Terrifier (2016) is an American independent slasher film written, directed, edited and co-produced by Damien Leone. On Halloween night, two young women and then one woman’s sister are stalked by Art the Clown, played by David Howard Thornton. Art is a silent, black-and-white killer clown who loves cruel jokes and extreme violence. The film was Art’s first feature-length starring role after short films and the anthology All Hallows’ Eve (2013). Made for a tiny budget, it built a cult following after its release. It launched a franchise whose sequels became surprise box-office hits.
At a glance
| Release date | October 15, 2016 (Telluride Horror Show); March 15, 2018 (US limited release) |
| Director | Damien Leone |
| Writer | Damien Leone |
| Based on | Leone’s short films The 9th Circle (2008) and Terrifier (2011) |
| Starring | Jenna Kanell, Samantha Scaffidi, Catherine Corcoran, David Howard Thornton |
| Runtime | 85 minutes |
| Rating | Unrated (US; not submitted to the MPAA); 18 (UK) |
| Budget | Reported as $35,000 to $55,000 |
| Box office | $421,798 |
| Franchise | Terrifier franchise: followed by Terrifier 2 (2022) and Terrifier 3 (2024) |
Plot summary
A year after a massacre, a disfigured survivor is interviewed on a TV talk show. After the cameras stop, the host mocks her appearance, and the woman attacks. The film then jumps back to the Halloween night that left her scarred. In Miles County, New York, friends Tara (Jenna Kanell) and Dawn (Catherine Corcoran) leave a party drunk and stop at a pizzeria. There, a silent figure in black-and-white clown makeup stares and grins at them. When he is thrown out, the evening quickly turns violent.
With Dawn’s car tire slashed, Tara calls her sister Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) for a ride. While they wait, the women end up trapped in a run-down apartment building with an exterminator, a deranged squatter called the Cat Lady, and Art the Clown, who treats murder as a performance.
Spoiler section: the ending
Art kills Dawn in the film’s notorious hacksaw scene, shoots Tara and then hunts Victoria. Victoria is left horribly injured, and when the police arrive, Art shoots himself before he can be caught. In the morgue, he comes back to life and attacks the medical examiner. A year later, Victoria leaves the hospital, and she is revealed to be the disfigured woman from the opening.
Production and behind the scenes
Leone introduced Art in his debut short, The 9th Circle (2008), where he wasn’t meant to be the main villain. Audiences responded to him so strongly that Leone made him the lead in the short Terrifier (2011) and in All Hallows’ Eve, which combined both shorts with a new Art wraparound story. Leone then planned a feature built entirely around Art. He wanted to mix “familiar elements” of American slashers with the graphic violence and atmosphere of Italian giallo films. He drew on Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger, and he deliberately made Art black and white so he would look nothing like the colorful Pennywise.
A 2015 Indiegogo campaign fell short of its goal, but filmmaker Phil Falcone put up the funding in exchange for a producer credit. Mike Giannelli, who had played Art in the earlier projects, decided not to return. Leone cast the then-unknown David Howard Thornton, who won the part by improvising a kill scene in mime. Kanell did her own stunts. Corcoran had to be hung upside down without a rig for the hacksaw scene, which was filmed in 40-second segments with a platform placed beneath her between takes. Leone, who also created the makeup effects, focused on Art and the practical gore. He later said his biggest regret was not developing Victoria further.
Release and reception
Terrifier premiered at the Telluride Horror Show on October 15, 2016, and later screened at FrightFest in London. Epic Pictures Releasing gave it a two-day limited US release in March 2018, followed by DVD and Blu-ray. It was never submitted to the MPAA and was released unrated. Its total gross was $421,798, and a 2023 re-release in 853 theaters followed the sequel’s success. Reviews were mixed. It holds a 63% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus praises Art but says the film “fails to carve an entertaining story worthy of his wrath.” For the BFI, Anton Bitel called it an “unapologetically ‘pure’ genre entry,” while Cinema Crazed dismissed it as “fairly mediocre slasher fare.” It received three Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Thornton and Best Makeup FX for Leone.
Legacy and influence
Art became a cult figure, and Thornton’s expressive, comic performance became the heart of the series. Terrifier 2 premiered at FrightFest in August 2022, opened in US theaters that October and became a surprise hit. Terrifier 3 (2024) became the highest-grossing unrated film of all time. Critic M. Keith Booker has described the first film as a homage to 1980s slashers with better effects and higher production values. Booker compared the hacksaw scene to Freddy’s bathtub attack in A Nightmare on Elm Street. In October 2025, Catherine Corcoran filed a federal lawsuit against Leone and Falcone, alleging unpaid profit participation and the use of nudity she said she had not authorized.
Trivia
- Kanell had auditioned for The 9th Circle years earlier. She didn’t get that part, but Leone remembered her and cast her as Tara.
- Art never speaks. Leone has said Giannelli “may as well have been a guy dressed as a clown, whereas David is a clown.”
- The film’s prologue reveals the fate of its final survivor before the main story begins.
- A three-issue comic book adaptation, illustrated by Steve McGinnis, was self-published by Leone in 2021 and 2022.
- The film was released on VHS in 2019.
- In the UK, Terrifier and Terrifier 2 were re-released together as a double bill in September 2024.
Related links
- Art the Clown (character)
- Terrifier franchise
- All Hallows’ Eve (2013), Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3
- Damien Leone (writer and director)
- David Howard Thornton and Jenna Kanell (cast)
- Pennywise, the colorful clown Leone deliberately made Art unlike
