'Terrifier 3' Creator Spills Secrets Behind his Killer Sequel and Art the Clown's Success

Halloween season marks the perfect time to hype a new horror film but one of the most anticipated this year, Damien Leone's Terrifier 3, didn't even need the timely tie-in. In fact, the filmmaker changed his first two movies' usual trick-or-treater/sexy costume party backdrops to a different holiday setting altogether. Yes, it's Christmas time in this new merry massacre of a movie, which sees the evil mime-like slasher Art the Clown return with his monstrously mangled sidekick Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi), both ready to bludgeon anyone in their way as they pursue Art's nemesis, final girl fan favorite Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera).

The first full-length Terrifier was a moderate hit, but it wasn't until its sequel, Terrifier 2, saw news of theater audiences passing out, throwing up, and walking out due to its extreme violence and gore that it became a true cult classic. In just a few short years, its creepy, carny freak killer has become an icon on par with Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger. And as the third film releases this week, he's only going to get bigger.

At Spirit Halloween stores across the country, Art the Clown and Terrifier merchandise is already prevalent and popular; so expect to see him pop up at more than few costume parties this month. As for the new movie, it's got all the gruesome gross-out scenes you'd expect, and this time, there's more creativity —and diversity— in its ridiculously cartoony kills too, with a "shower scene" that feels like a companion to the relentless torture-porn of 2 's "bedroom scene."

There are already reports that the new movie is getting the same kind of vomitous exits that its predecessor did in theaters. It makes for great marketing, but it's very likely real, too. We saw the third picture at home on a small screen and felt a bit queasy in spots, though by the time Art started using intestines as Christmas decorations in the third act we were pretty desensitized. And yes, this movie is funny, too.

In this exclusive Los Angeles magazine Q&A, Leone admits he intentionally sought to outdo himself in terms of shock value, and he's not alone. With the much-buzzed-about body horror hit The Substance still in theaters, winning acclaim for its stomach-churning visuals as well, Terrifier 3's projected box office success should solidify over-the-top imagery and effects' place in the horror genre moving forward. Meaningful, mindless or mythical, savage cinema is a hit with audiences, even if they have to cover their eyes through a lot of it. For the Terrifier creator, it's all part of the fun.

Congrats on all of Terrifier’s success. I think a lot of us enjoy these movies but at the same time we also don’t. It’s a really strange contradiction. We like the feeling of being scared and marvel at the crazy effects, but also need to look away or in some cases stop watching. In terms of outdoing yourself with this sequel, what were your goals? Was it about making it more brutal, gory and disgusting or just being more creative? It seems like you thought about all of these things.

Yeah, you want to be more creative, and you want to outdo yourself with the spectacle of what's possible with special makeup effects, for one thing. It's one of the hardest things, because you know, how do you keep outdoing yourself before falling into an area of extreme bad taste. That's the tricky thing, because, like you said, you have fun with these movies, but you don't. You're scared, you look away, but there’s still something keeping you there. And I think that it's important to maintain that balance, and it's one of the reasons why Art the Clown needs to be so charming and sort of funny, because it allows us to sort of get extreme with the gore, maybe too extreme, but then if we can win you back, and we can make you laugh after we did something horrible to somebody, that'll keep you in the seat, and that'll remind you that we're here to have fun, ultimately, and we're living in a fantasy world. None of this is real. And I don't want you leaving the theater feeling miserable or bleak.

But a little nauseous is okay?

Totally, I hope you throw up.

Well that’s how the first movies got so much attention, right? It just kind of went viral, and we all started hearing reports about people leaving the theater or getting sick. I'm sure that hype really helped. You didn't mind that, right?

Oh no, no, I love that. That's a badge of honor, because, to me, again, being a makeup effects artist, that makes me feel like I did my job and I created something that was effective. I mean that's what you're trying to do. You're trying to get the biggest reaction out of the audience as possible. Now, I didn't like hearing that there was one picture where supposedly somebody fainted and cut their head on the seat. I don't want people getting hurt in the movie. But if you went to Terrifier 2 , you should have seen the first Terrifier and known what you were in for.

If these movies aren't for you, you probably shouldn't see Terrifier 2. You probably shouldn't see Terrifier 3 , either. As much as my it's my job to sell tickets right now, you know, if it's not for you, don't see it. I mean, these are extreme movies. But at the same time, they're also very fun and they're hilarious. I mean, I think this movie has three of the funniest scenes that Art the Clown has ever been involved in. It was the hardest I ever laughed on set filming the scene, and I still laugh watching the scenes on the screen. So again, they are extreme, but they are a showcase for the artistry of special makeup effects, and it's a good time. You're going to have fun and you're going to have laughs, to some people's surprise.

What do you say to critics of these types of films –movies with extreme gore and murder– who say it's sick and it's just bringing out sick and harmful tendencies in people?

