Terrifier 3 (2024) is the third film in Damien Leone‘s independent Terrifier slasher series, which Leone wrote, directed, edited and co-produced. It moves the carnage to Christmas. Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton), now wearing a Santa suit, comes back with a possessed Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi) to hunt Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera), the survivor of Terrifier 2. Made for $2 million and released without an MPA rating, it opened at No. 1, ahead of Joker: Folie à Deux. It grossed $90.3 million, making it the highest-grossing unrated film of all time.
At a glance
| Release date | September 19, 2024 (Fantastic Fest); October 11, 2024 (US) |
| Director | Damien Leone |
| Writer | Damien Leone |
| Based on | Characters created by Damien Leone |
| Starring | David Howard Thornton, Lauren LaVera, Elliott Fullam, Samantha Scaffidi |
| Runtime | 125 minutes |
| Rating | Unrated in the US; not submitted to the MPA, to avoid an NC-17 |
| Budget | $2 million |
| Box office | $90.3 million |
| Franchise | Terrifier: sequel to Terrifier 2 (2022) |
Plot summary
Picking up right after Terrifier 2, Art’s headless body revives and makes its way to an asylum, where Victoria Heyes, possessed by the demonic Little Pale Girl, has just “given birth” to Art’s severed head. Art reattaches it, and after a killing spree the pair go into hibernation in an abandoned house. Five years later, Sienna Shaw is released from a mental health center to spend Christmas with her aunt, uncle and young cousin Gabbie. She is struggling with survivor’s guilt and visions of Art’s victims, and she has grown apart from her brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam), now at college.
Woken up by demolition workers, Art steals a Santa costume and begins a holiday rampage. It includes the slaughter of a family and a crowded shopping mall where his “presents” are explosives. Sienna is convinced he is back, but she is afraid her family won’t believe her. She resolves to recover her late father’s sword from the Terrifier carnival, while a true-crime podcaster pushes her to talk about the Miles County Massacre.
Spoiler section: the ending
Art and Victoria invade the family home, murder Sienna’s uncle and aunt, and taunt her with a severed head they say is Jonathan’s. Victoria tries to possess Sienna with a crown of thorns, but she resists. A present from Gabbie turns out to contain Sienna’s sword. Sienna cuts Art’s throat and beheads Victoria. Victoria’s body dissolves into a pool of demonic blood that opens a portal to Hell, and Gabbie falls in along with the sword. Sienna’s broken hands heal as she vows to rescue her cousin. Art escapes and boards a city bus, where a woman is reading a book called The 9th Circle, a callback to Leone’s first short.
Production and behind the scenes
After the surprise success of Terrifier 2, Leone began planning a longer story arc. He wanted to give Victoria Heyes, the survivor-turned-villain of Terrifier (2016), a much bigger role. He has called leaving her underdeveloped his biggest regret about the first film. The original ending of Terrifier 2 had planned to kill her off at the start of this film, but Leone felt the idea was too close to Malignant (2021). He also enjoyed working with Scaffidi, so he kept the character alive. Cast announcements included wrestler Chris Jericho, Daniel Roebuck as Santa Claus, makeup legend Tom Savini, Jason Patric, Clint Howard and Jon Abrahams.
Principal photography ran from February to April 2024, and additional scenes were shot in New York into June. Leone used Panavision anamorphic lenses to make the film look like a “vintage John Carpenter movie.” The $2 million budget was eight times the $250,000 cost of its predecessor, though Variety noted it was “still wildly low by Hollywood standards.” Paul Wiley composed the music. Ice Nine Kills’ official song, “A Work of Art,” featuring Shavo Odadjian of System of a Down, was released with the film.
Release and reception
Cineverse acquired the film in June 2023 and moved its release up to October 11, 2024, after a Fantastic Fest premiere on September 19. It spent under $5 million to acquire and market it, mostly through its Bloody Disgusting audience and streaming channels. The film was not submitted for an MPA rating to avoid an NC-17, and theaters treated it as R-rated. It debuted to $18.9 million, topping the box office ahead of Joker: Folie à Deux. Distributors suspected underage viewers were buying tickets for The Wild Robot and sneaking in. It went on to gross $54 million in the US and Canada and $90.3 million worldwide, the biggest result for Cineverse and the franchise.
Reviews were generally positive. It holds 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus calls it “a bloody fantastic stocking stuffer,” and 62 on Metacritic, with a “B” CinemaScore. Slant Magazine found the story “half-formed” but called Scaffidi’s Victoria “the film’s villain MVP” and praised LaVera’s “emotional intensity.” Abroad, France banned the film for under-18s, the first such ban since Saw III in 2006. There were reports of UK audiences vomiting and walking out during the opening scene, and of two people fainting at an Australian screening.
Legacy and influence
Terrifier 3 completed Art the Clown’s rise from a background character in a 2008 short film to a box office phenomenon. It became the highest-grossing unrated film ever, and as an indie release it beat a DC Comics sequel to the top of the box office. Leone confirmed in September 2024 that a Terrifier 4 is in development. He later said it will end the franchise and reveal Art’s backstory “in the first 15 minutes.” Thornton has said Leone is keeping the plot of the fourth film “very close to his vest.” AMC’s double bills paired it with Terrifier 2, and Australian box sets collected the whole series back to All Hallows’ Eve.
Trivia
- Art gets his Santa suit by killing a bar’s Santa Claus impersonator with liquid nitrogen.
- Select AMC theaters ran it as a double feature with Terrifier 2, followed by the Ice Nine Kills music video.
- Cineverse’s advertising spend was reportedly only about $500,000.
- It debuted on Cineverse’s Screambox streaming service after its theatrical run, and went to digital on November 26, 2024.
- In Australia, Umbrella Entertainment packaged it with All Hallows’ Eve, Terrifier and Terrifier 2, including on VHS.
Related links
- Art the Clown (character)
- Terrifier franchise
- All Hallows’ Eve (2013), Terrifier (2016) and Terrifier 2 (2022)
- Damien Leone (writer and director)
- David Howard Thornton (Art)
- Lauren LaVera (Sienna Shaw)