversations is a genuine joy. Just how interesting the character is makes the over the top violence feel rather unnecessary. You could have done so much more just dialling back the over the top gore and giving up more Art. Sienna is a great heroine with a decent amount of depth. She feels strong and capable, despite her problems, and actor Lauren LaVera does a nice job with her character.
More Problems
There are more issues that the movie struggles to overcome, though. This is a very chaotic film. Scenes feel very poorly connected together and the bloated cast can feel a little too much. There is a strong feeling of disorganisation and poorly laid out storytelling here and a bunch of stuff that doesn’t really need to be in the movie at all.
Terrifier 3 clocks in at over two hours which is far too long for a horror. Particularly a slasher and that is very evident with just how poor the last third of the film is. I couldn’t shake the feeling that they needed to wrap things up quickly. Scribbled out a bunch of stuff and went about it in a very haphazard way. Terrifier could benefit from some much tighter pacing and a whole bunch of editing to create a little more cohesion and drop some of the redundant bullshit. It is messy, throughout, and full of pointless fluff.
Should You Watch Terrifier 3?
Terrifier 3 is definitely worth a watch if you are a fan of gory slashers. It has a bunch of problems. The violence will be too much for some. Particularly those who have little tolerance for depictions of violence to minors, and the movie feels messy. It has a lot of redundant scenes and can feel very messy at times. Still, Art is a fascinating character. Sienna is a great protagonist and there are plenty of funny scenes to add a bit of levity. Not the movie people hype it up to be but still worth checking out.