Terrifier

MOVIE #1,182 • 🍿🍿 • 10.08.23 50 MOVIES IN 32 DAYS! I think the biggest flaw of this (and to some degree, this 'type' of movie) is that it's really not very scary. There's different kinds of fear a horror film can evoke, from classic jump scares to the establishment of a spooky mood via plot or characters. I'm not sure where watching a naked woman strung upside down and getting sawed in half from the taint through her head falls in this spectrum. Art the clown takes a selfie with said victim in a callback to her mockingly getting one with him earlier. I guess this is the film's attempt at social commentary, but it rings even more hollow than the culture it's trying to satirize.

The title card is very stylized, complete with a Roman numerals date stamp. Like it's harkening back to some era that's never existed. Which feels appropriate because this is clearly style above literally anything else. It’s just 90 minutes of set-piece after set-piece of the sickest murder and mayhem you've ever seen! And to that point: is this the most demented shit out there right now? I'm legitimately asking, even though I don't really wanna know the answer.

But there's clearly an audience for this. The one thing I do admire is that these are truly independent pictures being made on a shoestring budget. This cost just 35K and it's sequel six years later hauled in 15 million on a still miraculously cheap 250K. A planned third film could have north of 10 million to work with and I wonder how that will impact the final product, though I might not have the stomach to find out.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,181 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,183 ⫸

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Terrifier is a 2016 American slasher film written and directed by Damien Leone. The film stars Jenna Kanell, Samantha Scaffidi, David Howard Thornton, and Catherine Corcoran. The plot centers on partygoer Tara Heyes (Kanell) and her sister Victoria (Scaffidi), who become targets of the enigmatic serial killer only known as Art the Clown (Thornton) on Halloween night. It was released on October 1, 2016.