Film Review: "Terrifier"

Usually when I decide to buy or see a film a film, I would take a look at the film’s trailer. This wasn’t the case with “Terrifier”. The two main reasons why I chose to see this film with seeing the trailer are that it starred Catherine Corcoran whom I liked from “Return to Return Nuke Em’ High” and the fact that this films was being presented on Dread Central’s new film label Dread Central Presents.

The film follows two women (Jenna Kanell, Catherine Corcoran) who leave a Halloween party to head home. While walking to their car they find out that they are being stalked by a sadistic clown known Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton). To make matters worse, their car has a slashed tire so one of the women calls her sister (Samantha Scaffidi) to pick them up. Soon, all three women will be forced to play his deadly game as they have to fight to survive before becoming Art the Clown’s latest victims themselves.

When I saw and reviewed “Red Eye” almost two months ago, I thought that it would be most disturbing film that I would see all year as it was very bloody and shocking. Well that took almost two months because “Terrifier” has taken that title as most disturbing film of 2018 as this is one of the most gruesome slashers that I’ve seen period.

One of the main things that makes this film so good was Damien Leone direction. He does a very good job making sure this action is intense from start to finish. From the way that he edits the film to the way that he and his effects teams make the scenes very gory in a disturbing way, everything is done in a way that you are shocked at what’s happening on screen. It helped give the film its intense tone. The other thing that Leone does very well is to make sure the performances are directed in a way that it keeps you interested in the film. It makes for the action to work well with the story.

For horror films to be very good, it needs a good villain. This film has it as David Howard Thornton’s performance was very menacing even though he never utters a word in the film. He’s able to make his character feel horrifying through his body language and making his character very mime like. It helps make him terrifying to watch on screen.

The screenplay written also by Leone was very shocking. One of things that help makes it work was the way that he makes sure the story has a very dark and demented tone from start to finish. He achieves that by making sure every action scene had a sinister feel to it. It helped make the both the action and the death scenes in the story feel disturbing and dark. The other thing that I liked about this screenplay was the fact the way he approaches the Art the Clown character. To give the character no dialogue and make him frightening through his look and mannerisms is what makes the character very scary and downright frightening on screen. It makes this film very shocking to watch.

This is one of those films that felt like you were watching a splatterfest and that makes a very good horror film. With its directing and terrifying action, “Terrifier” is one of the most demented slashers that will make you afraid of clowns and earns the Horror Chamber Seal of Approval.