Terrifier

A twenty minute short that will leave any fan of the slasher film genre begging for more. This is violent, special effect loaded, and creates a sense of hopelessness and dread that will haunt you even in the minutes afterwards.

I know more than one person who is terribly scared of clowns. And I am not talking about scary looking clowns either. They are scared if even the traditional colourful, happy clowns who sport a bag of tricks. So, imagine, exposing these people to one of the creepiest looking clowns in existence. Art the clown is just that, and he is not exactly human either.

How do I describe how Art the clown looks? White face paint. Black lips. Rotting teeth. Long Pointy nose. Mountain shaped eyebrows. Black and white costume. Black top hat on the side of his head. Blood spills, shining vividly, and brightly when on his skin.

How do I describe how Art the clown acts? He smiles when caught in the middle of a violent crime. He laughs hysterically, and mocks, yet no sound comes out. Mysteriously appears in random places.

How do I describe what Art the clown does? Sinister. Violent. Bag of weapons is his bag of toys. Defecates all over public washrooms. Kills no person in the exact same way. Brings victims back to his garage for mutilation, or just does it in public.

Art the clown is a murderous entity. Likely a demon of sorts. Who does not seem to like humans very much. His final kill shows his opinion on women, yet his first kill does not make me think he favourites men either.

For a short film, a lot is accomplished. Filmed in a gritty, old school Grind-house type way, Terrifer creates an atmosphere that is comparable to sitting down in an electric chair just waiting for the trigger to be pulled. You know, complete hopelessness, essentially.

Anyone who gets in Art's way, or lays eyes on him, might as well just give up, reminiscent over the good times, and kill themselves quickly before the clown gets the chance to play with them.

Starts in the traditional sense with a girl, played by Marie Maser, lost at a gas station. The attendant (Michael Chmiel) helps her, after dealing with a weird man dressed in a clown costume, who decided to poop all over the place in the washroom.

The clown, Art, played by Mike Giannelli, walks away harmlessly. Well, after stealing a garbage bag for whatever reason, anyways. Minutes later, the attendant hears a noise, and goes back into the station. Can you guess what happens next?

This is your classic chase between a slasher and his final girl. With a classical filming style, decent enough acting, a wise soundtrack consisting of mostly piano riffs, and a killer clown that is capable of making It's Pennywise jealous, you are in for a treat.

Hell, I'll GO even further and downright say if handled correctly, this killer could be the next major slasher. An anthology film titled All Hallows Eve, was released recently, featuring this short, and while I have not watched it, all I keep hearing is that Art the Clown was the only good thing about it.

Someone give Damien Leone a big budget, and let him write a script to an hour in a half long film featuring Art the Clown. Judging from his twenty minute magic, I think the man has a pretty good idea of what works in a slasher film.

Superpower Film Scale: 4/5 On the verge of greatness

1: Villainous Waste

2: Careless Bystander

3: Hero unaware of powers

4. On the verge of greatness

5. Heroic film

Damien Leone's "Humble" beginnings, a short slasher film about Art the Clown that blossomed into a number of films including a feature movie of the same name. But how?

I haven't exactly been a fan of his works, All Hallows Eve (2013) got a 3/10 from me and it's sequel All Hallows Eve 2 (2015) a mere 4/10. I get what he was trying to do, I just don't think it was done very well.

Here we have a 20 minute short film about a young woman who witnesses a clown murder a gas station attendant. Fleeing she realizes that she's his next target.

Short entirely in the grindhouse fashion that immediately didn't sit right with me, I hate grindhouse! The lead actress was dire, Art the Clown seemed to have disappointingly little personality and the whole thing was unoriginal and very generic.

Sure the finale is shocking, but not exactly memorable stuff regardless.

I've seen many instances where a short film has been the stepping stone needed for a creator to get further in their career, but I don't understand how this underwhelming little nugget accomplished that.

The Good:

I do like clowns

The Bad:

Grindhouse style

Poor actress

Generic

I had already seen Terrifier, which was an hour and a half long, so I tried this short film, which was made a few years earlier. I was very satisfied. Since it's only 20 minutes or so, there wasn't room for any story, so Terrifier from 2011 didn't have to worry about that and went straight into it and then showed us some brutal scenes, which is what he did best here and in the 2016 version anyway. So was this short film better than the long version? I honestly don't think so. They both offered us brutal scenes full of blood, only here it was over in a moment, while in the full film we had plenty of time, only that time could have been filled with a little deeper plot, and by that I mean why the clown is doing what he's doing. How it came to be what it is and just some originality would have been nice. Maybe that's the goal of the script and they don't want to reveal too much about the character and leave questions unanswered and maybe nobody cares either. I'm just saying what I found lacking in the longer film, whereas here it wasn't a problem and that's why I'll give the 2011 version a better rating. For me, a good horror short that I recommend to horror fans.

A young female motorist is terrorised by a crazed, murderous clown after she stops for fuel at a gas station. This 20 minute short was later used as one of the segments of the excellent All Hallows' Eve (2013) anthology and features Art the Clown, who then went on to star in another feature length move, Terrifier (2017). Despite the low budget everything about this short impressed me. Art, in my opinion, is the scariest clown in horror history (sorry Mr King!). He really is sick. The film makers don't hold back on the gore and violence, which is well done despite a low budget. Acting is good. This film shows a great passion for the slasher sub genre and there is real talent here.

My friend Daniel Rodas let me watch this film recently (He played the 'Man in Car').

And I was very impressed. The film had me engaged from beginning to end, which is not easy to do in a span of only 18 minutes.

The acting was strong, the make up was gruesomely realistic, the deaths were highly creative, and the 'Clown' was very creepy.

The story is very simple and traditional. A young woman's car runs out of gas, on Halloween night. She stops by a deserted gas station. Witnesses a brutal murder and then what follows is a horrific night of survival as the Killer (dressed in a hideous Clown costume) hunts her down to finish her off. Slaughtering anyone and everyone who gets in his way.

The attention to detail for classic B Exploitation was wonderful and quite refreshing. Everything from the grainy camera quality to the credit font to the closing shot. You see Damien Leone's passion for horror in this film quite intensely.

This film is far better than 70 percent of those stupid 'Safe' horror movies Hollywood is spitting out these days. Nice to see that Exploitation is still very much alive.

I recommend this short film to anyone who LOVES horror. And if you love Exploitation horror... then this film is DEFINITELY for you.

Bravo.