The horrifying clown from the "Terrifier" films causes a lot of violence on screen, but did you know the costume alone almost got a man shot behind the scenes? And cops were called a second time, too.
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00:00 The horrifying clown from the Terrifier films
00:02 causes a lot of violence on screen.
00:04 But did you know the costume alone almost got a man shot
00:06 behind the scenes?
00:07 And cops were called a second time, too.
00:10 Though the bloodthirsty antagonist Art the Clown
00:12 appeared in a handful of horror films
00:13 throughout the early 2000s and 2010s,
00:16 it wasn't until 2016 that David Howard Thornton took
00:19 over the role to star in the first official Terrifier movie.
00:22 In the film, Art wreaks havoc on Halloween night
00:24 as he hunts down Tara and her sister Victoria.
00:27 Unfortunately, as Slash Films' Chris Evangelista
00:30 observed in his Terrifier 2 review,
00:32 the first official installment of the Terrifier canon
00:34 was basically just a gore fest with little story
00:36 to grab onto.
00:37 The second movie caused a significant stir in 2022
00:41 for its extreme gore and vastly improved story
00:43 and characters, setting the stage for the upcoming Terrifier
00:46 3.
00:47 While Terrifier wasn't as well realized a film as its sequel,
00:50 the makeshift visual effects, most of which
00:52 were crafted by director Damian Leone himself,
00:55 were undeniably impressive.
00:57 However, one of the biggest issues
00:58 with using practical visual effects
01:00 while shooting a low-budget independent slasher
01:02 is that you will frequently upset unwitting members
01:04 of the public.
01:05 Somewhat unsurprisingly, that's exactly what happened
01:08 with both Terrifier films.
01:10 I didn't mean to frighten you, dear.
01:13 Speaking to Smasher Pass Indie Filmmaking,
01:15 Thornton recalled how one scene in particular
01:17 almost got him shot by police.
01:19 The $35,000 production was shooting in Trenton, New Jersey
01:22 when things took a turn.
01:23 As the actor recalled, there were two ladies arguing
01:26 under the window of where I got my makeup on.
01:28 I went over to watch the argument
01:29 while they were filming a scene on set, forgetting how I looked.
01:32 They looked up and saw this blood-covered clown looking
01:35 down at them and ran off screaming.
01:37 Thornton went on to recount how half an hour later,
01:39 Leone and producer Phil Falcone asked him to come outside,
01:43 where he was greeted by over a dozen police
01:44 officers in full riot gear.
01:46 He explained that the area they were shooting in
01:48 was not particularly safe and that the women he'd seen
01:50 earlier called the cops to report a bloody clown.
01:53 Luckily, his explanation saved Thornton from a bullet.
01:56 As he told the outlet, they laughed their butts off
01:58 when I came out and told me that I'd better
02:00 be glad that I did not come out before my director
02:03 and producer did or that I would have been shot on sight.
02:05 Thankfully, nothing as horrific as an actual shooting
02:08 happened on this specific occasion.
02:09 As Thornton went on to explain, he actually
02:11 ended up taking pictures with the officers,
02:13 though some kept their distance due to their own personal fear
02:16 of clowns.
02:17 Interestingly enough, it wouldn't
02:19 be the last time the police were called to a terror fire set.
02:22 In fact, having the cops show up to set
02:24 seems to have become an occupational hazard
02:25 of Leone's brand of indie slasher filmmaking.
02:28 During an interview at Creep.ie Con 2023,
02:31 Thornton recalled how during filming for the laundromat
02:34 scene in Terror Fire 2, he once again
02:36 found himself face to face with the New Jersey police.
02:38 He explained, "I'm sitting there naked, covered in blood,
02:41 and the cops said, 'We hear there was a bloody clown that
02:44 came in here.'
02:45 And I'm like, 'Hi, it was me.'"
02:47 At least on this occasion, Thornton
02:49 wasn't confronted with an entire riot squad ready to shoot
02:51 though he did face the uncomfortable situation
02:54 of needing to reassure cops while wearing
02:56 nothing but a newspaper.
02:57 If anything, these reactions from unsuspecting passersby
03:00 just legitimize the horrifying nature of a figure
03:02 like Art the Clown.
03:04 The original Terror Fire came out around the time
03:06 that the United States was experiencing a spree
03:08 of creepy clown sightings.
03:09 In fact, Rolling Stone published an article
03:11 chronicling this phenomenon just weeks
03:13 before the first film came out.
03:14 If the upcoming Terror Fire 3's trailer is any indication,
03:18 the third installment to the franchise
03:19 might be even more horrifying than any of the violence
03:22 we've seen thus far.
03:23 It will be interesting to hear whether Leonie and Thornton did
03:26 anything to get the cops called this time around.
03:28 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:31 (upbeat music)