“Terrifier” Brought Extreme Horror to the Mainstream
In October 2021, I was dawdling around Salem, Massachusetts, having taken advantage of criminally cheap flights for a last-minute Halloween weekend in the United States’ premier scary destination. I saw a witch trial, supported local artists, buying graphic tees way too thin for comfort, and made certain to stop by every must-see attraction for a quick snapshot among the crowd. I even popped into one of Salem’s many tourist-centric curbside stores, drawn in by the display of horror pins available for sale. When I saw they had Art the Clown from Terrifier, I knew I had to get him.
It was a curious moment for me. Having seen Terrifier several years before, I never envisioned he’d slash his way into the public consciousness the way Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees have. In June, I wrote a retrospective celebrating the 10-year anniversary of B.J. McDonnell’s Hatchet III, the third entry in Adam Green’s grindhouse slasher franchise. I love the series, though it’s fair to say none but the most avowed of horror fans would recognize Victor Crowley’s visage were it slapped on an enamel pin. Alternatively, the Salem shopkeeper couldn’t keep her Terrifier excitement at bay. “That’s Art the Clown! Good choice.”
The inceptive process for Terrifier was simple. Give modern audiences something they’ve never seen in a slasher movie before. In an interview with Variety, director Damien Leone asked, “Why are people going to come and see our little $35,000 movie when they can go and watch a $50 million Hollywood horror movie?” If Catherine Corcoran’s Dawn is sawed in half by David Howard Thornton’s Art the Clown, that will sure get people talking.
The question, of course, became which people would be talking. While Art the Clown made bloody waves within the horror community, regularly placing on lists of the best new age slashers, goriest slashers, extreme horror movies, and every variation therein, cross-appeal was ostensibly limited. There was no way Art, the savage killer clown, could penetrate the mainstream. Yet, that’s exactly what he did.
The release of Terrifier 2 remains one of this century’s most staggering horror success stories. A micro-budget slasher somehow raked up $15 million at the worldwide box office. For context, this is a movie where Art the Clown brutally murders Casey Hartnett’s Allie. He scalps her, slices her eye open, flays her, and pours both bleach and salt on her wounds, supernaturally keeping her alive so that she, and the audience, experience every moment of visceral pain. That’s $15 million for a movie that would send a Victorian child into a coma.
Terrifier 2’s success would not have been possible without the midnight goodwill generated by the first. As the little slasher that could, Art the Clown was everywhere. The first Terrifier shot up the rental charts, regularly ranking on digital storefronts as friends and families urged others to see what all the fuss was about. Anyone with even the most marginal interest in horror no doubt got a text from a distant relative asking if they’d seen that new horror movie making everyone throw up. Yes, Aunt Becky, I’ve seen it.
It’s a curious shift in mainstream horror sensibilities, though it isn’t necessarily unprecedented. James Wan’s Saw gobbled up $103 million worldwide when released in 2004. Sure, hardened horror fans might scoff at Saw’s gore—horror fans have always seen worse, and they’ll always let you know that—but for general audiences, it was incredible to think a savage slice of ostensible torture porn was the horror du jour. It wasn’t a one-off, either—Saw remains an ongoing (and lucrative) franchise.
Then, of course, there’s Hostel. I remember my best friend’s UMD copy for his PSP being confiscated on the bus in middle school. It was 7 in the morning, and this kid was just casually watching Hostel before first-period earth science. Arguably more graphic than Saw, Eli Roth’s torturous opus grossed $82 million worldwide.
Art the Clown and the Terrifier series broadly retain the distinct appeal of those uber-violent juggernauts. Akin to the modern day’s Grand Guignol, Art the Clown and horror more broadly, are capable of using excess as an audience entry point more than any other genre. As exhibitions of extreme content, horror is better poised than any to generate considerable word of mouth and draw in crowds desperate for disgust and terror. The constraints become boons. Where Terrifier’s extreme gore might have been an obstruction to visibility in the past, it is now its great asset. The gorier, the better.
Resultantly, Art the Clown has entered the pantheon of great horror icons—the apex of the Splatterhouse zeitgeist. Where horror fans tout the likes of A Serbian Film or The Treatment as the most disturbing movies ever made, they remain niche offerings– Tik Tok soundbites. Terrifier is different.
Returning to theaters today, July 19, my local Cineplex is already more than half full a week before release. It’s fair to say Art the Clown is a phenomenon. Not just a horror sensation but a full-borne cinematic must-see. That makes me smile. Somewhere, Art the Clown is no doubt doing the same.
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