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After "Terrifier 2" became a surprise hit in 2022, the saga's murderous mute harlequin Art the Clown returned for more bloody mayhem in 2024's "Terrifier 3," one of the nastiest horror movies ever made. Whether you had the stomach to watch Art's unhinged killing spree unfold in that latest installment or not, you have to give it to franchise creator Damien Leone for managing to top the utter depravity of his previous effort.

The director had set a precedent with the first film in the series, 2016's "Terrifier," wherein he did everything he could to advertise the fact that his splatter-fest was not your typical Hollywood slasher. Heck, Art sawed a woman in half from the pelvic region to the head in that movie. Yet somehow every subsequent entry in the saga has managed to up the violence level, leaving fans to wonder how on earth Leone will outdo the barbarity...

At the world premiere of the recently released Terrifier 3, franchise writer/director Damien Leone said there will be a Terrifier 4 – and he later said he thinks that will be the last entry in the franchise, because he doesn’t want it to wear out his welcome. (Although he has gone on to admit that Terrifier 5 might be required to properly wrap up the story.) Now, he has taken to social media to declare that he’s determined to find “the sweet spot” in the balance between gore and plot.

In response to an X user writer, “The Terrifier franchise would have been better if it was less plot-based and more kill-based,” Leone wrote, “Man, these guys aren’t making it easy for me are they? It’s either ‘Terrifier has absolutely no plot and is just mindless gore’ or ‘Terrifier has too much plot and not enough gore...

Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, and a budget of “a little over” $250,000 for Terrifier 2, which was a massive hit when it was released in 2022, earning $15.1 million at the box office. Since the second film did so well, Terrifier 3 has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” went into this one – and it paid off, as the new sequel was well-received (JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols considers the film to be the best entry in the Terrifier franchise) and proved to be a major box office success, making over $88 million worldwide. Terrifier 3 is set around Christmas, so Cineverse and Iconic Events Releasing have made the clever decision to bring the film back to theatres for screenings on December 24th and December 25th. Coming Soon reports that these special screenings “will include an introduction by filmmaker...

The Peacock Holiday 2024 lineup includes over 300 titles! Catch classics like Miracle on 34th Street, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, and A Christmas Carol, as well as hits like Christmas at Dollywood and Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.

Peacock has the whole family covered with festive titles, like Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Peacock Original film Genie, and The Legend of Frosty the Snowman. Chilling thrillers like Krampus and Black Christmas are also available.

Stream into the spirit of the season with a wide array of holiday specials from familiar favorites like Parks and Recreation, New Girl, The Office and more to have you feeling merry and bright all month long. Peacock has an exclusive gift for fans of The Office when The Office Superfan Episodes Season 8 arrives on December 12.

Stuff your stocking with laughs before the New Year with a hilarious year-end recap when 2024 Back That...

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.

Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, and a budget of “a little over” $250,000 for Terrifier 2, which was a massive hit when it was released in 2022, earning $15.1 million at the box office. Since the second film did so well, Terrifier 3 has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” went into this one – and it paid off, as the new sequel was well-received (JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols considers the film to be the best entry in the Terrifier franchise) and proved to be a major box office success, making over $73 million worldwide. Now, Variety has revealed that we can expect to see a documentary about the making of Terrifier 3, titled Art Attack! The Dissection of Terrifier 3, sometime in 2025.

Terrifier 3 has the following synopsis: Art the Clown is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents...

Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, and a budget of “a little over” $250,000 for Terrifier 2, which was a massive hit when it was released in 2022, earning $15.1 million at the box office. Since the second film did so well, Terrifier 3 has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” went into this one – and it paid off, as the new sequel was well-received (JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols considers the film to be the best entry in the Terrifier franchise) and proved to be a major box office success, making over $73 million worldwide. Now, our friends at Bloody Disgusting have revealed that fans will have the chance to watch Terrifier 3 in the comfort of their own homes very soon, as the film is set to receive a digital release on November 26th. A DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K...

The upcoming horror parody film, Screamboat, continues to round out its cast with the exciting new additions of Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey and Terrifier 2 actress Kailey Hyman.

Per Variety, Posey and Hyman will star alongside David Howard Thorton, best known for portraying Art the Clown in the Terrifier films, who is set to star as Steamboat Willie. Posey and Hyman will reportedly play pivotal roles in the film. Screamboat also stars Allison Pittel, Amy Schumacher, Jesse Posey, Jesse Kove, Rumi C. Jean-Louis, Jarlath Conroy and Charles Edwin Powell. Impractical Jokers star Brian Quinn and stand-up comedian Joe DeRosa are also slated to make cameo appearances in the film. Screamboat is directed by Steven Lamorte, who worked with Thorton previously on another horror parody film, The Mean One.

