A Constant Visual Feast

It’s possible I’ve given a version of my “look, I know a non-zero percentage of my subscribers and readers aren’t into horror movies” spiel before, but I’m giving it again here because this is Terrifier, and Terrifier movies warrant the preamble: I know a non-zero percentage of you, my subscribers and readers, aren’t into horror movies, and let me tell you, you’re really not gonna be into this horror movie. Hoo boy.

My report from Silver Scream Con is yet to run at another site, so here’s a preview: I saw a lot of people in Art the Clown cosplay at that event, in higher concentration than any other horror villain represented by the fans except for Ghostface from Scream. This is striking to a limited extent; Art and Ghostface are of the “now,” where horror’s other heavy hitter slasher dudes – Jason, Freddy, Michael, Leatherface, Chucky* – aren’t. But a lot of original slashers have entered the canon in the last couple of decades, and of those, none have stuck in popular consciousness as Art has. (The Babadook comes close to Art’s level of recognition, but is not, of course, a slasher villain.)

Victory Crowley? M3GAN? Jigsaw/John Kramer? The Collector? ChromeSkull? Gabriel? The Tethered? Charlie Grimille? (L, I say to this last one, O-L.) A few of these have simply faded out of thought in horror culture. A few more have eked out their place in it. But they’re only at the middle of the mountain, and Art is at the top. He’s basically in the same league as those heavy hitters, and with only three solo films* to his credit. Credit the achievement to Damien Leone’s best-in-class gore effects in each Terrifier movie, and especially to David Howard Thornton’s destined-to-be-legendary performance as Art. He’s truly incredible.

I have another theory about why Art has become so embedded in pop consciousness so quickly, and it’s that he, in his pursuit of entertainment, “entertainment” for him being “the wholesale excruciating dismemberment of innocent victims,” is an avatar for a society that’s driven by self-interest more than ever. This has stewed in my brain since 2022, when Terrifier 2 came out and solidified Art’s iconography; I’m glad to finally get it out of my brain just in time for Terrifier 3, over at Paste Magazine.

*Plus two short films, plus one anthology film, plus one totally out of left field, but not at all unwelcome, interlude in Pete Davidson’s FX series, Bupkis.