WSB x Moving Picture Review: Terrifier 3
Standing tall at the busy intersection of Butler and Main in Lawrenceville, the converted row house that gave Row House Cinema its namesake has become an essential haunt of Pittsburgh’s cinephile community. Known as much for its events and unique brand of festivals as it is for its carefully curated weekly themes, Row House is, by all accounts, the gold standard for what the moviegoing experience ought to be. So when owner Brian Mendelssohn stood in front of the sold-out auditorium of horror fans with our milk and cookies in hand, and proudly declared that Row House had “shown the first Terrifier film before it was cool,” there was little doubt that we had chosen the right venue among the countless theaters showing a Terrifier double feature on Thursday night in the city.
Damien Leone’s Terrifier franchise has quickly evolved from its humble beginnings as, essentially, a showcase of impressive makeup and special effects work to a broadening mythology that would look right at home airbrushed on the side of an Econoline panel van. The powerful word-of-mouth campaign that drove the surprising success of Terrifier 2 seems to be rolling strong, as few conversations with horror enthusiasts lately will go far without measuring their anticipation for the Christmas-themed third installment of the series.
Image via IMDb
The film then flings us back to the closing moments of the second film, reminding us where we left off in the battle between Art and Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera), and the events between the films. Following Sienna’s apparent killing of Art the Clown at the “Terrifier” ride at the local abandoned amusement park, an officer is investigating the scene when Art’s decapitated body disappears. Meanwhile, a heavily disfigured Victoria escapes from her cell in the mental institution, reuniting with Art for the first time since his maiming of her in the first film.
Sienna has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals, struggling to come to terms with her experiences, while her brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) has gone on to college, hoping to move on. Sienna is staying with her uncle Greg (Bryce Johnson) and aunt Jess (Margaret Anne Florence) for Christmas, along with her overenthusiastic young cousin Gabbie (Antonella Rose). Sienna’s recovery seems to be going well until evidence starts to accumulate that Art has once again escaped death and is circling closer to the Shaws and their family.
The film continues to build on Terrifier 2’s more protagonist-centric approach, putting Sienna’s journey as “final girl” front and center. LaVera is terrific once again, bringing a likable, relatable character to counter Art the Clown’s magnetic presence. It’s a difficult task to keep audiences on your side when your enemy has so quickly become a modern horror icon as Art has. Between Art’s twisted, physical comedy and Sienna’s unflappable resolve, the pair is able to rival any other duo in slasherdom, even the great Michael Myers and Laurie Strode.
The set pieces that Leone puts together for Terrifier 3 are, as one might expect, as vile, as gory, as over the top, and as impressive as ever. While I don’t think anything in the new film eclipses the skin-crawling torture of the bedroom scene or the cold depravity of the dinner table from 2, the kills certainly come close, and the prosthetics and props are incredible.
The thing that sets this franchise apart from other splatter films though, and Terrifier 3, in particular, is its commitment to using the mangled bodies of its victims as sight gags. Terrifier leans into the absurdity of its violence and swaps gag-inducing horror for comedy in a way that feels unique to these films.
Though it comes in at 15 minutes shorter than its predecessor, Terrifier 3 is still over two hours long, which is one of the only real complaints I can levy against it. It doesn’t struggle with holding your attention—quite the opposite—but a leaner cut would add to its rewatchability and would undoubtedly cement its place as essential horror viewing for the holiday season. It’ll certainly find its place there for many fans regardless. Still, I can’t help but think that a snappier edit could be cut that doesn’t sacrifice story or tension, giving viewers an even more frenetic means of traumatizing their unsuspecting parents on a Christmas Eve movie night.
WSB x Moving Picture Reviews is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival. The Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival celebrates both the art of cinema and the rich motion picture exhibition tradition of the City of Pittsburgh. Our goal in this series is to highlight new and upcoming genre films and, wherever possible, to support local, independent movie theaters in the process.
Article Written by Ande Thomas
Ande loves the intersection of sci-fi and horror, where our understanding of the natural world clashes with our fear of the new and unknown. He is an independent member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and a supporting member of the Horror Writers Association. He writes about monsters and foreign horror and can also be found over on Letterboxd.