Related I Just Want to Watch Cool Stuff! - Producer Steve Barton on Terrifier 2 & His New Horror Anthology, All Hallows Eve: Inferno

A horror fan-turned-producer,...

Check Out Where It All Began… The Origin Story Of Terrifier’S Art The Clown In The “All Hallows’ Eve” Anthology New Installment “Inferno” Available On Tubi And Fandango – October 15Th!! Watch The Exclusive Interview with Steve Barton: Click The Video To Watch The Interview. https://youtu.be/BuloPW0G9EI?si=mvGQwfQizPGANA8T Check Out Where …

The post Exclusive Interview: Steve Barton: All Hallows’ Eve Trickster and All Hallows’ Eve Inferno appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

Move over Pennywise, Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is the new king of the killer clowns. Damien Leone's Terrifier 3 has already earned over $55 million at the worldwide box office, an impressive feat for an independent horror film with some of the grossest and most graphic kill scenes you'll ever see. A couple of those kill scenes involve Art the Clown slaughtering a child, which was controversial for some fans. It doesn't make sense why it should be when other horror icons have killed kids as well. Heck, that's Pennywise's whole gimmick, with poor Georgie dying in the first minutes of the It miniseries and feature film. The child-killing uproar is also mind-boggling because of the simple fact that it's not even the first time Art the Clown has done it. In his first-ever feature film appearance 2013's All Hallows' Eve, the horror anthology ends with quite a disturbing sight.

Behind every great director is a great producer. One such producer is Steve Barton (also known as "Uncle Creepy"); a horror super-fan and aficionado-turned executive producer. In 2018, he produced the follow-up to Damien Leone's cult shock-horror classic, Terrifier 2, introducing higher production values, a tighter plot and a formidable, swashbuckling final girl. Since the success of Terrifier 2, Barton has had a hand expanding its universe, and producing his own anthology horror series, All Hallows' Eve. Compiling a slew of creative and macabre short films from different directors, crews and casts, All Hallows' Eve has contributed to the growing horror landscape and the current genre renaissance. On October 15th, Barton released the newest chapter of this anthology, All Hallows' Eve: Inferno, plunging its characters and the audience into new, uncharted depths of horror, depravity and the supernatural.

In this interview with Cbr, Steve Barton discusses his involvement and love of the original Terrifier,...

Shudder's V/H/S series isn't the only horror anthology movie series back with the arrival of All Hallows' Eve: Inferno. The movie serves as the fourth installment in the franchise that launched with the eponymous 2013 outing, which was written and directed entirely by Damien Leone. In addition to launching the anthology franchise, the first All Hallows' Eve also introduced audiences to the malevolent Art the Clown, with Leone carrying on the character into the hit Terrifier franchise, whose third movie just released and has been performing strongly at the box office.

All Hallows' Eve: Inferno is a slight detour from the previous movies' formula, introducing viewers to an unnamed female character who is involved in a horrific car crash and awakens in a nightmarish dimension that, while appearing to be a hospital, may be something far worse. Unlike other anthology films, in which the frame narrative plays into the interlinking shorts,...

Art the Clown from the Terrifier franchise gets reimagined in an homage to Batman: The Killing Joke. After appearing in several short films and All Hallows' Eve (2013), Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) made his feature film debut in 2016's Terrifier from director Damien Leone. Since then, Art has only grown in popularity, and he returned in that film's 2022 sequel as well as this year's Terrifier 3, which has been a major hit critically and commercially.

Artist Peter Gilmore now shares a new rendition of Terrifier's Art the Clown, imagining what he would look like in his own unique spin on the cover of Batman: The Killing Joke. The Killing Joke cover by artist Brian Bolland features the Joker smiling maniacally as he holds a camera over one eye in portrait mode. In Art the Clown's version, Gilmore has removed the camera and instead has the demonic clown ripping apart...

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For the past couple of weekends at the box office, all eyes have been on director Parker Finn's "Smile 2" and Sony's latest Marvel Comics adaptation "Venom: The Last Dance," which topped the charts this past weekend. All the while though, director Damien Leone's ultra gory slasher "Terrifier 3" has been quietly carving it up, continuing to add to its already impressive total. So much so that the horror sequel has now set quite an eye-opening record, cementing its place in cinema history.

