If you don’t know, don’t watch. On a scale of one to ten, this rates a shit ton of gore on the not-for-you scale, this is a gross out contest between Damien Leone and the world. And the world is calling uncle. This film starts out slow if not a little discombobulated. Showing what Art the Demoniac Clown has been up to for the last five years. But once the movie starts choppin it goes fast. Damien has said maybe we get a part four but that might be it. He has to have some offers to direct some bigger movie where the studios will actually give him a budget. Even if part four is the ‘last one’ I would bet anything that ten, fifteen, twenty years from now Damien will circle back to this character, or give someone else permission to run with it. If it’s someone else though it might be more like forty years…. Creative people don’t trust other people with their characters unless they know they’re done with them. Kind of like Don Coscarelli did with Tall Man. ‘Phantasm: Ravager’ (2016) saw this awesome franchise go out with a whimper. David Hartman didn’t seem to have a vision for it. The only good parts of this movie are the end credits. Originally meant as a web series, remember those (neither do I)? They were a thing at the dawn of the interweb.
Sienna is once again played by Lauren LaVera. Horror movies shoots some actresses to stardom, while others are ignored. Given the amount to screen time, actual acting she does, then goes toe to nose with Art for a drag down all the way to hell fight, she deserves credit! After Terrifier 2 took off, making ten million on a $250,000 budget, she was the natural one of the cast to really benefit. Like Bianca Bradley from the Wormwood Series (please make another one!), Suzanne Snyder from ‘Night of the Living Dead 2’ (1988), Karoline Brandt in ‘Skinned Deep’ (2004) maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Hoping she comes back for part four.
Art the Clown, the giddy Freddy Kruger if he was a mime clown, is played to perfection by David Howard Thornton. Triva, he played The Joker in a couple episodes of ‘Nightwing: Escalation’ (2016) and Terrifier 3 just had a bigger weekend box office than Joker 2. Art is a nice change of pace from other horror icons. He is over the top playful, then he busts out the knives. The shock to the watcher’s system is real. Spoiler alert, Art is one clown that likes to play with his food.
Mr. Leone for T4 please bring back Art’s mini-me, Catherine Corcoran (don’t care she’s dead, figure it out), keep the cameo’s coming (loved the old school horror actors popping up), I think the Easter Bunny should get the same treatment you gave Santa this go around (if you need ideas see Lobo, Paramilitary Christmas Special 1991) the pastel colors dripping with blood would be a sight.
