Terrifier (2016) – What Happened to This Horror Movie?

Art the Clown. He’s a homicidal maniac. He’s a supernatural being. He’s disgusting. He’s amusing. He’s the latest cinematic madman to be added to the ranks of genre icons. And he’s been around longer than you might realize. He’s been lurking around for a couple of decades. His breakthrough moment came with the 2016 movie Terrifier – and we’re going to examine that film… and the bad clown at the heart of it all… with this episode of What Happened to This Horror Movie?

Writer/director Damien Leone first brought Art the Clown into the world with a short film called The 9th Circle, which was shot in 2006.The story centers on a young woman who’s creeped out by a strange clown in a train station. The clown ends up attacking her, delivering her to a coven of witches that are in direct contact with Satan himself. Leone never intended for Art to be the lead villain of the short. But he found that everyone who watched it thought Art was the best thing about it. So, a few years later, he decided to make a short that was all about the clown. That twenty minute short was called Terrifier. It follows a woman who’s driving down an isolated road when she crosses paths with Art at a gas station. And he proceeds to relentlessly pursue her for the rest of the night. Attacking, torturing, and disfiguring her. All just for his own amusement.

The Terrifier short caught the attention of a producer who wanted to include it in an anthology film. The rest of the anthology would be made up of shorts directed by other filmmakers. But the producer wanted to shoot new footage of Art the Clown to insert into those other shorts. Leone didn’t like that idea, so he pitched his own: he would build an anthology out of The 9th Circle, Terrifier, and a new story that deals with an alien invasion but includes a nod to Art. Titled All Hallows’ Eve, that anthology was released in 2013. And by the time it hit home video, Leone was already planning to make a feature film that would serve as a showcase for Art. This character that seemed to fascinate anyone who watched the short films. He made the monster mash Frankenstein vs. the Mummy first, but then he circled back to his killer clown.

Speaking with Bloody Flicks, Leone confirmed that he drew inspiration from multiple existing characters when he created Art. He said, “Pennywise from Stephen King’s It was the killer clown king even back then. So I knew if I was going to step into that arena, I was going to have to do something drastically different. If you compare Art to Tim Curry’s Pennywise side by side, you’ll notice they are almost polar opposites. Pennywise is colorful, Art is black and white. Pennywise has hair, Art is bald. Pennywise speaks, Art is silent. Pennywise doesn’t use weapons, Art carries around a garbage bag filled with weapons. I also took personality traits from my favorite slashers and attributed them to Art. For instance, Art is essentially the silent stalker à la Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, but with Freddy Krueger’s sense of humor. Art is ultimately my tribute to everything I loved about slasher movies growing up. I wanted to take familiar elements that we all embraced from American horror movies, combined with the graphic violence and atmosphere of Giallo films. Hopefully creating something fresh and exciting.”

The Terrifier feature was an independent production, with producer Phil Falcone providing funding. Some more money was raised through an IndieGogo campaign – but that campaign fell short of its fifteen thousand dollar goal. Only four thousand, three hundred and sixty dollars were contributed. Leone went ahead and made his movie anyway. Working with a budget that was around fifty-five thousand dollars. This is a good example for other indie filmmakers to follow. Make your movie, even if an attempt at crowdfunding falls short. Just because a fundraising campaign didn’t generate much interest doesn’t mean the project isn’t going to be successful.

And just because the Terrifier feature was going to be an hour longer than the short didn’t mean the plot had to get overly complicated. Leone crafted a very simple story for the film. It starts with two young women, Tara and Dawn, heading home from a party on Halloween night. They decide to stop by a pizza place so they can sober up a bit. And in walks Art the Clown. Once Tara and Dawn have caught his attention, he dedicates himself to ruining their night. He stalks, tortures, and kills them – and pretty much everyone else he happens across. There is no intricate back story given for Art, no motivations. There’s nothing going on here but sadistic mayhem. Extended stalk and slash sequences, with Art doing things that are weird, gross, and disturbing. Leone’s approach was to make the movie feel like a fever dream, with a relentless sense of dread. And he succeeded.