"Terrifier 3 crosses $50M at the worldwide box office and officially becomes the highest grossing unrated film, even surpassing the highest grossing Nc-17 films," Leone recently said on Twitter. Indeed, the unrated slasher added $4.7 million domestically in its third weekend, bringings its domestic total to $44.5 million. The film has also added $10.5 million overseas thus far,...

Terrifier 3 is now the highest-grossing unrated movie of all time after crossing yet another box office milestone. Directed by Damien Leone, the third installment in the hit Terrifier franchise sees Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) tormenting the residents of Miles County on Christmas Eve. Terrifier 3 reviews have been generally positive from critics, and the film, which features a budget of only $2 million, has been a major success with audiences in theaters.

Bloody Disgusting now reports that Terrifier 3 has grossed $55 million worldwide at the box office, making it the highest-grossing unrated movie in history. This impressive total comprises $44.5 million domestic and $10.6 million from overseas territories. The previous record-holder was Renaissance: A Film by Beyonc (2023), Beyonc's concert film, which grossed $43 million worldwide, $33 million of which came from North America. Leone himself would acknowledge this Terrifier 3 milestone, sharing a celebratory tweet:

Terrifier 3 crosses $50M at the worldwide...

In just its third weekend of release, Terrifier 3 has managed to smash yet another box office record, and is now the highest-grossing unrated movie ever made. Released on October 11, the sequel is the most profitable one yet in Damien Leones epic horror saga that began in 2016, and recently became the first horror movie to be both Certified Fresh and Verified Hot on Rotten Tomatoes since the website installed their new ratings classifications in August of this year.

Per Bloody Disgusting, Terrifier 3 crossed the $55 million mark this past weekend to take the crown, beating out the previous unrated record holder 2023s concert movie Renaissance: A Film by Beyonc, which finished its theatrical run with $44.4 million. Produced on a budget of just $2 million, for all its accomplishments, its surprisingly not the most critically acclaimed of the series. That honor goes to Terrifier 2, which holds an 86% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes,...

The All Hallows’ Eve franchise, which introduced the world to the iconic slasher Art the Clown way back in 2013, is back with brand new installment All Hallows’ Eve: Trickster, now streaming on Screambox!

This latest entry into the anthology franchise, which prides itself on spotlighting the hard work of the indie horror community, shines the spotlight on a brand-new crop of filmmakers.

All Hallows’ Eve: Trickster features a collection of short films curated by one of the producers of the indie horror blockbuster, Terrifier 2, Steve Barton, alongside Horrible Imaginings Film Festival executive director Miguel Rodriguez.

In the new movie…

“When a lost traveler comes across an isolated rural gas station on Halloween night, she thinks she’s found her way home. Unbeknownst to her, the eerie gas station is the residence of a family of degenerate, devilish creatures. As the night descends into a hellish nightmare, the young woman becomes...

Terrifier fans have been expressing their wish for a special edition 4K boxset of the franchise – and now Umbrella Entertainment has announced that they’re making that wish come true! Umbrella is releasing a Terrifier boxset that they’re calling the Art Attack Collector’s Edition, which contains all three Terrifier films in 4K Hdr! If that’s not enough, the release also includes the anthology film All Hallows’ Eve, a Terrifier 3 VHS, a 250+ page hardback book, Shower Scene sunglasses, and an Art the Clown 180-piece brick set with seven swappable items. In addition to all of that, there’s artcards, two reversible posters, and archival extras on Terrifier 1 & 2.

As for the Terrifier 3 disc, that includes the following bonus features: – 4K Dolby Vision Terrifier 3 feature using Damien’s Extra Crunch Audio mix (includes new audio updates from Damien Leone) – Exclusive! Audio Commentary with SFX maestro Christien Tinsley – Exclusive! Introduction from Director Damien Leone – Exclusive!

Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, and a budget of “a little over” $250,000 for Terrifier 2, which was a massive hit when it was released in 2022, earning $15.1 million at the box office. Since the second film did so well, Terrifier 3 has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” went into this one – and while the reviews of Terrifier 3 were generally positive (JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols considers the film to be the best entry in the Terrifier franchise), some fans were left feeling that something was missing. Leone has admitted that he cut the movie down to make sure it wouldn’t be as long as Terrifier 2 was… so is that why there seemed to be gaps in the story? Leone says that’s not the case, that he purposely made the movie in an ambiguous style.

