Terrifier

Art the Clown started back in 2011 with a short movie by the same name, truth be told I didn't like it. The creator Damien Leone would keep Art around in his feature film All Hallows' Eve (2013) but as a small role.

Now here we are and Art has his own movie, but is it any good? Honestly, not really but it's better than his last solo outing.

It follows the standard slasher formula and sees a couple of girls on Halloween night come under attack from a psychotic clown.

So again this is generic stuff, it embraces all the usual tropes and though not predictable certainly has no surprises. It's also pretty ugly and oddly paced throughout.

What Terrifier does have however is sheer unadulterated brutality. This is gory nasty no holds barred merciless stuff, I was quite shocked actually. Considering the budget they make all of it look really good, so kudos to the sfx department.

I love clowns as antagonists but Art doesn't seem to tick enough boxes for me. He's less of a clown and more of a mime and doesn't seem to be an interesting enough character to carry his own film.

Passable stuff but by this time next week I'll have forgotten it.

The Good:

Impressively grisly visuals

Jenna Kanell

Unpredictable

The Bad:

Doesn't exactly flow

Poor cinematography

This film really needed a PLOT. And characters, some people to root for. Instead, the poor pacing, lack of tension and suspense made for a kind of dull film experience. Yes, Art is a crazy, vicious clown killer. If that's all you want, then you'll see it here as he wounds, kills and dismembers people. The problem is, he will injure someone--a woman's ankle is almost torn out--and the next scene, she's running. People have their heads bashed in...and later, are able to get up and function. It really doesn't make a lot of sense and since Art seems to pop up in more places than possible, he's never really a surprise--he's overused. Clearly the director knew the story was thin, so every few minutes, Art pops up to attack someone. It really is disappointing since the short films showed some potential but when a whole film is given to Art, he's boring and predictable. I'm sure there will be another one--I hope the screenplay is given as much attention as the gore effects.

The overrated "Terrifier" is a horror film with a promising and funny beginning, with the alcoholic Dawn acting like a stupid and the clown accepting the silliness. Until the moment Tara and Dawn are abducted, the film works reasonably well. However, when Victoria drives to give a ride to her sister and Dawn, she hears that there is a serial killer in the area. But even being aware of the dangerous situation, she begins to take a series of very stupid e clichés attitudes culminating in the awful conclusion. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Note: On 20 October 2022, I saw this film again.

Do you ever watch a slasher film and the characters make SO MANY DUMB CHOICES that you stop hoping they'll get out of it and hope they're put out of their misery instead?

Yeah, this movie is like that.

Art the Clown is a plus because he is truly terrifying-great costume/makeup and great characterization on his part. But the victims ultimately committed the sin of making me not care if they lived or died. They weren't bad concepts, just poorly executed (no pun intended). The film harkens back to some traditional slashers in the mystery of who the killer and his motivation, so that doesn't bother me at all for a slasher film, but the characters' dumb choices are awful no matter the kind of film.

Yes there is almost no plot and it's very nihilistic and gratuitous, but it makes up for that with a truly creepy villain and some very well done and incredibly brutal gore effects.

The acting is perfectly fine. Nothing amazing, but it's perfectly acceptable. A lot better than you usually get in a low budget horror these days.

This isn't a movie that's going to revolutionize the genre, but it's a fun throwback to the good old days of unstoppable silent killers terrorizing people for arbitrary reasons.