Movie Review: Terrifier 3 (2024)

[Dave Gray]

Terrifier 3 (2024)

Premise: A woman who went through the trauma of a massacre at the hands of a killer clown returns home at Christmas to....actually, who gives a shit?

Rating: Enjoyable for what it is, but a bit like trying to rate a porno on a 5-star Netflix scale.

I don't really know how to even review this.  I suppose the only way is to compare it to its predecessor.  Terrifier 3 is an improvement over 2 by the sheer fact that there is less story to bog it down.  There aren't as many mystical elements about magical daggers and bullshit.  It cuts out about 15 minutes of runtime for exposition.

The story and themes are much simpler and deal with family trauma, true crime obsession, gaslighting, etc.  It lacks the morality tale sometimes present in other classic teen slashers.  Art the Clown is just killing and there isn't really a lot of punishment for teen behavior.  It's just gruesome and sadistic for the sake of it.  And while the acting is not horrible to the point that it's laugh-worthy, these are still B-movie actors and the spoken lines aren't important in any way to what the film is delivering, which is gross, gory, and creative kills.

The kills are fine, with one that stands out as the grossest and involves a chainsaw and a shower.  But all of them are fun and gory and, most importantly, practical.  The movie feels like a throwback to old horror in the best possible way.

I personally found the locations in this film to be less interesting than before.  Terrifier 3 features things like a shower, a house, a mall, and a bar....while 2 was a costume store, a laundromat, a tv studio, and an old amusement park.  Also, the tone is similar, but less funny for some reason -- maybe because the interesting locations made more more interesting setups.  There was a little bit more opportunity for humor or subversion of an expectation, whereas this film seems more sadistic but straightforward.

All that said, the movie is still too long, but probably by 15 minutes, instead of 40 like before.  It was definitely less draining and dragged less than before.  I don't really know how to rate it.  As a theater experience, it was a good time.  I went with friends and family, people were dressed up there with shirts and costumes and Christmas stuff, the crowd was having fun -- it was just a good time to hang out with some sick weirdos and it's not a thing I do a lot, but I really enjoyed the general vibe of it.  You have to ignore this review on the merits.  See the film if you want to see a gruesome and mostly non-scary gorefest with no morality.  If that sounds off-putting to you, it is.

Edit:

Oh, one more thing!  The best thing about Terrifier 2 was this little freaky girl that existed in Art's mind.  Her character design was awesome.  He has another sidekick in this film that's totally different than anything before in the series and she is also quite freaky, designed well, and quite gross.  5 Stars.