Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on the first Terrifier movie, and a budget of “a little over” $250,000 for Terrifier 2 – which was a massive hit when it was released last year, earning $15.1 million at the box office. Since the second film did so well, Terrifier 3 (which is scheduled to reach theatres on October 25, 2024) has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” is going into this one. So Leone has revealed that he’s hiring a Hollywood FX team to work on this one – and during an interview with Deadline, he also revealed that Chris Jericho will be reprising the role he played, briefly, in Terrifier 2.
Terrifier 3 is set to start filming around the beginning of February. This one has the following synopsis: Art the Clown is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.
David Howard Thornton will be reprising the role of Art the Clown, while Lauren LaVera will be back as Terrifier 2 heroine Sienna and Elliot Fullam returns as Sienna’s brother Jonathan. Samantha Scaffidi is returning as Terrifier and Terrifier 2 character Victoria.
Leone told Deadline, “There are a few new major characters introduced in three, one in particular that it’s too soon for me to announce…What I think I can say at this stage is that Chris Jericho [who has a cameo role as a psychiatric hospital attendant in a credits scene] is going to be returning. He’s super excited. This one is going to pick up where part two left off, in the insane asylum, so, you’re going to see what transpires there, what mayhem unfolds, because seeing how Art and Victoria ended up, is so insane, and seeing how they get out of that situation and what happens next is going to be really wild. So, we have to get Chris back in there and see how he becomes a part of that situation.“
About the FX team, he said, “A chunk of the budget is also going to practical effects. This is the first time in my career I got to hire a Hollywood makeup effects crew to come in and take all of that off of my plate, which is incredible, because that’s one of the reasons why part two took years to make, because me and my producer, Phil Falcone, did all the special effects ourselves. We’d have to take breaks in between shooting, for weeks at a time, sometimes, just to build an upcoming effects sequence. It was worth the years of work and the stress, but it does get daunting. There’s a lot of pressure. The production value itself is going to be much bigger in this one. It’s going to be much more polished, even though I’m still trying to capture that vintage sort of Grindhouse aesthetic. … Everything has to be taken to the next level, and part three is going to be no different. My goal is always to push the envelope as far as I can but maintaining some level of sort of mass accessibility. I don’t want to turn off the audience too much with the gore, but I feel like I could open the door a little wider and show them things that they don’t typically see in your average horror movie, or even your average slasher film. So, there are scenes in this one that push it further.“
If you’re worried that Terrifier 3 might wrap the franchise up as a trilogy, have no fear. Leone knows that horror franchises always continue, and anything’s possible once the supernatural gets involved. So even if he brings a sequel to a satisfying conclusion for himself as the creator of the franchise, the door can always be opened to more sequels.
To hear more about the status of Terrifier 3 (and get some comments from Lauren LaVera), click over to the Deadline link.
Are you looking forward to Terrifier 3? What do you think of Chris Jericho and a Hollywood FX team being involved? Let us know by leaving a comment below.