Over the past decade, filmmaker Damien Leone has become a rising force in the horror genre. Having started in the special effects arena, Leone made waves in 2011 with his short films, The 9th Circle and Terrifier, which sparked the return of the murderous Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) in All Hallows' Eve and later in his own feature film series, the most recent of which just hit theaters. But before the Terrifier franchise was officially launched with David Howard Thornton taking up the killer clown role, Leone tried his hand at a different set of monsters. Inspired by the Universal Monsters franchise of old, the director brought two unlikely beasts together for his 2015 film, Frankenstein vs. The Mummy, and, unfortunately, the whole thing sort of falls flat.

After coming back after what seemed like a certain death in both of the first Terrifier movies, there is some question as to whether Art the Clown is immoral. The post-credit scene for Terrifier 2 shows Art being born again after seemingly dying at the end of the movie. The original also initially led audiences to believe that Art was human, yet the ending of the first Terrifier did include hints of the supernatural nature of the character. Though Art's potential immortality and supernatural characteristics were kept vague, it is clear the killer clown operates outside the normal slasher parameters.

Art the Clown is not immortal in the sense that he can't die. While he is hard to kill, Art has been effectively murdered in both Terrifier movies. However, it seems the creepily silent Art the Clown is able to resurrect himself by unknown means. Art might not even be...

Violent low-budget slasher sequel dethroned Joker 2 at US box office and gave the industry insight into what audiences are looking for at this strange moment

Conventional wisdom may dictate that you need a guy dressed up as a bat to properly defeat the Joker. But this past weekend, the indie distributor Cineverse fought fire with fire – or fought one deadly clown with another, as Terrifier 3 knocked the ill-regarded Joker sequel out of the top spot at the box office. For those who only have room in their head to keep track of one psychotic clown at a time, Terrifier is a homegrown slasher-movie franchise that began in earnest with a barely released practical-effects calling card: the first Terrifier feature, which played in a handful of theaters in 2018. (A shorter version appeared in the earlier anthology film All Hallows’ Eve.) A vastly more elaborate but still low-budget sequel followed in 2022; now a third film,...

With the success of "Terrifier 3," it is very safe to say that this is horror's hot new franchise. While Art the Clown has been terrorizing the screen for more than a decade, director Damien Leone's latest sequel centered on the murderous prankster has taken the whole enterprise to new heights. A big reason for the success of these films, particularly the latest installment, has to do with the over-the-top gore. These slashers are filled with shocking moments and buckets of blood. Yet, for as excessive as they are, there is at least one line that Leone won't cross.

In a recent interview with Variety, Leone discussed bringing "Terrifier 3" to life. Without getting into major spoilers, the film features some hugely shocking moments, with the opening scene alone enough to cause certain audience members to walk out or even get sick. This is an extreme movie by mainstream standards.

Terrifier star David Howard Thornton gives fans a concrete answer for Art the Clown's blood-soaked rampages.

In an October 13 post on Threads, Thornton responded to the question of why his iconic Terrifier character Art the Clown kills. "The cat lady summed it up in Terrifier," Thornton explained. "He kills because he thinks it's funny. It's pure entertainment for him. It's not out of revenge or anything like that. He just loves it and revels in it. He's the anti-clown here to bring pain and misery to mankind for his own selfish enjoyment."

Related From Season 3 Maintains Perfect Score at Rotten Tomatoes Weeks After Premiere

Epix and MGM's hit horror series From maintains a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score more than three weeks after its Season 3 premiere.

Thornton has portrayed Art the Clown since the first Terrifier film was released back in 2016. Created by Damien Leone, the role was originally...

The first film in writer/director Damien Leone’s Terrifier franchise had a running time of 85 minutes, which I feel is just about perfect for a slasher movie. Then Leone went wild on Terrifier 2, letting it go on for 138 minutes… which a lot of viewers didn’t mind, while others (like me) thought was painfully excessive. So when he was working on the recently released Terrifier 3, he promised this one would be shorter. And it is, slightly. Terrifier 3 has a running time of 125 minutes – and during an interview with Coming Soon, Leone took a moment to defend the length of the Art the Clown sequels.

When he was asked about running time complaints and lessons learned while making these movies, Leone said, “I’m happy with what Terrifier 2 is. I’m happy with the length of it, but what wasn’t working for a lot of people was the length.

Thanks to a lackluster response to “Joker: Folie a Deux,” the unrated horror film “Terrifier 3” opened in the no. 1 position in theaters this weekend — allowing a different clown to take down the more famous one. The movie, which was released in 2,514 theaters, earned $8.1 million on opening day.

