Some people are really waiting for it: so here it is – the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Christmas slasher “Terrifier 3” with Art the Clown.
If you think of the festival of love in connection with genre films, then every second movie fan is sure to think of “Die Hard”. Incidentally, the action film was released in cinemas exactly 35 years ago. And not only did it make Bruce Willis the new Hollywood superstar overnight and marked the film debut of theater actor Alan Rickman (thanks for that!), it also established itself as one of the more unusual annual must-see films over the Christmas holidays.
Yet there are so many more genre films to discover that take place against a festive backdrop. For example, the horror genre discovered this setting long before the action film with “Who set Aunt Ruth on fire” from 1971, which you can buy on Blu-ray from Amazon. In general, this combination fits together much better than with John “Yippieh-ya-yeah, pig cheek” McClane due to the thematic incompatibility. Films such as “Black Christmas”, “Silent Night, Deadly Night”, “Krampus” and “Christmas Bloody Christmas” have provided some scary, some entertainingly trashy fun for anyone who isn’t necessarily into kitschy, cheerful entertainment like the upcoming “Candy Cane Lane” with Eddie Murphy.
And the reigning king of all horror characters will soon be involved in this Christmas butchery. Creator and director Damien Leone had already revealed it with a first teaser poster: Art the Clown will indulge his perverse and anything but Christian lust for murder in the third “Terrifier” this holiday season. So if you’ve been wondering what the supernatural killer clown looks like in his Santa costume, this first teaser trailer should be just the thing for you:
“Terrifier 3”: It’s back to the horror roots – but with a glossy look
According to director Damien Leone, the fact that “Terrifier 3” is set at Christmas this time and not Halloween as in “Terrifier 2” is only logical, as he told Bloody Disgusting:
“This time we’re taking Art into a different holiday, my second favorite holiday, which has always been Christmas. And listen, he’s already walking around with his huge bag of goodies. He’s just the perfect counterpart to Santa Claus. He loves handing out presents and putting a smile on people’s faces. Just the backdrops we have in this movie and around the holidays are just great. I’ve always been a big fan of this subgenre of horror.”
Indeed, you can feel Leone’s love for Christmas in every shot of the teaser trailer. If Santa Claus hadn’t been given that incredibly gruesome grimace by Art the Clown, the lighting would have made you think you were in a genuine family movie classic à la “Santa Claus” or “Merry Christmas”. This is probably also due to the much higher budget available to Leone and his team thanks to the French production company Cineverse.
But while the setting this time will be full of glitter and lights, “Terrifier 3” will once again be based on the first part in terms of atmosphere, i.e. it will be menacing and dark. Art the Clown is supposed to scare the audience again instead of just making them puke (via The Hollywood Reporter). He uses the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series as a comparison:
“I’m trying to go back [to ‘Terrifier’] in terms of tone. So if Part 2 is my [‘Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warrior’], with [‘Terrifier 3’] I want to go back to the original tone of ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’.”
Creepier, more menacing, but at the same time festive and certainly at least as bloody as “Terrifier 2”: fans of the splatter series can therefore look forward to a very special film gift. The US cinema release of “Terrifier 3” is on October 25, 2024.
