Terrifier 3

With the third entry in his torture porn-splatter franchise, writer-director Damien Leone crosses several lines of what should be permissible in mainstream horror.

Bloody disgusting: David Howard Thornton
Image courtesy of Signature Entertainment.

With 74 days until Christmas and festive merchandise already on supermarket shelves, the multiplex is now in on the act. An early Yuletide gift from Bloody Disgusting – the horror-orientated multi-media production company – Terrifier 3 presents a very, very bad Santa. There is also the religious iconography and our favourite carols all mocked within an inch of their lives. The latest entry in the increasingly popular Terrifier brand – graphic novels, movies, TV, video games – this splatter fest takes the horror film into new territory. Now that make-up and prosthetics have reached new levels of authenticity, there seems to be no limit to what can be dangled in the face of the censor. Goremeisters and the seriously unhinged may rate this as some kind of classic of its genre, but it pushes the limits of the horror film to disturbing new depths. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

The eponymous killer takes unparalleled delight in his pastime, butchering his victims in increasingly inventive ways, while mocking their pain and terror as they die. Adopting the exaggerated mannerisms of a silent clown, he exhibits a range of childlike expressions of glee as he goes about his business. Following an unspeakably graphic prologue, where a little girl witnesses the slaughter of her brother and parents at the hand of the axe-wielding clown dressed up as Santa Claus, the film cuts back five years to introduce new one-dimensional characters to be shot, diced, eviscerated and frozen with the aid of liquid nitrogen. But ‘Art the Clown’ is not alone, as he has an accomplice in the form of a facially disfigured companion, Victoria, who previously gave birth to his decapitated head and is now possessed with a not dissimilar blood lust. As Christmas approaches, we are introduced to the Shaw family, in particular Sienna (Lauren Lavera) who is still suffering from extreme PTDS following her previous encounter with the butcher…

Having acquired a cult-like following with his first two films, Damien Leone now sees just how far he can push the envelope. Along the way, the pitch-black humour of the franchise has been pushed aside in favour of excess and pure visceral obscenity. It makes the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre seem tame in comparison, and with its low-res, murky visuals resembles a video nasty from the 1970s and ‘80s. But unlike I Spit on Your Grave (1978) and Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left (1972), and other dubious classics, it projects the insanity of the forbidden into the mainstream. Some might say that 2024 has been a vintage year for horror – at least in quantity – but Terrifier 3 borders on the unbelievable.

For readers of a squeamish disposition, it might be wise to skip now to the next review. Because here we are subjected to scenes that are beyond bad taste: where a little boy accepts a gift-wrapped bomb from Santa (we are not spared the grisly consequences), a naked student’s natal cleft is extended with a chainsaw and a scene of protracted torture in which one sympathetic character has a live rat forced down her throat. And there’s a lot, lot more, each episode of blood-spurting carnage outstripping the next. As a critic who has been exposed to several films refused a certificate in this country (the UK), I couldn’t believe what Damien Leone was serving up for multiplex consumption. Inevitably, there will be calls for the film to be banned – at least, one lives in hope.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Lauren Lavera, David Howard Thornton, Antonella Rose, Samantha Scaffidi, Elliott Fullam, Margaret Anne Florence, Bryce Johnson, Alexa Blair, Mason Mecartea, Krsy Fox, Luciana VanDette, Clint Howard, Bradley Stryker, Daniel Roebuck, Tom Savini, Jason Patric.  

Dir Damien Leone, Pro Damien Leone, Phil Falcone, Steven Della Salla, Jason Leavy, Michael Leavy and George Steuber, Screenplay Damien Leone, Ph George Steuber, Pro Des Olga Turka, Ed Damien Leone, Music Paul Wiley, Costumes Olga Turka, Sound Martín Hernández, Paul Hackner and Matt Vowles. 

Bloody Disgusting/Dark Age Cinema/Fuzz On the Lens Productions/Screambox-Signature Entertainment.
125 mins. USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 11 October 2024. Cert. 18.