Fans of the film have a renewed interest in its villain Art the Clown, who was first featured in the 2013 movie “All Hallows’ Eve.”

What is “Terrifier”?

“Terrifier” is a 2016 horror film written and directed by Damien Leone. The movie is about two sisters — played by Jenna Kanell and Samantha Scaffidi — who become the target of a serial killer known as Art the Clown.

Along with his early appearance in “All Hallows’ Eve,” the original “Terrifier” film has now spawned the sequels “Terrifier 2” and “Terrifier 3.”

Who is Art the Clown?

Art the Clown is the principle antagonist in the “Terrifier” franchise,...

This article contains massive spoilers for "Terrifier 3."

The central ethos of filmmaker Damien Leone's "Terrifier" films involves a combination of profanity and subversion. In other words, anything goes, especially when you least expect it to. That guiding principle has been present as far back as the first, non-canon appearances of Art the Clown, initially played by Leone's friend Mike Giannelli in the "Terrifier" short film that ended up being part of the anthology movie "All Hallows' Eve" from 2013. Even though Art was recast with actor David Howard Thornton for the first proper "Terrifier" film in 2016, the concept remained: here was a slasher movie villain who didn't play by the rules.

Where most prior slasher villains were either completely silent and emotionless or very chatty and expressive, Art was somehow both. Where, in most other slashers, a silent covenant exists between the filmmaker and audience which assumes that...

The Terrifier franchise just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Terrifier 3 is now in theatres (you can read our review at This Link) and looking to be a mega-hit (especially when taking its $5 million budget into account), novelizations and a podcast are in the works, Terrifier 4 has already been promised – and now our friends at Bloody Disgusting have revealed that a video game is coming in 2025! The game is called Terrifier: The ARTcade Game and it’s described as being “a sidescrolling beat-’em-up that pays tribute to legendary titles like Splatterhouse, Double Dragon, Battletoads, and Streets of Rage.” A trailer has arrived online to give a preview of what a sidescrolling Art the Clown beat-’em-up looks like, and you can watch that in the embed above.

Terrifier: The ARTcade Game will be available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series. It offers fans the chance to...

Terrifier 3 has earned a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes audience score. Although the Terrifier 3 release kicked off during the second weekend of October, it is set over Christmas, featuring Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) terrorizing survivors Sienna Shaw (Lauren Lavera) and her brother Jonathan (Elliot Fullam) five years after the events of the previous installment. The movie, which was written and directed by franchise creator Damien Leone, only cost $2 million and is projected to earn more than five times that total during its opening weekend. Additionally, it has earned a strong 78% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now that Terrifier 3 has debuted in theaters, Rotten Tomatoes has also aggregated an official audience score for the movie on the Popcornmeter. The title, which has already amassed more than 250 verified user reviews, has earned a near-perfect 94% score at the time of writing. While this will likely fluctuate as more reviews are added,...

There are few characters in the modern horror landscape who can rival Art the Clown, the deranged maniac who's been at the forefront of the "Terrifier" franchise for more than a decade (if we go back to his feature debut in the "All Hallows' Eve" anthology). Since then, he's become a true icon of the genre, appearing on tons of merchandise and leading unlikely box office success stories, such as 2022's "Terrifier 2." Now, Art is back for a Christmastime massacre in the new "Terrifier 3," which figures to only increase his status as horror's new it boy. But interestingly, for as unrelentingly brutal as Art is on screen, it turns out that the character is influenced by some icons from the comedy world.

/Film's Jacob Hall recently sat down with "Terrifier 3" writer/director Damien Leone, star David Howard Thornton (Art the Clown), and wrestler-turned-actor Chris Jericho. During the conversation,...

Spoiler Alert: This story contains minor spoilers for “Terrifier 3,” opening in theaters Friday.

Writer-director Damien Leone, the mastermind of the “Terrifier” series, is such an upbeat guy that, in another life, it’s easy to imagine him as a life coach, a trainer, a teacher. Conversation with him is peppered with lessons and inspiration that came to him through shooting his latest film, “Terrifier 3”:

“You never know where inspiration is going to hit you.”

“You have to go and make the quickest, best decisions you can.”

“I’ll pull him aside and say, ‘I’m literally feeling magic here. This is wonderful.’ And that doesn’t happen often.”

