Art the Clown is back as the bloody and bonkers teaser trailer arriving for Terrifier 3 which some horror fans already think will be the most ‘sickening’ film of 2024.
Created by Damien Leone, the monochrome clown first appeared in his 2008 short film The 9th Circle before cropping up again to cause mayhem in 2013 anthology All Hallows Eve.
The first Terrifier film was released in 2016, followed by the wildly popular sequel Terrifier 2 in 2022 which gained worldwide attention thanks to its gratuitous gore that reportedly made people vomit and even faint during screenings.
Its success meant a third Terrifier film is heading our way, and this time Art is set to unleash his bloody brand of chaos over the Christmas period.
Set to a haunting rendition of the classic festive song Silent Night, we catch glimpses of returning hero Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) walking toward flames, as well as screaming and slamming a door.
Of course, we also get plenty of shots of Art (David Howard Thornton) up to his usual tricks, brandishing an axe while dressed as a sinister Santa Claus.
We also see a now horribly mutilated Victoria Heyes (Samatha Scaffidi) smiling at the camera, one of Art’s only surviving victims who we met at the first film – and who also, ahem, gave birth to Art’s severed head at the end of Terrifier 2.
The teaser trailer ends with Art lying down in a pool of blood and, of course, making ‘blood angels’ in the spirit of Christmas.
Fans have been quick to share their thoughts online, with many crowning the film the best horror of 2024 before even getting a full trailer.
‘Terrifier 3 really seems to have upped the creep factor because just look at the material,’ KryptKeeper 21 wrote.
‘We are awaiting the best horror movie of 2024!’ LFASTYLE said, while WigginsWick23 predicted ‘This has potential to be the best movie out of the 3.’
CinemaOfScreams wrote: ‘That shower scene about to become the new bedroom scene. Holy s**t’, referring to a brief clip in the teaser that seems to show Art hacking a victim to pieces in a shower while wearing some very snazzy Christmas Tree sunglasses.
Others claimed the film already looks ‘sickening’ and ‘even gorier’ than its predecessors – and that they are ‘ready for the bloodbath.’
Returning cast members include Elliot Fullam as Sienna’s brother Jonathan as well as AEW star Chris Jericho, who played Burke in Terrifier 2.
A whole host of new names are set to join the Terrifier universe, including Final Destination’s Daniel Roebuck, From Dusk Til Dawn star Tom Savini, The Lost Boys’ Jason Patric, and Lords of Salem actor Clint Howard.
The film, which Leone has promised will be the most gory yet, is set to be released in cinemas on October 11.
Plot details are being kept tightly under wraps, but the synopsis for the film reads: ‘Art the Clown is back and set to unleash another round of chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.’
Writer and director Leone has said that the film will go back to its dark, gritty roots and feel closer to the original Terrifier film than the grandiose, mystical Terrifier 2.
‘I want to shift back a bit to the tone of Part One, which I felt was a little more simplistic and old school, gritty slasher. I want this one to go back in that direction, and I want this to be the scariest one of the trilogy,’ he told Variety.
He has also teased a scene even more grim that Terrifier 2’s infamous ‘bedroom scene’, telling the publication: ‘So that was a kill that I kept on the back burner… I didn’t even put it in Part Two. So that’s one I may explore.
‘But there’s another one I thought of about a month ago, where it clicked and I said “That’s going to be the next bedroom kill scene” — you’ll know it when you see it. I can’t say for sure I’ll ever top any of these scenes — it’s always going to be subjective — but you will know it when you see it.’