Art returns to the silver screen on October 11, 2024 after years of wait and longing. “Art” as in the clown from Terrifier, not the undeniable art we will see in We Live In Time releasing on the same day. Don’t walk into the wrong theater that weekend!

 

Anyways, as Terrifier 3 looms over the horizon with its stalkerish, silent presence similar to its clown icon, this critic was assigned to review the first film in this indie slasher franchise that could. Keep in mind that I’m brand new to the franchise and coming in from the perspective of someone who enjoys slashers (see my love for Halloween, The Banana Splits Movie, Scream), but thinks it needs to have more meat on its bones than just violent kills (see my dislike for Friday the 13th, Scream (2022), and honestly any cash-in slasher movie).

 

I know there’s a community that believes that slashers by nature are enjoyed because they’re bad movies, but I disagree. Slashers definitely don’t need the A24 treatment to be considered good, and focusing on the emotional repercussions of the kills diminishes the fun of watching a slasher, but I think somewhere out there is a storyteller that can find the balance a slasher needs to be both entertaining for its genre tropes while also telling a personal story. Ti West tried and, in my opinion, failed with X and MaXXXine, but Wes Craven’s filmography taps into what I can envision slashers being, notably the opening scene of the first Scream.

 

You might be seeing where I’m going with this: I didn’t like Terrifier. What you read in the synopsis above is practically the entire movie. Two women have a weird meet up with Art, they can’t get a ride home, get locked in a building with the clown, some people come by to help, blood and gore ensue. There’s no dramatic narrative to motivate anything that happens, it’s just scenes challenging itself on how messed up it can make its imagery and then loosely stitching those scenes with events that feel more like an attempt to appease CinemaSins than tell a story.

 

There’s certainly some controversy of the gender politics found in this franchise. As a man, I don’t really have a place to weigh in one side or the other, but at the very least I can point out what stood out to me. Basically, all the kills in this installment are basic, be it someone getting stabbed, sliced, diced, eaten, or shot (which was a weird thing to see a slasher guy do). There is only 1 special kill in this, involving a woman being hung upside down, nude, and then hacksawed down the middle starting right between the legs. It’s a sort of difficult scene to watch pending on your tolerance for gore. Personally I’m not a fan but the low budget of Terrifier made it easy for me to stomach. That said, the kill stood out to me as one clearly coming from a male mind. Whether or not that counts as misogyny is not my place to say, just food for thought.

 

That aside, Terrifier is also boring. It feels like a short film dragged to 85 minutes, and it’s the longest 85 minutes I’ve felt in a while. Its accomplishments with $35k is certainly impressive, a good chunk probably going into its special effects team, and given it’s on its second sequel and constantly growing budget, there’s clearly an audience for it. Its camera and lighting definitely needed more support, with the images feeling extremely cheap for the entire run and the lighting tending to overdo the highlights, leading to an inconsistent vision that can’t decide if it wants to go grunge house or generally cinematic. But hey, at least it’s in focus and the sound mix is decent.

 

Many apologies to Terrifier fans. You are dedicated and many, and our Editor-In-Chief, Connor Petrey, is one of you. However, outside of the promise Jenna Kanell shows here to grow in her acting career, there wasn’t much for me to enjoy.