The other shoe drops when realizing that Leone’s positivity is in service of one of the goriest horror movies ever made. The unrated “Terrifier 3” unleashes the unhinged Art the Clown on Christmas, where he once again stalks...

Terrifier 3 star David Howard Thornton is ready to join the DC Universe. The Art the Clown actor recently revealed which DC character he'd love to have the opportunity to play in James Gunn's forthcoming shared universe.

"The Joker is my favorite villain of all time, and that's a character I would love to play myself one day," the actor told GamesRadar+. "So hopefully someone like James Gunn gives me the opportunity to tackle that character because I would like to do a lot of fun things with him." Currently, the Clown Prince of Crime is being played on the big screen by Joaquin Phoenix (in Joker: Folie Deux) and Barry Keoghan (in Matt Reeves' The Batman Epic Crime Saga). Thornton added that he has been a fan of the Joker since he was a child, admitting, "I am a huge comic book geek."

Related Terrifier Franchise Star Talks...

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The slasher remains one of horror's most popular subgenres. Still, so many of those projects are one-and-done films, ultra-low-budget stuff that doesn't break through, or reboots/retoolings of old favorites. We're often stuck with more "Halloween" or more "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," to cite a couple of recent examples. Or we're left to hope for the rarity that was "In a Violent Nature," which has a real shot at turning its protagonist, Johnny, into a new genre staple. All of this to say, it's tough to create a new icon in the slasher realm. 

Unquestionably, though, if one new icon has emerged in recent years, it is Art the Clown from the "Terrifier" series.

Originally played by Mike Giannelli and made famous by David Howard Thornton, Art has transcended the films he's been a part of. In the aftermath of the...

By any metric – film output, fanbase size, media attention, merchandising, recognizability – Art the Clown is quickly rising through the ranks as a horror icon for the modern generation the same way that Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers became household names in the 1980s.

Terrifier‘s humble beginnings originated in the mind of Damien Leone. Prior to making his directorial debut, the New York-based aspiring filmmaker and special effects artist envisioned a clown terrorizing a woman on a city bus.

Leone realized his vision in The 9th Circle, a 2008 short film in which Art The Clown made his first appearance as one of several evil entities. The homicidal clown returned as the antagonist in Terrifier, a 2011 short film that helped establish many of the character’s trademarks.

Terrifier caught the attention of producer Jesse Baget, who reached out to Leone about including it in an anthology alongside other filmmakers’ shorts.

Art the Clown is back! The sadistic slasher returns for more blood and guts with "Terrifier 3," the latest in Damien Leone's gruesome horror franchise. Over the years, Art has become a pop culture icon, seeping into the mainstream thanks to memes, merchandise, and other methods (he even has his own animatronic Halloween decoration now). Even if you've never seen a single "Terrifier" movie, you probably know who Art the Clown is, or at least can recognize him by sight. In "Terrifier 3," Art is once again killing lots and lots of people, all against a Christmas season backdrop. As we draw closer to the October 11, 2024 theatrical release of "Terrifier 3," you might be wondering how all the Art the Clown movies stack up as a whole. At least I hope you are, because that's the entire point of this post. In the spirit of the season, I've gone...

I'm going to level with you: I've never seen any of the "Terrifier" movies, largely because I am a huge wimp and they seem really scary. Let's say you're braver than I am, though, and you want to check out "Terrifier 3," the Christmas-themed installment and third movie in the ongoing franchise. Do you have to watch the first two "Terrifier" films to fully understand the entire endeavor? The answer is a little more complicated than you might think.

/Film's own Jacob Hall spoke to the franchise's writer and director Damian Leone, its star David Howard Thornton (who plays Art the Clown), and wrestler-actor Chris Jericho (who reprises his role as Burke from "Terrifier 2" in the third movie) before "Terrifier 3" premiered at Fantastic Fest, and Leone clarified that you should watch the first two movies. When Hall asked if Leone would encourage people to see the first two,...

The saga of writer-director Damien Leone’s signature horror character Art the Clown began with The 9th Circle, a 2008 short which was recycled with other mini-movies (including a 2011 first draft of Terrifier) into a 2013 anthology film, All Hallows’ Eve. David Howard Thornton didn’t take over the role of the clown until the breakout feature version of Terrifier (2016). His exceptionally committed evil mime performance — imagine Harpo Marx possessed by the Driller Killer — remains the centrepiece of an ongoing series which shows no signs of winding down.

