Terrifier 2 exploded into cinemas with a gruelling reputation of being genuinely disgusting and confronting, helped by its villain Art the Clown’s sadistic kills. But now the dust has settled, fans are wondering if he is actually that scary.
Seen in both films as a masochistic demonic torturer who seems to actively enjoy his misanthropic ways, some of his most horrendous acts have involved torturing men and women by slashing through their chests, and much worse, their genitalia. If you thought Pennywise wasn’t hardcore enough in It, Art is probably more your style.
Over a month and a half on from its excellent box office run, it’s now available on streaming as i opens up to completely different types of audiences. Perhaps sacrilegiously, one Redditor has had the gall to say Art isn’t very interesting as a screen presence and may indeed “suck”.
The crux of any slasher film really is having a menacing killer who shows new and inventive ways of being outright evil, but in the case of Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees, and Michael Myers, they’re all in much shorter runtimes. Terrifier 2′s flabbergasting two-and-a-half hour runtime may just play into this feeling he’s overplayed by the time credits roll.
How can a killer remain fun and interesting when the movie is as long as Avengers: Age of Ultron and only has them for a threat? Even bigger in the hot take terms is whether or not these films are any good at all. Courageous users outed themselves as anti-Terrifier, describing them as a “SFX student’s reel”.
The six year gap between Terrifier and itsz sequel did have one major, palpable improvement in the film looks significantly better. Terrifier looks, and while it is low budget, very ugly. Aside from its gore which is its main selling point, a lot of it is filmed in dark warehouses where you don’t need a permit to film.
Perhaps Art the Clown just works best in a much smaller dose. There’s a few reasons why people love Freddy Krueger and wanted so many sequels, and one of them is other characters actually exist in these stories. Krueger is what you’re constantly looking forward to, and the build-up makes it have a pay-off.
Given the massive box office success of Terrifier 2, it’ll likely return for a threequel. Following an impressive $11 million outing in cinemas, it is now available to stream on Screambox and rent on major streaming services.