I think that trivializes everything about it– the whole art form. I think it trivializes the genre. I think it's disrespectful, honestly, and I think it's just become a very common talking point over the last maybe 50 years or so. I mean, all of my idols that I grew up admiring –the horror filmmakers that made me want to become one– they all had to go through the same gauntlet of accusations… 'you're turning society into serial killers.' 'These movies do more harm than good,' etc… None of that's true. I mean, the world would have eaten itself by now or we would have turned into maniacs and killed ourselves.

Who are your idols?

John Carpenter, Wes Craven. George Romero, Clive Barker, David Cronenberg, all the usual suspects. Horror is a billion dollar industry. Everybody watches it. My mother watches horror movies and my grandmother. We all would have turned into lunatics and killed each other at this point if the talking points were true. I mean, the experiment has played out decade after decade. You know what? The last thing we need to worry about is horror movies.

The real world definitely has its own horrors.

I believe that we're using horror movies to escape the real world, and we need these cathartic releases. You know, there's so much prevalent violence around us that could hit us at any time. I don't like bringing it up because it's dark, but I mean, even now with two assassination attempts in 2024 on our former president. So violence is still in our face everywhere. We know it could strike at any time. So we need to get into the theater and have this cathartic experience where we kind of put up the absurdity of violence in front of us and the extremes, and sort of just laugh about it, laugh about the absurdity of it all. It could hit us at any moment and there's nothing we can do about it. So I look at loving horror as a showing of strength, really.

Let’s talk about the realism of what we’re seeing on screen. You obviously know anatomy and the human body. A lot of the internal and external carnage looks so real. Do you use any CGI or is it all practical effects?

So we go into these films trying to get as much done in practical effects as possible. It’s all practical effects when we start. But now, you can't deny how incredible visual effects are, and CGI can be your best friends too, because a lot of times practical effects do not work. It's very rare that they're executed perfectly. So now, you can go in and you can take your practical effects and you can fix mistakes. Say there's a wire you need to remove or a blood pump that's in the shot. You can erase that. Or say that you want to see a cut happen on somebody's face. It's hard to not have the cut and show the cut open up. So you could already have the cut there. You can slice the cut, and then you can erase the cut before the knife hits it, so it looks like the cut’s happening.

So there's all these amazing things and little tweaks that the audience would never know are visual effects. It just enhances the practicals, and it's an incredible tool these days, especially if you know how to marry the two to get the greatest results. There is actually is a lot of marriage of practical and VFX in this movie.

Well thankfully we don't know what some of these horrific things would actually look like. But it looks like what we might think it would.

Right. If you know your audience, it should just look real. That's it. If it freaks you out then we did our job. The audience shouldn't know what kind of tricks we're using, right? We’re the magicians and it should be up to us. So hopefully we fool you and you buy into it.

I interviewed David Howard Thornton who plays Art a few years ago for another publication, and he's really a great guy. He spoke about working closely with you to achieve the menacing mystique of the character. I think he really takes his performance to another level in this one, especially in comedic terms. There’s more physical comedy and physicality in general.  And Art merch is everywhere all of a sudden. I think he’s reached horror legend status now... this franchise could go on and on. You’ve announced there will be a fourth film which is clear the way this one ends—  it was actually a little frustrating. There are definitely a lot of questions left unanswered, and it leaves you wanting more. What can you share about your vision for more movies or where you plan to take the story?

Of course, if you see the movie, that's obvious. I would never leave the audience in that situation and say I'm done. When I was asked at the Q&A after the premiere screening, I was like, ‘Well, of course there's going to be another one.’ The next one would be the epic finale to this franchise, where you would get all the answers that you want. I knew that I was going to make more than one movie, especially once I made part two. To me, part two is the unofficial part one because we've now introduced Siena, the lore, and the mythology.

So Terrifier 3 is sort of like The Empire Strikes Back of the franchise. It has the biggest cliffhanger, and each character is left at their darkest at this point and their most hopeless. There’s hopelessness on both the good and the evil side. They're both sort of left defeated at the end of this one. So, the next one would be the epic finale between Siena and Art the Clown.

So are you saying you’re done after 4? You're not discounting that there could be future offshoots, or are you?

Maybe for a while... because I want to just make sure I still have interesting things to say, and that I'm not just making movies to make movies, because then you start tarnishing the franchise and really harming what you did prior, which is the biggest sin you could do. And that happens. It happens really too often. I'm trying to learn from the mistakes of the other franchises.

I'm still a fan and I see what that does to me and how I start not caring anymore, and I don't need three timelines or four timelines for my franchise. But again, this franchise and these characters, I think it's safe to say it's going to outlive me. It's going to outlive David. People will continue making these movies. It'll end up in somebody else's hands, I'm sure at some point and somebody else will play the character, so it'll go on. But I'd like to have my own solid Damien Leone saga that people know what it is, and it's this satisfying thing you can watch from beginning to end.

Terrifier 3 is in theaters beginning this Thurs., Oct. 11.