Thornton’s Art — a deceptively simple black-and-white clown costume and make-up, complete with silly miniature hat and rotten-tooth grin — stands out as perhaps the most hateful franchise fiend in contemporary horror, mocking victims as he rips them to gory chunks and taking the time to add petty humiliations like slaps to the back of the head to the grosser, gut-exposing atrocities which are his stock-in-trade.

Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, and a budget of “a little over” $250,000 for Terrifier 2, which was a massive hit when it was released in 2022, earning $15.1 million at the box office. Since the second film did so well, Terrifier 3 has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” is going into this one, and we’re going to get the chance to see how that translates to the screen when the film receives a theatrical release on October 11th… but there have already been some screenings, and you can hear the reactions of some audience members in the audience reaction trailer embedded above. Our friends at Bloody Disgusting report that nine people walked out of the UK premiere within the first ten minutes of the movie (two more followed them out later), and that one audience member vomited along the way.

Terrifier 3 director Damien Leone discusses the impact of classic horror films like Psycho on the upcoming splatterfest.

Speaking to ScreenRant, Leone opened up about one of his favorite kills in the upcoming threequel, as well as how its inception began nowhere near Terrifier itself. Leone recalled rewatching Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho and musing over how the acclaimed director would have handled the feature if it were shot today. "I know if I was given the opportunity to remake Psycho or something - which I'll never get that opportunity - I said, 'I would show everything that knife could possibly do. It would be the most graphic scene you've ever seen.'"

Related Everything We Know About Terrifier 3

Terrifier 3 brings back Art the Clown and his most iconic victim for a holiday-themed horror movie that will deck the halls with blood and gore.

"And now, since no...

Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, and a budget of “a little over” $250,000 for Terrifier 2, which was a massive hit when it was released in 2022, earning $15.1 million at the box office. Since the second film did so well, Terrifier 3 has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” is going into this one, and we’re going to get the chance to see how that translates to the screen when the film receives a theatrical release on October 11th… but before we reach that date, Leone has already confirmed that he intends to make a Terrifier 4. This one might be the last, though, because Leone doesn’t want his franchise to wear out its welcome.

Leone told SFX magazine, “Really, (the franchise is) my true vision, for better or worse, but I really do believe that...

Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, and a budget of “a little over” $250,000 for Terrifier 2, which was a massive hit when it was released in 2022, earning $15.1 million at the box office. Since the second film did so well, Terrifier 3 has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” is going into this one, and we’re going to get the chance to see how that translates to the screen when the film receives a theatrical release on October 11th. With that date right around the corner, our friends at Bloody Disgusting have unveiled six new posters from the film, all of which were designed by Creepy Duck. You can check them out at the bottom of this article.

Terrifier 3 has the following synopsis: Art the Clown is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of...

Before becoming a modern horror icon with the Terrifier franchise, Art the Clown made his debut in Damien Leone’s All Hallows’ Eve. The 2013 horror anthology is now available on VHS at Witter Entertainment.

Presented by Broke Horror Fan (that’s me!), the fully functional VHS is available in two variants: a standard slipcase for $30 and a book box edition with a flip-open cover and an orange tape, limited to 100, for $50.

For optimal VHS viewing, the movie has been cropped from its original aspect ratio to 4:3 full frame. It’s officially licensed from Rlje Films and approved by Leone.

In the film, “While babysitting two children on Halloween night, a young woman finds an old VHS tape in the kids’ trick or treat bag. The tape features three tales of terror, all linked together by a murderous clown. As the night goes on strange things begin to occur in the house.

Terrifier 3 continues the ongoing trend of specialty popcorn buckets in horrifying fashion.

Per Cinemark, the Terrifier 3 popcorn bucket has officially been revealed as a recreation of Art the Clown's menacing visage, adorned in a full Santa Claus hat and wig. The exclusive popcorn buckets will be available from Cinemark, and are set to go on preorder beginning on September 18. A video shared by Cinemark showcases the new popcorn bucket, and it can be viewed below.

Our Terrifier 3 popcorn bucket will be available to Preorder starting 9/18. Turn on our notifications so you're the first to hear when it's live pic.twitter.com/0kRGneywiA Cinemark Theatres (@Cinemark) September 9, 2024

Related Everything We Know About Terrifier 3

Terrifier 3 brings back Art the Clown and his most iconic victim for a holiday-themed horror movie that will deck the halls with blood and gore.

Terrifier 3 marks the third film in...

