Smears of a Clown

The story of the success Terrifier 3 is enjoying is at least as interesting as the film itself. Over the course of three movies, writer director Damien Leone has grown the franchise from a $35,000 labour of love into the number one film at the North American box office. Whatever you might think of the films themselves, this a pretty impressive achievement and proof that even in this age of mega franchises and hundred million plus advertising budgets there's still room for a plucky underdog to find its audience with some gorilla marketing.

As for the film itself, it's niche to say the least. An ultraviolet, gonzo gorefest about a killer clown called Art and the "chosen" girl who (provided she is in possession of her magic sword) is the only one that can put him down. If you don't find humour or amusement in people being dismembered in cartoonish but very gory ways, this film is not for you. If you are stressed out by on screen children in extreme peril, this film is not for you. If you simply don't like grimy, icky films that make you feel like you need a shower after you've watched them, then this film is not for you. This film is probably not for you. If this film IS for you, chances are you've already seen it and loved it.

In fairness, Terrifier 3 is a little more mainstream than part 2 (and that was a lot more mainstream than the original). A budget of $2 million may not sound like much but that's eight times as much as its predecessor and practically an Avengers level stack in the world of low cost horror. Wisely this money has been spent on improving the "filmy" aspects of production; everything is crisp and clearly shot with plenty of characters and extras making the world feel large and lived in. The gore effects are left more or less the same as part 2, which is the right move. Were the effects to get any more realistic it would only detract from the spirit of the movie and be downright unpalatable. Besides, who even knows, or would ever want to know, what a guy being split in half with a chainsaw (testicles and all) actually looks like?

It also has a little more narrative meat than before, although emphasis is on little. The film begins with Art (played with glee by David Howard Thornton) traveling to a mental asylum where horrifically scarred former victim Victoria has birthed him a new head since he was decapitated by protagonist Sienna (Laura La Vera) during the climax of the previous film. He and Victoria do some murder on the staff then retire to an abandoned house where they become dormant. Five years later Sienna is released from her own mental treatment to live with her Aunt, Uncle and younger cousin. Simultaneously, Art and Victoria are awoken by a couple of construction workers and the killer clown embarks on a rampage in a Santa costume (this instalment is set at Christmas rather than Halloween), culminating in another showdown with Sienna. That's pretty much it for story, with the film mostly cutting between Sienna hanging out with friends and family while stressing about Art's possible return and the black and white faced killing machine indulging in murder and mayhem before the pair duke it out for round two.

Really, people are paying their money because they want to see ridiculously over the top slasher kills and they enjoy the persona of Art The Clown. Both of those things are OK. The kills are extremely graphic but don't really up the ante in terms of inventiveness from what we've seen before, if anything they are a little dialled back from the previous film. As for Art, his simplistic look is striking and Thornton's gloriously over the top facial expressions give him a tonne of character but his actions are a bit too inconsistent for him to have a real personality. Adding Victoria to the mix allows the demon behind the clown to speak but its screeching voice is more grating than chilling and detracts from the killers menace rather than add to it.

Terrifier 3 is in a pretty unique place, feet still firmly planted firmly in the bargain bin nastiness of minimal budget horror but with toes starting to dangle in the waters of main stream cinema. In some respects the movie is an absolute triumph but it's hard to say it's a particularly good film. It will be fascinating to see what Leone does in the next instalment, with an even bigger purse and built in fanbase.

6 post slaughter cookies out of 10

Comments

Hell to Pay

They Will Kill You begins with a soaking wet Zazie Beetz waiting to start her maid job at swanky apartment building, The Virgil. Her character Asia is a former convict who has no idea her new employers are devil worshipers who sacrifice their staff to Lucifer. The building residents have no idea that Asia is actually there for reasons other than a steady paycheque and is not about to go gently into that good night. The touch paper is soon lit on a relentless blend of slapstick horror action that leaves little room for you to catch your breath across its ninety minute odd runtime. The most obvious comparison here is to 2019's Ready or Not and its sequel (which coincidentally released one week before this film), where an unsuspecting bride is left fighting for her life when her wealthy in-laws opt to make her a human sacrifice. While They Will Kill You shares that movie's comedic spirit we are much deeper into supernatural territory here. The grand old building and seemingly ...

