Review: Terrifier (2016)

Terrifier (2016)

Not rated

Score: 3 out of 5

Terrifier isn't a throwback to '80s slasher movies so much as it is a throwback to what the moral crusaders of the '80s thought slasher movies were like, done as the best possible version thereof. It's an unapologetic 85-minute parade of sleazy, mostly plotless violence and brutality that's chiefly anchored and elevated by its villain, Art the Clown, a slasher villain for the ages who not only delivers the goods but is brimming with personality even as he never speaks so much as a grunt, let alone a line of dialogue. His victims get next to no development beyond serving as meat bags for him to spill all over the ground, to the point where one could in fact argue for him as the film's real protagonist and viewpoint character. As a slasher, the actual story is nothing you haven't seen before and better, but when it comes to its killer, the grisly gore effects, the atmosphere that writer/director Damien Leone built here, and the streak of brutal nihilism running through it all, there's a lot to enjoy. Even with this movie's flaws, there's a reason why Art the Clown became a horror icon almost instantly after he debuted, and this is a hell of a demonstration as to why.

The plot is simple: on Halloween night, a guy named Art puts on a clown costume and heads out on the town to hack people up, his rampage eventually winding up at a grungy warehouse. That's pretty much it. Everybody in this movie can be summed up in a few words: the drunken party girl, her sober best friend, the best friend's sister who comes to pick them up, the pizzeria employees, the crazy lady, the janitor, and the janitor's co-worker/buddy. The acting, while not exceptional, wasn't outright dreadful either, with Jenna Kanell as the best friend Tara being a highlight who gets most of the heavy lifting in the horror sequences, but the characters were all so paper-thin, and the story's structure so wobbly, that it made the movie feel like a series of random events as characters constantly entered and exited the picture. There's a twist at the end regarding the true identity of a character from the prologue, and it's a pretty neat twist that shows how traumatizing it would be to go through a horror movie even if you survive, but it's not that spectacular in the grand scheme of things.

No, this movie is about one thing and one thing only: serving as a showcase for Art the Clown. Once I sat down to write this review, my mind went back to In a Violent Nature, a slasher deconstruction that was far more overt about telling a slasher story from the killer's point of view, though while that film was a lot more contemplative and self-serious, this one is shameless pulp and, in my opinion, a better film for it. Art's sexism has been toned down from his debut in All Hallows' Eve (he still inflicts horrible, sexualized violence on women, but he doesn't scrawl outright misogynistic slurs on their bodies), as have the supernatural elements of his character (he's portrayed as mostly just a normal human in a costume and makeup here), but his general depravity and sick sense of humor have not. He writes his name in feces on bathroom walls, he goes out of his way to make dying at his hands the most painful experience you can think of, and his kills are both extremely creative and incredibly pragmatic when he needs to be. Furthermore, he's one of the rare horror movie clowns who, beyond just looking creepy, actually does "clown stuff" on top of it, as in humorous gags meant for his own amusement and that of an unseen audience. They're gags that mostly work, too, with David Howard Thornton (replacing the since-retired Mike Giannelli) giving his silent character a ton of personality through his facial expressions and body language alone. An interaction with one character implies some kind of troubled past involving his mother, but other than that, what we see is what we get with him. He's a remorseless sadist who loves killing and is clearly having fun doing it, almost enough to make the shocking, disgusting nature of his actions feel something close to fun. He's scary, but charismatic at the same time. Once I realized that he was the film's real main character, complete with a scene where he has his back against the wall only to come back with a "heroic" second wind (i.e. a dirty trick he had up his sleeve of a sort that way too many slasher movies consider to be "cheating"), and started watching and reacting to the film as though he was, it clicked.

And when Art gets down to business, Damien Leone gets to show off his skills behind the camera. The stalk-and-chase sequences are all fairly well done in how they combine traditional slasher scares with Art's trademark dose of black comedy, with one highlight being a scene where one character tries to hide in a closet and Art makes it clear that she didn't have him fooled for a second -- namely, by pointing at the closet where she's hiding with a mocking smile on his face, knowing she can see him. Every kill is gratuitously violent and would be among the highlights in most other slasher flicks, involving some very creative use of otherwise old-fashioned slasher movie weapons like knives and hacksaws, while the grimy setting and low-budget aesthetic lend the affair the feel of something made in 1986 that I might've found buried deep in Blockbuster's horror aisle as a kid. The characters may not have had much going for them in terms of development or writing, but I was still able to place myself in their shoes and feel some genuine fear as they ran for their lives in the face of what Art had in store for them.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to modern throwbacks to the slashers of the '80s, Hatchet is still my gold standard, but Terrifier, while undoubtedly flawed, still has its gritty charms to it, not least of all in its killer. I can't say I didn't enjoy myself watching it.