TerrifierI've never fully understood it myself, but there exists a widespread fear of clowns--called "coulrophobia"--among people. Maybe it's the outlandish makeup that distorts the clown's features, with its exaggerated eyes, mouth, nose, and so on. Maybe it's the mannered behavior--the miming and the overwhelming smiles and hand gestures--or maybe it's the weird props, like the clown costume itself, the horn, tiny tricycle, et al. Regardless, clowns do make some people afraid. What could be worse? A clown that goes around on Halloween viciously butchering young (and slightly inebriated) ladies with savagely lethal instruments? Yes, that would be worse.
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Terrifier is an ultra-low budget slasher movie ($35,000, for those of you wondering) that delivers exactly what it promises, right down to the sinister implications behind the menacing visage of the killer clown that adorns the DVD--a sadistic mime called "Art the Clown" (David Howard Thornton). It's worth mentioning that Thornton was trained as a mime, and his performance benefits from this. The film is replete with moments where Art emotes (silently, of course) with an unnerving glee while he performs his bloody work. It feels like the movie was built around him, and in a way, it was. Written and directed by Damien Leone, Terrifier actually marks the second appearance of this evil mime--albeit Thornton's first as Art--with the first being Leone's anthology horror film, All Hallows' Eve. Apparently, Art the Clown was such a terrifying figure amongst that movie's fans that Leone gave him his own film, hence Terrifer. To call Terrifier "derivative" would be an understatement; yet while this term is often used to criticize, I suspect that for fans of Leone's movie, it is more like a badge of honor. This movie wears its inspiration on its sleeve, and it's all too easy to rattle off its myriad influences. Obviously, Art the Clown echoes the infamous "Pennywise" of It first and foremost, but is also a cross between Marcel Marceau and John Wayne Gacy. For horror movie fans--and unless you are one, you have no business watching this movie--there are other nods. I think that the concept of a masked killer (or one in enough concealing makeup at least, with the odd prosthetic) killing off sexy young women is most identifiable with John Carpenter's Halloween; unsurprisingly, Terrifier is also set on Halloween. And--I'll avoid spoiling this in detail--there is a plot twist in the middle of the film that feels unmistakably like a nod to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Many have described Terrifier as being something of an "Eighties throwback", but I'm not so sure I agree. It's more like it carries the torch of "grindhouse" horror flicks and cheap VHS direct-to-video releases commonly produced in that era instead, rather than exemplifying tropes of the decade itself. Maybe that's splitting hairs, but at least I didn't use a hacksaw to do it. (See the movie, and you'll get that cringeworthy reference.) But watching Terrifier, I couldn't help but be reminded of another homage to vintage horror by Ti West, House of the Devil. Both movies aim to tap into a nostalgic feel for a kind of filmmaking that has--to an extent--fallen by the wayside, yet still has a thriving (if cult) audience. Terrifier, with its oversaturated cinematography, earnest actresses in skimpy Halloween costumes, and copious bloodspray, reminds me more of the mock trailers found in Robert Rodriguez's and Quentin Tarantino's own love letter to sleazy horror flicks, appropriately titled Grindhouse. So if you have even a slight familiarity with any of the aforementioned movies, you will see this represented in Terrifier. And undoubtedly if you are the audience for this movie, it will put a smile on your face.
