Terrifier 2 (Damien Leone, 2022)
Drop on by the clown cafe
T2 is to T1 what T2 is to T1.
If that doesn’t make sense to you, let me tell you about a little would-be film franchise that could: The Terminator.
Written (with Gale Anne Hurd and William Wisher) and directed by James Cameron, The Terminator tells the story of a ruthless cyborg killer from the future as he hunts Sarah Conner (future mother of John Conner, who will eventually lead the human resistance against the rise of the machines).
It’s a lean, mean, satisfying R-rated horror movie — in that respect, not entirely dissimilar than the original Terrifier movie. When it came to the sequel (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), however, it repackaged itself as an out-and-out fun blockbuster that, despite its R-rating, strongly appealed to a much younger audience, most notably due to its 10-year-old protagonist, played by Edward Furlong.
Terrifier 2 does something similar. Not that any kids were befriending Art the Clown and teaching him how to say “Hasta la vista, baby,” but it takes a lean, mean, and notoriously gory horror movie and reconstitutes it in a form that is more palatable for a mainstream multiplex audience.
Bingo, the film was a huge success, raking in a total $15.7 million worldwide, on a budget of $250,000.
Make no mistake: Terrifier 2 is still a nasty gore-filled horror flick, but it feels substantially different that the original film. Whilst it’s still gory, it’s not as outrageous as the original. Case in point: in the original, a nude woman is hung upside down and cut in half by a handsaw. In the sequel, the arguably most noxious murder involves rubbing bleach and salt into wounds. Still awful, but inarguably in a different class.
Terrifier 2 is also much more polished. It looks like it cost much more than the original and, to its credit, far more than its actual budget. The original wears its gnarliness proudly on its sleeve — and rightly so. The sequel has far fewer rough edges.
I’d also argue that this might be one of the most successful horror-comedies you’re likely to find. Striking the right balance between terror and humor is notoriously difficult, and most films that attempt it struggle to successfully walk the line. Terrifier 2 manages to be laugh out loud one moment and genuinely scary and disturbing the next. I believe the comedic nature of Art is what makes him one of the most endearing cinematic antagonists we’ve seen in a long time.
Critically, Terrifier 2 builds on and expands the mythology of its homicidal and apparently immortal clown while also introducing a much younger cast including a Little Pale Girl as a sidekick to Art and, most critically, the introduction of warrior-princess cosplayer Sienna as Art’s nemesis and apparently the franchise’s ultimate final girl.
Not everything works. Some of the mythology is scattershot. I’m not a fan of the whole Clown Café elements, although at least by the film’s end I can concede they’re apparently necessary. I do like the Clown Café song, however — now that is an earworm to rival Halloween III’s Silver Shamrock jingle.
But it feels like Leone is building something here — and doing so on his own terms. If that means aspects of the film are somewhat self-indulgent, so be it.
Overall, I’d argue that while Terrifier and Terrifier 2 are to an extent vastly different films, the sequel is something of a step up. I can’t wait to see what outrageousness is in store in Terrifier 3.