Terrifier (USA, 2016)

I feel like I’m going to regret this, but I’ve decided to finally catch up with the Terrifier films. Friends whose tastes I largely share have had nothing good to say about the first one, but the franchise has become such a cultural phenomenon that not having seen it makes me feel out of touch with the zeitgeist. Let’s see how this works out.

Terrifier is currently streaming on Prime Video in the UK.

Synopsis

So, there’s this guy in clown makeup, and he kills people…

OK, that’s a bit reductive. There is actually a plot here, involving two young women deciding they’re too drunk to drive home after a Halloween party and heading to a pizzeria. As they’re waiting to sober up, Art the clown comes in and takes an interest in them, creeping them out.

Long story short, they end up trapped in a warehouse while waiting for a lift home. There, Art murders people in gruesome ways. He really seems to enjoy murder. It’s kind of his thing.

General Thoughts

It’s hard to discuss Terrifier without talking about sadistic violence. This is a cruel film, with hideously violent acts carried out in increasingly brutal ways. There is no attempt to comment on violence, only to present it as spectacle. And, on the whole, I’m fine with this. Not every filmmaker needs to be Michael Haneke. I’ve enjoyed plenty of awful films over the years simply because they are gruesome, and Terrifier isn’t anything new on that front.

Still, I did find myself growing uncomfortable in the later scenes. While Art is an equal opportunity murderer, gutting men and women, the ways in which he dispatches his female victims are undeniably sexualised. He saws one woman in half, starting with her crotch, and cuts the breasts off another to use as a disguise. This may not precisely be sexual violence, but the kind of creeps it gave me weren’t the fun horror movie variety.

Art also seems to have a thing for mutilating people’s faces. It happens often enough that it starts to feel fetishistic. I have to wonder, however, whether we’re seeing his fetish or the screenwriter’s.

For what is clearly a low-budget film, they threw what money they had at the gore effects. I was surprised more than once at just how convincing they looked. There are much more polished films out there that don’t portray dismemberment anywhere near as realistically. And I suppose this is a selling point.

Verdict

I hated Terrifier less than I was expecting. My patience for films that rely wholly on gore has dwindled with age, so I was relieved that there was at least the semblance of a plot. It also helps that the runtime is only 85 minutes, which almost saves things from becoming too repetitive. Most importantly, the character of Art goes a long way to carrying the film.

Art is a genuinely sinister presence, going beyond the archetypal creepy clown and becoming some implacable embodiment of death. His silent, sardonic persona radiates menace even when he’s just sitting quietly in the pizza parlour. This is a monster who operates out in the open, just as scary in the light as when lurking unseen in the shadows. There is no attempt to humanise him or give him a backstory, making him all the more nightmarish. I can imagine Terrifier still working as a far less bloody thriller, relying on nothing more than Art’s leering presence.

Still, I’m not sure that Terrifier has much of interest beyond Art. There is some tension as he stalks victims through the warehouse, but the focus is far more on grossing us out than scaring us. Ultimately, the violence offers diminishing returns, and Terrifier has little else to offer.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on Twitter, BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or lurking in the dark corners of your home.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (USA, 2021)
Tales That Witness Madness (UK, 1973)
When Evil Lurks (Argentina, 2023)
Under Paris (France, 2024)
In a Violent Nature (Canada, 2024)
Torso (Italy, 1973)
Titane (France, 2021)
Rorschach (USA, 2015)
The Coffee Table (Spain, 2024)
Dr Caligari (USA, 1989)
Bit (USA, 2020)
The Guard From Underground (Japan, 1992)
Oddity (Ireland, 2024)
Speak No Evil (Denmark/Netherlands, 2022)
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (USA, 1982)
Grave Torture (Indonesia, 2024)
Bedlam (USA, 1946)
The Innsmouth School For Girls (USA, 2023)
Daddy’s Head (UK, 2024)
All You Need Is Death (Ireland, 2024)
Eight Eyes (USA/Serbia, 2021)
Poor Things (Ireland/UK/USA, 2023)
Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eye (Italy, 1973)
Longlegs (USA, 2024)
Night of Fear (Australia, 1973)
Stopmotion (UK, 2024)
Terrifier (USA, 2016)
Azrael (USA, 2024)
Faust (Germany, 1926)
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (Hong Kong, 1991)
I Saw the TV Glow (USA, 2024)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.