Terrifier franchise star David Howard Thornton has teased multiple sequels to come, expressing interest in portraying Art the Clown for many more years. The slasher franchise focuses on murders committed by Thornton's character, including multiple supernatural elements and gory murders that help the movie stand out among other blood-soaked horror films. The upcoming Terrifier 3 will see Art come back at Christmastime, hunting for Sienna Shaw after she seemingly killed him in the previous movie. It's currently unclear how many more movies are planned following the forthcoming release.

However, speaking with Empire Magazine, Thornton revealed his intention to continue portraying Art the Clown in as many Terrifier sequels as he can. The actor's statement highlights how he would play the slasher villain even at an older age, citing just how many movies in the franchise he wants to see get made. Check out what Thornton had to say below:

I...

David Howard Thornton returns as Art the Clown in Damien Leone’s ultragory horror flick. Here’s the Terrifier 3 trailer.

If you aren’t familiar with the Terrifier films, the basic premise is that Art, a sadistic, supernatural clown played by David Howard Thornton, enjoys inflicting pain to others in increasingly bizarre, gruesome ways. It’s pretty simple, but weirdly enjoyable, too.

After debuting in anthology horror All Hallows Eve, writer and director Damien Leone made Thornton the star of Terrifier, swifly followed by Terrifier 2. Word of mouth, mainly discussing the horrific violence which was so extreme it allegedly made some viewers faint, ensured the films made hefty profits on modest budgets.

This brings us to Terrifier 3 which, thanks to its festive setting, you will soon be able to put on your shelf next to other Christmas classics like Home Alone and Violent Night.

The synopsis for Terrifier 3...

Lauren Lavera's Sienna was a fantastic addition to the previous entry so I'm happy to see Terrifier 3 is abandoning an old horror trope by bringing her back. Like many horror fans, I grew up on franchises like Halloween or A Nightmare on Elm Street. With pretty much any long-running horror series, the focus inevitably switches to the killer, with Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers becoming the "heroes" instead of their supposed protagonists. This also means that their original final girls - such as Nightmare's Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) - tended to get killed off to make way for new characters.

There are behind-the-scenes reasons for this too, such as actors not wanting to return or aging out of a role, but it's almost always a disappointment. I think one of the most memorable final girls of recent years is Terrifier 2's Sienna, a teenager seemingly fated to be Art the Clown's nemesis.

Art the Clown is back in Terrifier 3. Here’s the new teaser trailer to prove it – which, fair warning, contains a bit of gore.

The Christmas-themed Terrifier 3 has writer and director Damien Leone and producer Phil Falcone back behind the camera, with David Howard Thornton reprising his role as Art The Clown. The trailer gives brief glimpses of what to expect, but suffice it to say that it looks to be more violent night than silent night.

The synopsis reads as follows:

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. This third film is centered around Art the Clown and it is the fourth feature-length film to include the character (after the anthology film All Hallows’ Eve) in the Terrifier franchise.

Few things are better for the box office for a...

Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, 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 has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” is going into this one, and we’re going to get the chance to see how that translates to the screen when the film receives a theatrical release on October 11th. We’ve been notified that a new teaser trailer for Terrifier 3 will be making its way online this Wednesday, July 24th, but while we wait for that, USA Today has unveiled four new images from the film – and you can check them out in this article! One can be seen above, and the rest are down below.

Ever since "Terrifier 2" scared up big wins at the box office, making $15.7 million on a $250,000 budget, its homicidal antagonist has become somewhat of a slasher star. Art the Clown, portrayed by the inimitable David Howard Thornton, is a silent, psychopathic harlequin who becomes positively gleeful in the presence of all-out human carnage. But despite the murderous clown's horrific exploits, he's started to enjoy slightly more mainstream exposure since his little movie became a modest hit, popping up in a cameo on Pete Davidson's "Bupkis" and preparing for what will surely be an even bigger hit with the upcoming "Terrifier 3."

The character has come a long way since his inception as one of many eldritch creations used in the short films "The 9th Circle" (2008). Director and creator of the "Terrifier" series, Damien Leone, originally created Art the Clown after being struck by the idea of a woman being...

Writer/director Damien Leone had a budget of around $55,000 to work with on his breakout horror film Terrifier, 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 has a substantially higher budget. A “couple million” is going into this one, and we’re going to get the chance to see how that translates to the screen when the film receives a theatrical release on October 11th. We still have a while to wait for this one, but today our friends at Bloody Disgusting have unveiled an image from the film that shows Art the Clown with a box cutter. That’s not going to be a good combination for anyone unlucky enough to cross his path. You can check out the image at the bottom of this article.