Terrifier 2 – Film Review

Resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to Miles County to terrorize a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night.

Believe it or not, I was actually quite excited to go ahead and see Damien Leone‘s Terrifier 2 despite hearing countless reports online from people saying that they felt so sick in the movie theatre that they literally threw up and fainted. That’s not something you hear every day, is it?

The first Terrifier was a super fun slasher with a nice sprinkling of gory kills throughout. Sadly, though, that film lacked tons of character development for pretty much everyone. I get not wanting to go deep into Art the Clown and who he is in that first film, but why didn’t any of the other characters have anything? It made no sense to me and it still confuses me to this day.

Leone’s follow-up definitely prioritizes characters which was such a delight to see. Heck, this movie is two-hours-and-eighteen minutes long – I’d have been shocked and disappointed had we not gotten some fleshed-out characters this time around that we could actually root for and sympathize with, and not just because they’re Art the Clown’s next target.

Every character in the first film felt like they were just there to ultimately be killed off in some stylish way by the sadistic clown, whereas here, they feel like they’re actually people, so kudos to Leone for putting some love and passion into the character side of things with this script.

But let’s be real – lots of people were curious to see this movie because of the kills. Why were people vomiting in the theatre? After watching the film, I can definitely assure you that this is easily one of the goriest and most brutal movies I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Leone and company did not hold back in any way with the violence here.

Just when you think that the film can’t get any more unhinged with its brutality, it does. It’s almost like the filmmakers purposefully set out to make the most violent film possible. They succeeded. Terrifier 2 is absolutely not for the light of heart, that’s for sure.

Nothing about the film made me feel like I was going to throw up or faint but, of course, to each their own. The special effects and makeup department on this film need immense praise for their work here because without them, this film would not have been as gross and brutal as it is.

Aside from the kills, my favorite part of the entire ride was seeing David Howard Thornton reprise his role as the chaotic and wildly unhinged Art the Clown. His performance is so zany and full of insane energy to the point where it was fun to just see him standing in a corner with a gigantic smile on his face here.

One can only hope that Art becomes a bonafide horror icon down the road in the same vein as characters such as Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger. Art definitely deserves his place amongst the horror hall of fame. Let’s hope this character really takes off.

There is a few issues I have with this movie though, namely its length. This is an unbelievably long horror slasher, at nearly two and a half hours. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a slasher this long in my life, and I could, unfortunately, feel the running time here. It felt like certain scenes didn’t cut sooner just to pad out the length of the movie.

Also, there’s still something vaguely off about the way the movie looks and feels, just like the first one. Both films have a certain sheen to them that makes it look a little cheap despite the fact that neither of these two films were made for cheap necessarily. It’s incredibly strange.

But even still, Terrifier 2 is an absolute blast of a slasher that’s sure to leave a smile on your face if you’re a humongous fan of the genre such as myself. I’d love to see more of this franchise as soon as possible. My dream film would be all about Art and his origins. How did he start out doing this? What’s his whole backstory? Hopefully we get a film like that one day soon.

Terrifier 2 is outrageously brutal and unforgiving with some of the grossest kills in any slasher out there. David Howard Thornton’s unhinged performance Art the Clown is just the cherry on top.