Art is back and bloodier than ever in Terrifier 2! After all, you just can’t keep a good serial killing clown down.
Terrifier 2 takes place following the events of the original film, with Art being resurrected inside the morgue.
Once resurrected, Art begins to carve a new bloody path of destruction, first killing the coroner before heading to a laundromat to freshen up his attire.
It is at the laundromat where Art encounters an unknown entity disguised as a little girl adorned in make-up similar to his own. It’s this sinister-looking child that will serve as the source of Art’s new, unexplained supernatural ability to cheat death.
Terrifier 2 then introduces us to the film’s primary protagonist, Sienna, as she works tirelessly on her Halloween costume: a warrior princess character that her late father had envisioned. Along with Sienna, we’re introduced to her younger brother, Jonathan.
Soon, Art begins to show up in the siblings’ lives, including appearing in Sienna’s dreams and at Jonathan’s school.
Following a fire in her room, Sienna is forced to go to a costume shop to find a replacement pair of wings for her costume. There, she encounters Art, who, after terrorizing her, kills the store clerk and then later visits Sienna’s friend, Allie, at her home.
That night, Sienna goes to a Halloween party while Jonathan is forced to stay at home following an incident at school. It’s here where Jonathan gets into an argument with his mother and storms out of the house. While he’s away, Art visits the siblings’ mother and adds another body to his kill count. After encountering the pale-faced girl, Jonathan returns home, where he is ambushed by Art, who drugs and kidnaps him.
At the party, Sienna has an adverse reaction to some molly that her friend, Brooke, slipped into her drink, resulting in her leaving the party with Brooke and Brooke’s boyfriend, Jeff.
While on her way home, Sienna receives a phone call from the little girl pretending to be Jonathan and telling her he’s at an abandoned carnival and needs her to come to get him.
It’s at this abandoned carnival where Sienna must find and rescue her brother while playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with her killer foe.
Watch Terrifier 2 and see if Sienna has what it takes to put a stop to this sadistic clown’s reign of terror once and for all.
Terrifier 2 is not for the faint of heart. The graphic kills throughout the movie are excessively gory and could be too much for certain viewers. This is because Art doesn’t just kill his victims; he tortures them before finally killing them in such an unspeakable fashion that it makes Jason Voorhees look like a Sunday school teacher in comparison. As a viewer going into the film, it’s important to be aware and expect to be showered in blood and graphic depictions of murder, especially if you’re not familiar with the original film.
It’s David Howard Thornton’s portrayal of Art the clown that makes the film. It’s his ability to play this sadistic killer without ever speaking a single word. Where other silent killers like Jason or Michael wear masks to eliminate any emotion, Art is completely the opposite. This killer’s expressive face and over-exaggeration of emotion make him truly terrifying. From his sinister scowl to his joyous demeanor when cutting someone to pieces, this killer is the stuff of nightmares.
Along with being excessively more violent than its predecessor (I didn’t think that was possible), Terrifier 2 also introduces a brand-new supernatural element to the film, which is a risky move on the part of filmmaker, Damien Leone.
While the supernatural angle isn’t a completely new concept to Terrifier (after all, at the end of the original film, we witness Art mysteriously resurrect from the dead), it’s the introduction of the pale-faced girl and Sienna that adds a new level to the lore of the Terrifier franchise, a lore that is, unfortunately, never addressed in this film. If anything, the introduction of this new lore only works to muddle the overall story and, by the end of the film, leaves the viewer with more questions than answers.
While watching the film, it becomes evident that the pale-faced girl is a physical representation of a young girl who was killed at the carnival, but what isn’t known is the true identity of the entity and how they have the ability to manipulate electronics and seemingly to bestow Art with the ability to stave off death.
While the pale-faced girl is confusing, it’s not new territory to showcase a killer in a slasher movie that has the ability to cheat death. Freddy and Jason are proof of that; after all, both killers are technically dead.
The primary confusion comes more in regard to the Sienna character, who, like Art, appears to be able to defy death by way of an enchanted sword that was gifted to her by her late father. It’s this angelic aspect of the character and lack of explanation as to what is going on that can, unfortunately, take the viewer out of the film.
While the over-the-top slasher elements that make the Terrifier franchise unique are still ever present in this new film, one has to wonder if fans of the original might be turned off by the undoubtedly intricate storyline that Damien Leone is looking to weave into the story. Gone is the strictly slasher formula of the original film and, in its place, is more of a mystical story that potentially involves the forces of Heaven and Hell.
Given the success of Terrifier 2, it’s a given that there will be a third installment in the franchise, and it will hopefully be during this next chapter in the story that we will get some answers about who or what exactly Art is, along with insight into the character of Sienna and what makes this new character capable of tapping into a higher power.
You can watch Terrifier 2 with a 30-day free trial of Screambox, available on iOS, Android, Prime Video, YouTube TV, Comcast, and Screambox.com.
Last Updated on February 8, 2023 by Horror Facts