Jenna Kanell was cast as Tara, with Catherine Corcoran as Dawn. Samantha Scaffidi plays Tara’s sister Victoria, who gets pulled into the horrific events. Some of the other victims include characters played by Pooya Mohseni, Matt McAllister, Michael Leavy, Gino Cafarelli, and Erick Zamora. Katie Maguire, who played a babysitter in the All Hallows’ Eve wraparound story, also shows up. Playing a different character, but one who still has some very bad luck.

The project hit a bit of a speed bump when Mike Giannelli, who had played Art in the short films, decided not to return. He was replaced by David Howard Thornton, a stage actor with a background in mime and physical comedy. That experience was greatly beneficial to his performance, as Thornton was able to make the silent killer even more unnerving. Leone told Clout Communications, “Everything people loved about Art was a testament to how Mike Giannelli portrayed him and now I had to start from scratch. Very frightening indeed. But as luck would have it, David came in for an audition one day and my producer and I immediately knew this was our guy. David pantomimed the act of stabbing someone to death and sawing their head off with great exuberance and glee. He’s also extremely animated, tall and thin. I always envisioned Art to be of a more slender build and I was excited to see what little quirks and nuances David could bring to the character. Working with David was a total delight from start to finish.”

Terrifier was made specifically to let viewers watch Art do his thing for a longer period of time. We might connect with other characters and hope they’ll be able to get away from this insane clown. Because nobody here deserves what Art does to them. But it wouldn’t serve the viewer well to get too attached to any of them… because chances are high that Art is going to make a bloody mess of them. The film serves not only as a showcase for Art the Clown, but also for gory special effects. Which were provided by Leone himself. He had been interested in special effects since he was a kid, especially the work of Tom Savini. That’s what got him into filmmaking. And he proved to be quite capable of making nauseating death scenes. Turning Terrifier into a gore-drenched throwback to the ‘80s glory days when Savini was splashing blood across the screen on a regular basis.

The Terrifier short had a scratched up, Grindhouse-style look to it. But Leone and cinematographer George Steuber decided to ditch that aesthetic for the feature. Figuring viewers would get tired of the fake scratches very quickly. Steuber was able to give the movie an old school look without beating up the image. The story is clearly set in modern day. The characters use cell phones and laptops. They take selfies. But the movie still feels like a remnant from a time gone by.

The finished film made its festival debut in 2016. And ended up securing a distribution deal through Dread Central Presents and Epic Pictures. Genre fans began taking note of it right away. Then it reached a wider audience through streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, and Tubi. Minds were blown. Stomachs were turned. And Art the Clown began gathering a large fan base. Leone always felt that Terrifier had the potential to lead into at least two sequels… and in 2019, he started working on Terrifier 2. Which had a higher budget than its predecessor; a little over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That film was released in 2022, and performed better than expected during its theatrical run. Opening the door to a Terrifier 3… which had a budget of a couple million dollars. And did so well at the box office, it humiliated the under-performing Joker sequel.

While we’re speaking of sequels, we should mention that All Hallows’ Eve spawned a franchise as well. Although the adventures of Art continue elsewhere, the All Hallows’ Eve sequels are a collection of short films from multiple different filmmakers. Just like the producer’s original vision for the first movie, before it ended up being made entirely by Leone. That movie led to Leone making the Terrifier feature. And as the series goes on, maybe we’ll see one of the sequels launch a filmmaker to a similar level of success. Either way, we have two separate franchises to enjoy.

So what happened with Terrifier is that Damien Leone came up with a character who appealed to viewers to a surprising degree. Even the filmmaker himself was surprised by how interested people were in Art the Clown. But he went with it, endeavoring to give the people what they wanted. They asked for more, so he gave them more. And even though he made it disgusting, people loved it. There have been ups and downs along the way, but the Terrifier franchise is a great success story. And an example of how to build on success.

This is shaping up to be a substantial franchise. Art the Clown is still out there. He’s more popular than ever, with fans who just can’t seem to be enough of him. There will be more Terrifier movies. Leone has said that he wants to wrap up the story before Art wears out his welcome. Aiming to end things with Terrifier 4 or 5… But he also knows that you can’t keep a good slasher down. Especially when they have a supernatural element to them. They have tried to end all of the major slasher franchises. But the iconic killers just keep finding new ways to come back. And the same thing could wind up happening with Art. We might be seeing this guy carve up new victims for a long time to come. So keep your stomachs strong, because there’s always more blood and guts to be spilled.

A couple of the previous episodes of What Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!