Film Review: Terrifier 2

For those who might not be in the know, Terrifier is a 2016 horror film, a low budget independent production that can generously be described as a bare-bones slasher. It’s a perfectly solid film with fun throwback elements, but what made it gather a following among horror fans was its gore, which went very excessive and over-the-top, as well as the birth of a potentially new horror icon in Art The Clown, a silent sadistic killer in the most overtly threatening clown outfit you’ve ever seen this side of John Wayne Gacy, whose more expressive and playful nature sets him apart from the usual bunch of slasher favorites.

With Terrifier 2, we start the film a year after the events of the first film. This time around, we follow high schooler Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) and her younger brother, Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) as they get ready for Halloween celebrations, but of course, things don’t go to plan. Not only are there problems at home, some rooted in the trauma of having lost their father, but they both come to realize that Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is not dead, and is in town and on the prowl. The siblings, as well as friends close to them, find themselves crossing paths with the clown, leading to some gruesome consequences.

And when I say “gruesome,” I really mean it. The film is released to theaters unrated, and while I don’t think it would warrant an NC-17, it still goes above and beyond what you would see in most mainstream horror. The gore and makeup effects are better realized here, looking a little less like the goofy Troma-esque splatter-fest of the first film. It’s just realistic enough to really make your stomach turn as Art goes full ham on some poor unfortunate souls throughout the film. It’s definitely not for queasy, as even the writer/director, Damien Leone, is credited as being the special effects guy, so you know he’s going to show off at any opportunity.

And going off of that, I’d say pretty much everything about this film is an improvement over the first. Leone has clearly fine tuned his craftsmanship here. The filmmaking is stronger, more evocatively indulging in that nostalgic 80s aesthetic, despite taking place in modern day, the building of tension is better, the imagination behind creating a number of sequences is far more memorable. It also has, like, an actual story and more well realized characters, ones that I was easily able to find endearing and root for.

The performances are pretty strong here, with the note that everyone, especially with the supporting characters, are very much operating on “slasher acting mode,” while the leads play things a bit more emotionally grounded. Sounds like an odd choice, but it works. I found LaVera especially impressive in how she played certain elements in a more subdued fashion, perhaps the only thing in this entire film you can call subdued, and the way she is able to tap into real emotional truths, even in the midst of schlocky slasher moments, is great to see, and I was moved by her dynamic with Fullam.

But of course, I have to give major props to Thornton as Art the Clown. Given the film’s rather excessive runtime of 2 hours and 18 minutes, he is given many opportunities to really play with the character in some fun scenarios. It’s like Leone took some time to himself, and just thought of the most messed up things he could think of, and just put them all in the movie, and it works because Thornton is really giving everything he’s got to this character and his unique physicality and expressive body language. The ability to convey so much through all that makeup without saying a word is truly astonishing.

As I just mentioned, Terrifier 2 is well over 2 hours long, and for a slasher that is absolutely bonkers to think about. It’s literally 4 minutes longer than Amsterdam, a prestige drama that is also coming out to theaters the same weekend as this, and honestly, that is just so hilarious to me. I really admire what Damien Leone is doing here, it’s clear that he had a lot of freedom here, and was able to do things the way he wanted, even while working with a fairly small budget, and I think that’s great and very rare to see. There isn’t a scene in the film that I would call bad, and even ones that could theoretically be cut out without affecting much still add some fun to the proceedings. I was ever bored. If there’s anything that doesn’t totally work, I think some of the more overt supernatural and surreal underpinnings needed to be more fleshed out, especially the connections to Sienna and Jonathan’s father, even if they are effective in the moment. I had a really great time with this, more than I would have expected given my mostly mellow take on the first. If there is a third, which a credits scene here would suggest, than I am very much looking forward to whatever gnarly chaos Leone has in store, and I hope we get to see more of these characters as well.

Terrifier 2 is now out in theaters.