Movie review: 'Terrifier 3' increases shocks with surprising restraint

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Terrifier 2 is a tough act to follow with reports of people passing out and vomiting in theaters. Terrifier 3 , in theaters Friday, rises to such expectations effectively because of the selective restraint it practices.

Being decapitated at the end of Terrifier 2 doesn't stop Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton). He rises up, and with his disfigured Terrifier 1 victim, Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi), continues stalking victims into the Christmas season.

Terrifier 2 survivor Sienna (Lauren LaVera) is getting out of a psychiatric facility, but still struggling with visions of her dead friends, post-Art murder. Her brother, Jonathan (Elliott Fullam), is in college and trying to move on with his life.

Art the Clown stands out from Freddy, Jason or their contemporaries by going way further than necessary to kill a victim, and employing mime in the lead-up to the kill. Christmas gives Art even more tools as he dons a Santa Claus suit to become the baddest Santa of all.

Art kills people as gratuitously as ever, mocking his victims as he mimes responses to their painful screams. This time, Art adds a childlike wonder at Christmas and Santa to his disarming repertoire, and Christmas accouterments that add to macabre humor.

So, how does Terrifier 3 top the kills that make people react physically to Terrifier 2 ? Well, at Christmas, Art targets children, too.

Perhaps killing children is crossing a line, but when the entire franchise is based on crossing lines, you get what you pay for. This includes kids waiting up for Santa on Christmas Eve, only to get Art, instead, and Art infiltrating a mall Santa photo opp.

One area in which Terrifier 3 is not gratuitous is nudity. There is a shower kill where you don't see any private parts, but with all of the elaborate gore in the sequence, that took some planning to coordinate.

Teriffier 1 had nudity like all the '80s slashers, but it appears the franchise picks its moments. Given the extremes in the films, that small amount of restraint makes the other extremes even more effective.

Terrifier 3 also pays homage to the most graphic kill in the original. Where part of the horror in the first incarnation was that it was committed against a woman by inflicting the same on a man, Terrifier 3 forces franchise fans to confront whether gender really makes it any more or less disturbing.

Meanwhile, the film pays respectable attention to Sienna's struggles with recovery, the audience knowing she will inevitably have to face Art again.

Forty years after '80s slashers tried to out-kill each other and 20 years after the popularity of torture movies, the Terrifier franchise continues to establish a tough act for itself and others to follow. These are for hardcore horror fans who have seen everything and are looking to push the boundaries further.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.