You Screen, I Scream

The worst thing about Scream 7 isn't actually the film itself. It's the at best cowardly, actions of production company Spyglass Media who fired the star of the previous two films, Melissa Barrera, for daring to have an opinion on genocide. In addition to leaving an icky taste in the mouth, this move cost them fellow star Jenna Ortega and the guy who was supposed to direct the seventh instalment Christopher Landon, resulting in a return to the drawing board to completely rework the film. The only actually good thing about Scream 7 is also nothing to do with the actual film. Series mainstay Neve Campbell missed the previous instalment after producers lowballed her, but the production chaos of their own making means they've had to go crawling back. So Neve returns with a reported $7 million payday, a producer credit and a story based solely around how legendary her character Sydney is. Go her. The actual film doesn't warrant much discussion at all, given it does little mo...

Husband and Strife

If the purpose of cinema is to make the audience feel something, then few films succeed as completely as The Drama. The fact that said feeling is one of wanting to curl up and die of awkwardness shouldn't even be taken as a warning. Like a masochist munching down on a giant bowl of ghost peppers, you will likely find every bite delicious. Robert Pattinson and Zendaya play soon to be married couple Charlie and Emma. They have the picture perfect relationship. They have successful jobs, a beautiful Boston apartment and look like Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. Little differences in their attitudes toward a wedding dance rehearsal and their potentially drug smoking DJ hint they may not be completely on the same page, and when a drunken game leads to Emma disclosing something from her past, their relationship experiences some severe turbulence. It's tricky to fully discuss The Drama without spoiling Emma's revelation (and it absolutely should not be spoiled), but it points to ...

Wasted Men

From Scum to Starred Up, neither the big nor small screen are short of brutally frank depictions of life behind British bars. Wasteman adds a taut, modern take to the pile and shows that life isn't getting any easier inside. Philip Barantini (creator of Boiling Point and Adolescence) is on board as a producer so you know it's going to feel real and the Safdie brothers were at one point attached to direct, so you know it's going to be gut-clenchingly tense. It doesn't disappoint on either front. David Jonsson plays long term convict Taylor. A timid drug addict, he cuts the hair of the top-dog inmates in return for a regular fix and is existing rather than living as the years of his sentence tick by when he gets some unexpected news. Prison overcrowding means he is up for early release, provided he can keep his nose clean for a couple of weeks, something made increasingly tricky by the arrival of his new cellmate Dee (Tom Blyth). Dee encourages Taylor to make contact wit...

Fifty Shades of Chrononberg

If you've been missing pure David Chrononberg then Crimes of the Future has you covered. It has the lot; body mutilation, main character undergoing a metamorphosis, questions about what defines being human, integrity of the mind, the collision of different world views and pretty much every other recurring theme of his is present and correct. So needless to say, it isn't for everyone. The film takes place in the (possibly near) future, when most humans have evolved to no longer feel pain and in some cases grow mysterious new organs. Viggo Maortensen and Lea Seydoux play a pair of performance artists whose act revolves around removing Mortensen's excess organs in front of a live crowd. Fittingly, given its focus on artits, the film takes place in the orbit of the protagonists with little shown of the world at large. Everything is dingy and grimey, hinting things aren't going swimmingly, and there are vaugue hints at ecological disaster but the characters are all far mor...

