WARNING: Major spoilers for Terrifier 3 ahead!
Damien Leone’s Terrifier franchise has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years thanks to its iconic central villain, Art the Clown. Thus far, there have been three movies in the Terrifier franchise, each more creatively depraved and gory than the last. The franchise’s initial spike in popularity can be attributed to the viral nature of Terrifier 2, which was so gruesome that audience members literally got sick. The franchise is even set to expand to a new medium, with a Terrifier video game reportedly on the way. As it stands, the public can’t seem to get enough of Art the Clown.
However, Art’s history extends more than a decade before 2016’s Terrifier first shocked audiences. While audiences are undoubtedly looking toward the future after Terrifier 3‘s cliffhanger ending, it’s worth taking a look back at Damien Leone’s previous works featuring Art the Clown. The ranking below takes many factors into account, including scariness, quality of story, and how much fun each entry is for horror fans. The list expands beyond the Terrifier franchise to include prequels and anthologies; if Art’s been featured in it, it counts.
6 The 9th Circle (2008)
Art’s First Appearance Came In A Short Film
American director, screenwriter, and makeup/effects artist Damien Leone first conceived of Art way back in 2008. Art appeared as a supporting character in Leone’s short film The 9th Circle, which features a hodgepodge of typical horror characters. The short film’s true purpose was to show off Leone’s skill as a makeup and effects artist, which is why each monstrous character appears different. As Leone explained to Dread Central:
I tell people it was my kitchen sink film … I threw in everything, clowns, witches, demons, monsters, everything up against the wall hoping something would stick.
In The 9th Circle, Art acts as an emissary of Satan, and follows him in his eerie pursuit and subsequent capture of a young woman in a train station. Art’s true intentions are revealed when he stabs the young woman with a sedative so that she can be carried off as a sacrifice to a Satanic cult. As a short film in which Art is a mere side character who shows none of his now-famous charisma and sadism, The 9th Circle ranks last. It’s important as the first appearance of Art, but it’s not the Art that audiences love.
5 All Hallow’s Eve (2013)
Art Featured Prominently In The Horror Anthology Movie
It’s difficult to rank All Hallow’s Eve in the larger context of Art’s film appearances, considering it’s an anthology film that actually includes two other entries on the list. All Hallow’s Eve is Art’s first feature film appearance, and centers around a babysitter who finds a videotape in her kids’ trick-or-treat bag, which she plays after they go to bed. The videotape features three distinct short movies that all feature Art the Clown in some capacity. After watching the video, the babysitter encounters the real Art, who has entered the real world and murdered the kids upstairs.
All Art the Clown Appearances – Key Details | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Movie | Release Date | Type | RT Tomatometer Score | RT Popcornmeter Score |
The 9th Circle | 2008 | Short | N/A | N/A |
Terrifier | 2011 | Short | N/A | 54% |
All Hallow’s Eve | 2013 | Anthology/Feature | N/A | 35% |
Terrifier | 2016 | Feature | 60% | 53% |
Terrifier 2 | 2022 | Feature | 86% | 80% |
Terrifier 3 | 2024 | Feature | 77% | 94% |
Two of the (untitled) movies on the videotape are actually The 9th Circle and Terrifier, which again makes All Hallow’s Eve difficult to rank. The overarching story related to the babysitter encountering the real Art is uninspired, and both The 9th Circle and the second movie, which features an alien stalking a woman in her house, are neither terrifying nor truly memorable. However, All Hallow’s Eve is still technically Art’s feature film debut, and features him as the primary antagonist throughout.
4 Terrifier (2011)
The Earliest Version Of The Art Audiences Know And Love
The third movie on the All Hallow’s Eve videotape is also a Damien Leone short film, and it’s the one that most consider to be Art’s true origin. In 2011, Leone wrote and directed the short film Terrifier, which features Art committing ghastly murders in the creative and grisly fashion that he is now known for. In the short, a young woman witnesses one of Art’s murders at a gas station on Halloween night, which causes him to turn his attention to her; Art stalks and torments her for a bit before finally getting to her.
Before being played by David Howard Thornton in the
Terrifier
franchise, Art the Clown was portrayed by Mike Giannelli before he retired from acting.
Given that 2011’s Terrifier is a short film, there isn’t much opportunity for Art to get into his patented form of murderous mischief. However, it does mark the true birth of Art the Clown as a brutal murderer with clear supernatural abilities (he is able to seemingly teleport ahead of his prey down the highway after she had just sped away from him in her car). It’s Art in his simplest form, but he does flex some of the charisma that Terrifier franchise’s Art is known for.
3 Terrifier (2016)
The First Feature Length Adventure For The Modern Art
Before the Terrifier franchise began breaking records with Terrifier 3, the series’ original movie laid the foundation for Art the Clown and his now years-long reign of terror over Miles County. 2016’s Terrifier features a stripped-down story that pits a pair of young women enjoying Halloween night against the version of Art the Clown that audiences across the world now know. Terrifier features Art with all his trademark menace and plenty of his silent comedic antics, and delivers plenty of gore in its tight runtime.
