Terrifier (2016) - Not Quite Breaking into the Slasher Line-up

Terrifier (2016) has all the hallmarks of an 80s slasher – an iconic look to a villain, over the top gore with characters who make bad decisions, and a killer ending. Unfortunately, Art the Clown doesn’t seem to have joined the Freddy-Jason-Leatherface-Michael Myers line-up just yet.

The whole movie centres around two girls out for Halloween, who make the mistake of interacting with a killer clown.

Only, Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) doesn’t ever say a word, which makes him a mime. The classification is important to me, since killer mime actually sounds more spine-chilling than clown. The whole concept of mime with a menacing spin makes for a truly creepy killer, and gives him a reason not to say a word. The fact that he doesn’t – not a grunt or a laugh – is unnerving. His actions too, from smile to wave to slicing someone open, capture the energy of a mime, which adds to that unnerving-ness. Art has a screen presence that makes it hard to look away - so much so that whenever anyone interacts with him, it makes you wonder how alarm bells aren’t going off in their heads.

Because the flip side of Art’s iconic-ness is our two main characters. Two girls coming home from a Halloween party, with the self-preservation instincts of lemmings. As a female who has travelled home late at night, its baffling why, even intoxicated, there weren’t more precautions taken by these two. Its even more baffling the amount of times Tara (Jenna Kanell) could have shot or stabbed Art (who knows to what avail) and gotten her revenge. They have very little personality and its clear they are only here to give Art someone to stalk and prey on. Which he does. With methods that are incredibly over the top when it comes to blood and guts. This is clearly the style that the movie is going for, so it’s more of an observation than a complaint.

What is interesting is that the majority of the movie is set in a building scheduled for demolition. This gives our protagonist a time constraint, adding another element to the plot, upping the tension again. It would have been nice to see more of this idea, since it doesn’t quite come to fruition.

Another interesting element to Terrifier is, without too many spoilers, its cyclic storytelling. The end reveal, although a little baffling, does make for a surprise that puts all of the events of the movie into a little more perspective.

Unfortunately, like other iconic slashers, Art has to come back for one last kill – even when dead. This becomes Michael Myers-esque. Presumably, this is a man who dresses up like a mime to do his evil deeds, since we’ve no evidence to the contrary. Perhaps its confirmed in its sequel that Art is a supernatural being that no one can get rid off – unlike Myers, who seemed to be confirmed to be a human child in the opening scene of the first Halloween. Thus, it would quickly run into the same problems as Halloween and Friday the 13th – if you can’t win against the killer, then what’s the point? There’s not a lot of tension when the audience knows who will be triumphant every time.

Terrifier does have all the hallmarks of an iconic slasher, and seems to have been met with positive reviews, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of buzz on social media for it. Compared to gifs of Nightmare on Elm Street and Child’s Play, Art rarely seems invited to the killer line-up, suggesting this film didn’t break into the public consciousness with quite as much of a bang.

However, it delivers on the guts and gore, with an interesting twist. This villain will definitely have you double-checking you locked your doors at night.