Sure, slashers are dark — but the best of them also have a generous sprinkling of humor. Director Damien Leone knows this better than most, and he made sure to stay true to the rule in "Terrifer 3."
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00:00Sure, slashers are dark, but the best of them also have a generous sprinkling of humor.
00:06Director Damian Leone knows this better than most, and he made sure to stay true to the
00:10rule in Terrifier 3.
00:12The twisted creator of the Terrifier franchise and its grease-paint-slathered antagonist
00:16Art the Clown grew up a fan of slashers, and knows full well what sickos like him are looking
00:21for when it comes to genre conventions.
00:24They want kills that go way too far, that are frankly impossible to execute, and, in
00:29that blood-spurting vein, are uproarious to behold.
00:32Leone's been shredding the outside of the envelope since he split poor Dawn in half
00:36in the first movie, and he's somehow managed to top himself with each sequel.
00:40That is so messed up!
00:44While Leone strikes a silly tone from the outset in Terrifier 3, and kicks it into overdrive
00:48with the Art the Clown Christmas Carol, he genuinely cares about the welfare of his main
00:52characters, particularly Lauren Levera's savage survivor Sienna Shaw.
00:57As such, he gets us caring more than expected about her fate.
01:00We can handle her getting hacked and stabbed, but we don't want her to fully fall prey to
01:05Art.
01:06So, when filming the movie's final set piece, Leone encouraged David Howard Thornton, who
01:09plays Art, to inject a bit of humor into the moment.
01:12While taking a victory lap for 3 on his Twitter account over the huge opening weekend racked
01:16up by Terrifier 3, Leone quote-tweeted a fan's clip of Art slapping Sienna in the back of
01:21the head while she's tied to a chair in front of the family Christmas tree.
01:25For Art, this is as innocuous as it gets, and, as such, earns an unexpected laugh from
01:30moviegoers.
01:31It turns out that this was an ad-libbed bit courtesy of Thornton.
01:35As Leone wrote in his post,
01:36"...you never know what's gonna catch on while making a Terrifier.
01:39This was something I spontaneously told David to do on set every time he passed Lauren Levera
01:44because I felt the finale was too dark and we needed some levity.
01:47Glad we share the same twisted sense of humor."
01:49Fortunately, Sienna winds up surviving yet another Art the Clown ordeal, so we can revisit
01:55this moment and laugh knowing that she'll eventually come out on top.
01:58It's little flourishes like this that add an extra bit of flavor to the film's best
02:02kills, like the shower-scene-chainsaw combo that still has us, uh, buzzing.
02:07Seriously, though, the film in its entirety has the world buzzing in all of the best ways.
02:12"...Aye, aye, come on over, come on over, it's fine, yeah."
02:19This latest installment in the Terrifier franchise has turned out to be more successful than
02:23both previous films.
02:25While it's not surprising that it outperformed the original, which had a very limited theatrical
02:29release, it's already pulled in more than double what Terrifier 2 earned.
02:33As of this video, it's made over $41 million.
02:36Here's hoping that Leone and his buddy Art can continue to one-up themselves as the years
02:40go on.