by John Noonan
Worth: $14.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
David Howard Thornton, Samantha Scafiddi, Lauren LaVera, Elliot Fullam, Jason Patric
Intro:
… Leone has decided to kick things down a notch with a more reflective festive film that speaks to the very heart of its audience, encouraging us to be better to ourselves and each other. Only joking, its Terrifier 3, where someone gets a colonic with a chainsaw.
It’s fair to say that Damien Leone’s Terrifier series has as many admirers as it does detractors. The first one landed in 2016 and won people’s twisted hearts largely down to its nihilistic antagonist, Art (David Howard Thorton), a monochrome silent clown killing indiscriminately. A scrappy little feature, in fairness, Terrifier was more FX reel than anything really narrative-led. Leone followed it up with Terrifier 2, which landed like an axe to the head. Bigger in budget, and longer in length, the sequel showed Leone making no effort to slow down, while broadening the lore to his creation.
With Terrifier 3, Leone has decided to kick things down a notch with a more reflective festive film that speaks to the very heart of its audience, encouraging us to be better to ourselves and each other. Only joking, its Terrifier 3, where someone gets a colonic with a chainsaw.
Set five years after 2, Sienna (Lauren LaVera) has somewhat recovered from her run-in with Art, and is living with her extended family. Meanwhile, her brother Jonathan (Elliot Fullam) is trying to keep his head down at college while being a reluctant local celebrity. While the siblings’ thoughts turn to goodwill and Christmas, Art is stalking and slicing up malls, bars and fraternities looking for them. Leone continues his world-building from 2, throwing in flashbacks to Sienna’s comic writer father (Jason Patric) and hints of something much bigger outside of our heroine’s trauma bubble.
Perhaps one of the biggest criticisms of the last two chapters was the extended deaths dealt out to female characters. We called it out in our review of Terrifier 2. Yes, you can argue it’s a trope of the genre. Yes, Leone based both scenes on actual medieval torture practices (and does so again in 3). But, look, it’s okay to approach things from a critical POV and admit that the accusations of misogyny aren’t completely unwarranted. So, the big question is, where does that leave Terrifier 3?
Well, for want of a better phrase, Leone attacks his slaughter with more of an equal-opportunity bent. Men, women and children are all put through the mangler as Leone dishes out even more insane set pieces using everything from hammers to liquid nitrogen to a crown of thorns. There’s more of a black comedy tint to the massacring as well, with Leone looking to the fun side of bloodletting and making Part 1 look like a bit of an edge lord in comparison. While the scenes don’t show an artist under restraint, they show Leone absolutely in his stride and trusting his audience to get the joke at times. Perhaps the best example of Leone’s impish charm is when Art meets his hero, Santa Claus.
As with the first two films, Thornton rules the roost as Art, ramping up the silent theatrics to 11. Think Mr Bean with a handgun, or what would happen if Wile E Coyote ever caught the Roadrunner. However, Art is not alone on his path of destruction. Acting the chatty foil to Thornton is Samantha Scafiddi as Vicky, the final girl of Part 1 now turned disfigured antagonist and Art’s second-in-command/general vibes girl. Smothered in prosthetics, Scafiddi manages to bring a sadness to our former heroine’s fate as well as being able to chill your blood. If Art puts the laughter in slaughter, then Vicky is the sadistic aftertaste, a personification of trauma and abuse.
Art now being iconic does mean that the more grounded elements of Leone’s narrative teeter dangerously close to dragging down the runtime. And given it’s a little over 2 hours, that’s saying something. It’ll be interesting to see how this kind of thing plays out in the already announced Part 4, and if the franchise will escape being crushed under its own mythology, unlike Saw. If Leone continues down the fine line that he’s currently cultivating, he’ll be just fine. For now, he can be safe in the knowledge that he has another solid entry in his franchise. Merry Christmas to all and to all, a cruel night.
