After Terrifier, Art the clown fans demanded more, and more is certainly what writer/director Damien Leone has given us with Terrifier 2: his film clocks in at a weighty 140 minutes and is packed to the brim with gory mayhem. This mammoth runtime is a little problematic, the final act feeling very drawn out (more about that later), but for those who enjoy their splatter with deliciously dark humour, the film is, for the most part, very entertaining.
This time around, Art (David Howard Thornton) targets teenage girl Sienna (Lauren LaVera) and her family and friends, who are gearing up for Halloween festivities. With his trademark finger waves, cheeky grin and lifting of his teeny tiny hat, Art is a superb horror maniac, both hilarious (his silent reactions to his kills are priceless) and horrific, the clown making a real mess of his victims. The practical special effects are top notch and quite nauseating at times, easily topping what we have seen before.
Where the film does fall down is with the lore that Leone introduces for his killer: it's all a bit confusing and makes the final act less effective. Somehow, Sienna's dead artist father was linked to Art, drawing pictures of the clown and his victims in his sketchbook. Sienna's father also gave her a sword before he died, which turns out to have magical properties that the plot doesn't explain very well (or at all). Furthermore, Art has a sidekick, a little girl, one of his previous victims who is now demonic. The finale in which Sienna becomes a super bad-ass warrior wielding her magic blade to give Art a bit of his own medicine, is both baffling and over-long.
Then, just when you think it's all over, there's a post credits scene that is just as confusing.
6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for the insanely gory killings -- If Leone had been able to make the supernatural stuff work better, and perhaps shaved 20 minutes off the runtime, my rating would have been a few points higher.
This time around, Art (David Howard Thornton) targets teenage girl Sienna (Lauren LaVera) and her family and friends, who are gearing up for Halloween festivities. With his trademark finger waves, cheeky grin and lifting of his teeny tiny hat, Art is a superb horror maniac, both hilarious (his silent reactions to his kills are priceless) and horrific, the clown making a real mess of his victims. The practical special effects are top notch and quite nauseating at times, easily topping what we have seen before.
Where the film does fall down is with the lore that Leone introduces for his killer: it's all a bit confusing and makes the final act less effective. Somehow, Sienna's dead artist father was linked to Art, drawing pictures of the clown and his victims in his sketchbook. Sienna's father also gave her a sword before he died, which turns out to have magical properties that the plot doesn't explain very well (or at all). Furthermore, Art has a sidekick, a little girl, one of his previous victims who is now demonic. The finale in which Sienna becomes a super bad-ass warrior wielding her magic blade to give Art a bit of his own medicine, is both baffling and over-long.
Then, just when you think it's all over, there's a post credits scene that is just as confusing.
6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for the insanely gory killings -- If Leone had been able to make the supernatural stuff work better, and perhaps shaved 20 minutes off the runtime, my rating would have been a few points higher.