HORROR MOVIE REVIEW: TERRIFIER 2 (2022)WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY DAMIEN LEONE

14/10/2022

HORROR MOVIE REVIEW HORROR MOVIE REVIEW TERRIFIER 2 WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY DAMIEN LEONE

the real purpose of Terrifier 2 is to have fun with Art, be unsettling and provide gratuitous gore. And Terrifier 2 doesn’t disappoint on any of those fronts.

Terrifier 2 (2022)

After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to the timid town of Miles County where he targets a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night.

Director: Damien Leone
Screenplay: Damien Leone
Music composed by: Paul Wiley
Cinematography: George Steuber
A Horror Movie Review by Mark Walker

I stumbled across the original Terrifier and Art the Clown by accident last year after hearing about them on a podcast. The podcast team were very enthusiastic, so I thought I would give it a go. It’s certainly not for everyone, and not necessarily the sort of horror I normally gravitate towards, but I did find myself enjoying it in all its retro, grimy, gory glory! Terrifier is an 80s video nasty for the 21st Century, so I was looking forward to Terrifier 2 to see how the team had built on the first film.

At the end of Terrifier, Art shoots himself rather than be captured by the police, after leaving his last victim, Vicky Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi) without a face, although she miraculously survives.

And so does Art.

Terrifier 2 takes up where the first film left off and we see Art resurrected in the morgue he wound up in at the end of Terrifier. He kills the attendant and then prepares for the next round of murders by stripping off in a laundrette to clean his costume. He teams up with the demonic manifestation of one of his previous victims (a young girl), kills an unsuspecting customer, and sets off to terrorise the people of Miles County once more.

Terrifier 2 starts proper about a year on from the original murders and Art has become a legend; a bogeyman whose body was never found, and everyone is talking about. The legend is strengthened by the survivor of his original spree, Tara, who attacks a TV interviewer (see the original film) and tears her face off in much the same way Art did to her. Everyone is talking about Art!

Sister and brother Sienna and Jonathan (Lauren LaVera and Elliott Fullam) live with their mother and are recovering from the recent death of their father. Jonathan is obsessed with serial killers, especially Art the Clown and, after an unpleasant experience at school, Jonathan is convinced Art is back. However, true to form, no one believes him, and the town just carries on with its planned Halloween revelries while Jonathan gets grounded for causing trouble.

Sienna heads out with friends to a Halloween party and Art joins in the holiday fun by slowly working his way through everyone who comes into contact with him and his nail bat. He appears focussed on Sienna, whose father might have known something about Art, having drawn him before his death, alongside pictures of Sienna as an avenging angel. It is because of this that Jonathan is convinced Sienna is the one who will be able to stop Art.

Thus is set the cat and mouse, tit for tat fight between Sienna, Jonathan, Art and his diminutive protégé.

If you are a Terrifier fan, then you can expect more of what you got with the original film. Art is an indiscriminate killer and, over the course of the lengthy running time, you will see him getting more and more creative as he offs his hapless victims. I don’t mind the occasional, out and out gore-fest, and I also don’t think I’m particularly squeamish, but the gloriously gory practical effects in Terrifier 2 can get a bit stomach churning at times, so I guess it is a case of job well done for Art. Having said that, the worst moment in the film (for me) came courtesy of some mashed potato which just seemed to land unpleasantly for some reason! I’m hoping we don’t have any mashed potato at home for a few days!

Be warned though, while not the goriest of films I have ever seen, Terrifier 2 doesn’t pull its punches. Art is an unholy creation hell-bent on the murder of pretty much anyone he crosses paths with. He makes Michael Myers look like a pussycat! He is rarely content to simply kill someone and poses corpses, pulls out organs, and snaps limbs with delight. The victims that die quickly are the lucky ones.

In amongst all the gore, however, I had hoped for a bit more story from Terrifier 2. In the original film, Art doesn’t really have any motivation, he just kills for the sake of it. This is fine to an extent and, for a low-budget gore-fest, what else would you want? However, Terrifier runs to just 82 minutes and is lean and efficient for it, a thrill ride slathered in blood. Terrifier 2 runs almost an hour longer, but doesn’t offer up any new story or mythology about Art. There are hints at a connection between Sienna and Art through her dad’s ‘premonitions’ but this isn’t explored in detail other than as a convenient way to introduce a weapon he created for her before his death. Perhaps a third film will explore this further, but if you want answers about Art, you won’t get them here. Indeed, a mid-credits coda heavily suggests Art will be back.

I found this intriguing and disappointing in equal measure as I want to know more about Art, his origins, and motivations. Art has gone from nasty piece of work to demonic nasty piece of work and is a very different character from the first film; there is definitely something supernatural going on with him. He bounces back more times than the Terminator and, if you stick around for the mid-credits sequence, there will be absolutely no question that Art can be human.

This may well not bother most people; do we really need to know more about Art as long as he is doing his thing and terrifying people? Probably not but, if we are looking at a third instalment, I feel the team need to come up with something that will maintain the momentum and develop Art to ensure the series doesn’t become repetitive and stale.

Despite my minor quibbles, David Howard Thornton as Art is just superb. Art is an incredible creation, and he oozes evil and demands fear. He can do so much with a simple wave of his fingers or a raised eyebrow; he’s a genuinely unsettling addition to the slasher Hall of Fame!

The rest of the cast also do a great job, and Lauren LaVera makes a great “final girl” as Sienna, kicking ass and taking some serious punishment from Art as she fights to save herself and her brother.

The biggest problem for me was a bit of a “deus ex machina” moment towards the end of the film. Without spoiling too much, there was a point where I really did think that Sienna had taken far too much punishment to survive, and the resolution felt like an easy out. However, that is a personal view, and your mileage may vary.

And finally, the running time. 2 hours and 18 minutes is long for a horror, and I did feel that there was some padding. I wouldn’t say I got bored with it, there is plenty of Art doing his thing to keep everyone entertained, but I can’t help feeling that it could have been cut to maybe an hour and forty-five minutes and not lost any of its impact. A shorter, tighter film might even have made it more of a blunt instrument and more effective for it. Again, entirely personal, and the film never drags despite the lengthy run time.

These are all fairly small quibbles considering the real purpose of Terrifier 2 is to have fun with Art, be unsettling and provide gratuitous gore. And Terrifier 2 doesn’t disappoint on any of those fronts.

Ultimately, if you had a good time with Art first time around, you are going to enjoy Terrifier 2. My frustrations are fairly minor, and I fully admit that I am not a dyed-in-the-wool gore-hound. However, I didn’t feel Terrifier 2 offered anything particularly new over Terrifier and, if the hints at a third instalment are to be realised, I think there is a danger of stagnation if Art doesn’t try something a little different next time around!

Having said that, I will definitely be up for another trip around the block with Art.