Gimme Shelter

The start of another year means it's time for the annual "Jason Statham is a retired killing machine trying to live a quiet life but being forced to start stacking obituaries" movie. The typically nondescript title of this year's offering is Shelter and Stath's former special forces badass is called Michael Mason. When the British government agency that he used to drop bodies for comes calling at his remote Scottish lighthouse he is forced to take action, something that is complicated by the presence of a young orphan girl named Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach). While our protagonist and his reluctant charge tear across the countryside, Naomi Ackie (criminally underused here) and Bill Nighy (putting in just enough effort to get by) scheme against each other at Spy HQ. Jason Statham movies can essentially be judged on three criteria; Does he get to do cool action? Are the bad guys formidable enough? Is the plot and dialogue entertainingly cheesy rather than just e...

There Can Only be One

Trailers for Him had Jordan Peele's name slapped all over them, which is understandable from a marketing point of view. In reality it is simply produced by the"Get Out" directors company, Monkeypaw Productions. It is actually directed by Justin Tipping, from a script he co-wrote with Skip Bronkie and Zak Akers. The prevalence of Peele's name in the advertising means the film is bound to draw unflattering comparisons with his own work, which is a shame as the film has its own merits. Cameron "Cam" Cade (Tyriq Withers) grew up idolising Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), star quarterback of the San Antonio Saviours. When White suffers a grisly injury during the Super Bowl, Cade's father tells the young fan that real men like his idol make sacrifices for greatness. Fast forward about a decade and a half and Cam is about to be drafted to the NFL, where he is tipped as a potential challenger to White's "Greatest Of All Time" status. When a mascot in ...

Spooky Tresspaser

The Women In The Yard marks the return of director Jaume Collet-Serra to his horror roots after years in the big budget action space. He puts some scary images together and gives a good cast a chance to shine but is let down by a fairly weak script. The film begins with struggling mum Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) watching a video of her deceased husband. Struggling may be a bit of an understatement, the crash that took her husband also left her with a badly broken leg and she is stuck in a pit of despair so deep it has rendered her almost non-existent as a parent. Her son Taylor has essentially taken over looking after his little sister Annie, the food is running out and when the electricity goes off they have no means of contacting anyone. With tensions already frayed, things take a sinister turn as a mysterious and threatening figure in black appears in the garden, creeping slowly closer as the day drags on. The titular woman in the yard is played with equal grace and mena...

Nope Place Like Home

For his third featue Jordan Peele turns his attention to the art of filmaking itself and the explotation of those involved. Its unlikely he will ever blow people away like he did with Get Out again (you can only come out of nowhere once) and whether or not this effort is better than Us is a matter of taste, but he's still managing to flip expectations third time round. The film revolves around brother and sister duo OJ (his infamous real life namesake is mentioned) and Keke. OJ is professional and hardworking, desperate to keep their late fathers business going but lacks the people skills to get ahead. Keke is charismatic and would be the perfect foil to OJ but prefers self promotion to helping a family business she was never really made to feel part of. The business in question is providing horses for filming and the use (or misuse) of animals is a recurring theme, including a genuinely harrowing scene involving a sitcom chimp. Scenes like this confirm Peel's ability to make ...

Blow My Whistle

Whistle is Corin Hardy's third movie, after his 2015 breakout The Hallow and 2018's Conjuring spin-off The Nun. This new horror flick sits halfway between the indie energy of his maiden effort and the box ticking boredom of his big studio follow-up, with self seriousness butting up against dumb fun. The set-up is most reminiscent of Final Destination, with added high school slasher vibes. Chrys (Dafne Keen) moves in with her cousin Rel's (Sky Yang) family following the death of her father. Within about ten minutes of attending her high school she becomes besotted with Sophie Nellisse's Ellie, ends up in detention after a confrontation with loudmouth basketball player Dean (Jhaleil Swaby) and finds an Aztec death whistle in her new locker. Naturally, the teens end up blowing the death whistle which causes them all to be stalked by their future deaths. This manifests as a ghostly apparition of your dead future self who causes you to suffer said death as soon as they to...

Dan Says its Alright

Search This Blog