Terrifier wisely avoids trying to justify Art the Clown's murderous rampage. The only insight we get into Art even being a real person is in the opening of the film, as he applies makeup to his face and fashions all manner of lethal instruments in his blood-spattered woodshop, including a truly sadistic cat o' nine tails made of scalpels. Our story starts with a pretty obvious framed narrative involving the survivor of Art's killing spree--who was left with a disfigured face--giving an interview to an unsympathetic reporter named Monica Brown (Katie Maguire). While mocking the victim in private, she is herself murdered by the survivor. Now, some horror movies might expound on this scene to try and explore how violence is contagious, survivor's guilt, and so on; but this is incidental, as Terrifier is more concerned with just getting the ball rolling on the bloody special effects before its audience grows bored. This scene does, however, instill some dramatic irony, as much of the rest of the film revolves around the audience guessing which of the women being chased by Art will be the "final girl". Following the prologue, we are introduced to the more introspective Tara (Jenna Kanell) and her sassy gal pal, Dawn (Catherine Corcoran)--who remind me a bit of Nancy Loomis and P. J. Soles from Halloween, respectively--both fully partied out and looking to go home. Tara recognizes that drinking and driving is a bad idea (she's the smarter of the two), so suggests that they go get pizza for now...but not before catching a glimpse of Art glaring at them from the shadows. Art follows them to the pizzeria, and Dawn tries to diffuse the tension by teasing the mime, who in turn offers a ring from a capsule toy to Tara; it doesn't set her at ease. Discovering their tires slashed, Tara calls her studious sister, Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi), to come pick them up. But nature calls, and Tara asks Mike (Matt McAllister), an exterminator taking a smoke break, to let her into the rundown apartment building he's bombing for rats and use the bathroom...which is ridiculously deep into the basement and utterly gross. So now that we've got all of our characters isolated, it's time for Art to predictably go to work. Despite making an almost abject point of not reinventing the proverbial wheel of slasher flicks--save for the rare outrageous set piece and transparent plot twist--this film could be called something of a "master class" in making a horror movie with some exceptional practical special effects on a shoestring budget. And--just one more comparison--in this way it reminds me of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead, with its sheer gusto in depicting horror through practical effects, and it manages to do so on less than a tenth of the budget. Some of the most outrageous special effects are accomplished through clever editing, makeup, and no doubt the dimly lit setting concealing some of the more obvious tricks of the trade. And (I lied, one more comparison, but not to a movie per se) the setting and props feel to me a bit like one of those "scare zones" found in amusement parks like Cedar Point or Universal Studios for their Halloween events. Ultimately, Terrifier is a meat and potatoes horror flick that manages to accomplish its mission in delivering a tried-and-true slasher flick at a fraction of the cost.
Recommended for: Fans of, well, low-budget slasher flicks with buckets of blood and devious props and set pieces. Terrifier is made for a specific audience already primed for this content, and--because of said content--is best suited for that audience almost exclusively.
Terrifier wisely avoids trying to justify Art the Clown's murderous rampage. The only insight we get into Art even being a real person is in the opening of the film, as he applies makeup to his face and fashions all manner of lethal instruments in his blood-spattered woodshop, including a truly sadistic cat o' nine tails made of scalpels. Our story starts with a pretty obvious framed narrative involving the survivor of Art's killing spree--who was left with a disfigured face--giving an interview to an unsympathetic reporter named Monica Brown (Katie Maguire). While mocking the victim in private, she is herself murdered by the survivor. Now, some horror movies might expound on this scene to try and explore how violence is contagious, survivor's guilt, and so on; but this is incidental, as Terrifier is more concerned with just getting the ball rolling on the bloody special effects before its audience grows bored. This scene does, however, instill some dramatic irony, as much of the rest of the film revolves around the audience guessing which of the women being chased by Art will be the "final girl". Following the prologue, we are introduced to the more introspective Tara (Jenna Kanell) and her sassy gal pal, Dawn (Catherine Corcoran)--who remind me a bit of Nancy Loomis and P. J. Soles from Halloween, respectively--both fully partied out and looking to go home. Tara recognizes that drinking and driving is a bad idea (she's the smarter of the two), so suggests that they go get pizza for now...but not before catching a glimpse of Art glaring at them from the shadows. Art follows them to the pizzeria, and Dawn tries to diffuse the tension by teasing the mime, who in turn offers a ring from a capsule toy to Tara; it doesn't set her at ease. Discovering their tires slashed, Tara calls her studious sister, Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi), to come pick them up. But nature calls, and Tara asks Mike (Matt McAllister), an exterminator taking a smoke break, to let her into the rundown apartment building he's bombing for rats and use the bathroom...which is ridiculously deep into the basement and utterly gross. So now that we've got all of our characters isolated, it's time for Art to predictably go to work. Despite making an almost abject point of not reinventing the proverbial wheel of slasher flicks--save for the rare outrageous set piece and transparent plot twist--this film could be called something of a "master class" in making a horror movie with some exceptional practical special effects on a shoestring budget. And--just one more comparison--in this way it reminds me of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead, with its sheer gusto in depicting horror through practical effects, and it manages to do so on less than a tenth of the budget. Some of the most outrageous special effects are accomplished through clever editing, makeup, and no doubt the dimly lit setting concealing some of the more obvious tricks of the trade. And (I lied, one more comparison, but not to a movie per se) the setting and props feel to me a bit like one of those "scare zones" found in amusement parks like Cedar Point or Universal Studios for their Halloween events. Ultimately, Terrifier is a meat and potatoes horror flick that manages to accomplish its mission in delivering a tried-and-true slasher flick at a fraction of the cost.
Recommended for: Fans of, well, low-budget slasher flicks with buckets of blood and devious props and set pieces. Terrifier is made for a specific audience already primed for this content, and--because of said content--is best suited for that audience almost exclusively.