Macabre…ish Horror Review: Terrifier

 

 

Terrifier, 2016/ 1 hr 26 min

 

A surviving victim of Art The Clown speaks to a journalist, Monica Brown and shows her horribly mutilated face. She claims she saw Art die but that has not been verified. The journalist is scared of her and disgusted by her appearance.

 

Later, in her dressing room after disparaging the victim, she is attacked in her dressing room and has half of her face clawed off.

 

Meanwhile, it seems that Art is very much still alive and preparing for his return.

 

  • But here’s the story…

 

A couple of friends, Tara (Jenna Kanell) and Dawn (Catherine Corcoran) go to a pizza place to try to sober up after a night out on Halloween just as Art the Clown (David Howard Corcoran) is approaching, carrying a large, heavy trash bag. He follows them in and totally freaks one of them out but Dee, is too drunk to be scared.

 

She finds him hilarious and even sits on his lap to take a few selfies for social media. Art seems to be smitten with Tara as he sits across from them, with his grotesque smile, terrifying gaze and flirting. He gets a ring from the prize machine and kneels, presenting it to Tara and he never says a word.

 

He is then physically tossed out by the manager, Steve (Gino Cafarelli), after defiling the bathroom.

 

As the women head back to the car, they find their tire slashed. Tara calls her sister, Vicki (Samantha Scaffidi), to pick them up. While, Dawn and Tara wait in the car, they wonder if the clown did it.

 

Maybe he did but Art is currently obliterating Steve and his cook in the pizzeria kitchen. Not simply killing but hacking them up and turning at least one if their heads into the jack-o-lantern, complete with fire.

 

While Tara goes to the bathroom in a nearby building, there’s a news report about the pizza restaurant murders comes on the radio. And Art hops into the passenger seat of Dawn’s car while she’s not looking.

 

As Tara finds her way back to the car, she finds Art with his bloody hands and a scalpel, blocking her way. So runs and hides among the cars in the basement. When he finds her, he immediately starts trying to saw at her leg with the scalpel. She escapes but the building is locked down.

 

Tara wakes up, bound, gagged and tied to a chair. Art is nearby searching for the first tool to use. He goes with the one that terrifies her the most.

 

Art the Clown walks over to a sheet, rips it down and under it is, Dawn. Hanging upside down and nearly nude. Art saws her in half while Tara watches and screams. But she does escape again after tearing the chair arms off. And she fights back while Art silently screams.

 

Unfortunately, Art has a gun. And he’s gonna cause as much suffering as he can before it’s over. The building’s cat lady (Pooya Mooyeni) tries to get help from the super, Mike, but he shrugs her off as crazy and by the time he does believe, it’s too late.

 

Meanwhile, Vicki, is still on her way. When she arrives, Art directs her to another entrance with Dawn’s phone via text. And she makes her way into the building and a house of horrors.

 

When she thinks she’s found her sister, it turns out to actually be a nude, Art, still in face paint but wearing parts of her sister. Who now lays cast to the side with her chest and scalp skinned off. He chases Vicki with a comically gruesome imitation of Tara. The only thing that stops him is Will (Mike Leavy), the pest control guy, laying on the horn outside.

 

He follows bloody boot prints right to Art. Who quickly turns him into a horror show of a pez dispenser.

 

When Vicki finally tries to escape again, she finds Art riding a tiny bike around the rat infested basement. He finds her but she thwarts him when the plastic he uses to try to suffocate her, is defeated with a hole.

 

Mike survives the hammer and comes through in the clutch when Art is on his next vicious assault on Vicki. They call the cops

and when they come, Art is found eating Vicki’s face.  But don’t think it’s over. It’s far from it.

 

This indie slasher is directed by Damien Leone. It is gruesome, gory and sometimes disgusting. It is very graphic and the kills are very over the top. The physical effects are very good and leave nothing to the imagination. If you were scared of clowns before then this movie won’t be easy to watch. In an interesting change, the women, Tara and Vicki, are fighters. Whereas the men don’t even get the chance with exception on Mike. There’s quite a lot of torture in this movie and Art is not only a sadistic cannibal but a masochist, or maybe just a monster. This flick is painful to watch. Enjoy!

 

 

Terrifier 2 is out in October, 2022!

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