Art the Clown’s cartoonish behavior, pale countenance, and complete silence combine to create something truly unique and terrifying.
Terrifier takes the character that Damien Leone first fleshed out in the 2011 short film and perfects him. Leone correctly noted during Art’s conception that the 2010s didn’t really have an iconic slasher as previous decades did. He intended to create something that could stand the test of time alongside horror icons like Michael Myers, Jason, Chucky, Freddy Krueger, and Ghostface. Terrifier delivered just such a character, as Art’s cartoonish behavior, pale countenance, and complete silence combine to create something truly unique and terrifying.
Terrifier also introduces the character of Victoria Heyes, played by Samantha Scaffidi, who becomes a major player later in the Terrifier franchise. Terrifier makes it clear that Art the Clown is much more than a simpler slasher; he delights in committing murders in gruesome, torturous fashion. The kill with the saw and Art eating most of Victoria’s face at the end of the movie proves that Art is something far more sinister than a typical slasher, and his resurrection proves he’s driven by a power far more foul.
2 Terrifier 3 (2024)
Art And Vicky Unleash A Yuletide Reign Of Terror
After the viral success of Terrifier 2, Damien Leone was faced with the challenge of upping the ante both in terms of story and in terms of gore. Following up Terrifier 2‘s controversial bedroom scene was no easy feat, but Leone managed to at least come close to matching the level of depravity with Terrifier 3. In the third chapter in the Terrifier franchise, Art is back after a five-year wait (literally), to exact some Yuletide vengeance upon Lauren LaVera’s Sienna Shaw, her brother Jonathan, and the other innocents of Miles County.
Terrifier 3 is loaded with memorable kills; two of the most notable are his visit to Santa Claus and his homage to Norman Bates in the showers. However, what makes Terrifier 3 stand apart from the other entries in the list is how it opens the franchise up to a new world of nightmarish possibilities. Vicky features prominently in Terrifier 3 as the Harley Quinn to Art’s Joker, and her possession by some sort of demonic entity proves just how powerful the forces aligned against Sienna Shaw are.
Related
How Terrifier 3’s Shocking Ending Sets Up Terrifier 4’s Sienna Story Explained By Director
Terrifier 3 director Damien Leone explains how the film’s cliffhanger ending sets up Terrifier 4 and why he didn’t include a post-credits scene.
Terrifier 3 expands the franchise lore in ways that Terrifier 2 only touched upon, which is why it’s ranked so high on the list. The character of Art has been perfected, and it’s possible that Terrifier 3 features Art at his funniest, but the expansion of the lore behind Art and Sienna’s ultimate battle is the difference-maker. Their clash carries legitimate weight as a biblical battle of good vs. evil, and Terrifier 3‘s ending implies the franchise may be heading in a more hellish direction soon.
1 Terrifier 2 (2022)
The Battle Between Art And Sienna Shaw Begins
Terrifier 2 is still the best movie that Art the Clown has ever appeared in because of how perfectly it built the world around him. A psychotic, immortal, killer clown, especially one as charismatic as Art, will certainly pique horror fans’ appetites, but it’s the story and cast of characters introduced in Terrifier 2 that took Art to the next level. Art was given his own allies in the Little Pale Girl and Vicky, who help him carry out his mission of malevolence, and he broke new ground in sadism and depravity.
The now infamous “bedroom scene” of
Terrifier 2
was the most cited scene when it came to audience members passing out, getting sick, or needing to leave the theater.
More importantly, Terrifier 2 introduced Lauren LaVera’s Sienna Shaw. Every great villain needs a nemesis, and Sienna is Art’s, the perfect benevolent reflection of his evil. Terrifier 2 introduces the lore behind Sienna’s father and her angel warrior costume, and features a climax that elevates her character to something supernatural to counteract Art. She is killed by Art and is able to return from his own personal corner of Hell (the Clown Café), indicating she might be immortal just as he is.
Terrifier 2 tops the list because it’s the most complete movie that Art has ever been in. It contains some of the scariest scenes in the Terrifier franchise and features not only a well-defined heroine that audiences can rally behind, but also an engaging cat and mouse game between Art and Sienna. The action builds to an appropriately bloody and downright awesome climax that sees Sienna take vengeance for the friends and loved ones that Art killed, but leaves the door wide open for more.
Source: Dread Central
Terrifier
Created by Damien Leone, Terrifier is a horror multimedia franchise that centers around the sadistic Art the Clown, a serial killer who appears on Halloween night to stalk partygoers. The series is known for being one of the most shocking in the slasher genre, with over-the-top kills and a darkly comedic tone. Art the Clown’s first appearance was in a horror anthology film, All Hallows’ Eve.
- Created by
- Damien Leone
- Cast
- David Howard Thornton , Samantha Scaffidi , Lauren LaVera , Elliot Fullam , Jenna Kanell
- Character(s)
- Art the Clown , Victoria Heyes , Tara Hayes , Sienna Shaw , Jonathan Shaw