With Terrifier 3 director Damien Leone delivers an anti-Christmas movie that will have gorehounds enthralled with its ludicrously extreme levels of violence, yet the real draw is Lauren LaVera who delivers a compelling final-girl performance.
The Terrifier franchise is notorious for its copious and savage depictions of bloody murder at the hands of Art the Clown, the demonic mute killer who has quickly ascended to the upper tier of horror movie monsters. For the exploits of a savage evil to truly leave its bloody mark, however, needed is a figure of good to counter its wicked ways, and Terrifier 3 has one of the most compelling in Sienna Shaw who is portrayed by the magnetic Lauren LaVera.
Set five years after the events of Terrifier 2, this third chapter finds Sienna still suffering from the psychological effects of her encounter with Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) who was left decapitated in an abandoned showground.
Temporarily released from a psychiatric facility to stay with her extended family during the Christmas holidays, Sienna’s worst fears come true when a resurrected Art and his equally twisted partner in grime Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi) spread Christmas fear across the town of Miles County with a killing spree that would make Satan blush.
Much has been written about the violence in Terrifier 3 with reports of audience members walking out or fainting due to the film’s graphic nature. Let it be assured here and now that Terrifier 3 is indeed a gruesomely violent spectacle of blood, guts, and bone that will have some wondering about Leone’s mental faculties for having conjured the kind of horrific content that makes The Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like an afterschool special.
The intentionally provocative Christmas setting features Leone playing with all kinds of festive-season imagery and symbolism in both secular and religious contexts. The latter is the more interesting of the two, with the mythology building of the Terrifier franchise delving into religious-horror territory, an angle Leone dabbled in Terrifier 2 with Sienna portraying an (almost) Michael the Archangel figure during her “final” confrontation with Art.
It is Sienna again who takes on the mantle of demon slayer as she fights against evil incarnate with crude crown-of-thorns embedded in her flesh and magical sword in two. LaVera’s performance is both engaging and depth filled portraying both victim and warrior, traumatised survivor and chosen hero, and doing so with a magnetic screen presence that (dare it be said) makes the moments when Art isn’t on the screen much more engaging.
Like other slasher franchises, the monster in Terrifier 3 is indeed the drawcard. Yet the best slasher movies are those that treats its heroes, its warriors, its avenging angels with the same pedigree at its devils. The Terrifier franchise has a great thing going with LaVern’a Sienna. Hopefully Leone can see through the crimson splatter and capitalise on it moving forward.
