Good old scary movies. They’ve existed since the late 1890s with movies such as The Haunted Castle from 1896 or The Infernal Cauldron from 1903. Needless to say, the genre has come a long way in terms of how many subjects it covers. From supernatural elements to all out shock and suspense.
Terrifier 3 is one of a few movie examples that can cause one to faint upon watching the movie. The first time watching it, I had high expectations for it given I had heard rumors that the first ten minutes of this movie were so shocking and brutal to test audiences that they either threw up or fainted.
From a graphic standpoint, the film is certainly incredibly realistic for a $2 million film. The amount of blood and entrails mixed with a Christmas theme made me think that the movie was made very cheap as its effects seemed to have me on the edge of my seat with every sardonic grin and maniacal laugh I produced.
The plot picks up where the last film, Terrifier 2, ended with the main antagonist Art The Clown resurrecting from the dead and terrorizing his new arch nemesis Sienna Shaw alongside a possessed character from the first Terrifier, Victoria Heyes. Set five years after the previous movie, Sienna is released from a mental asylum into the care of her aunt and uncle along with their daughter Gabbie who adores Sienna but can’t help and ask her about what transpired. Her younger brother Jonathan has distanced himself away from his older sister as he himself has also tried to move on from the events.
The main imagery present in this film is largely reminiscent of familiar Christmas movies such as A Christmas Story or Miracle on 34th Street. The Christmas themes are very well put together in the sense that all the genuine feelings of happiness and being with family are indeed there. Then there’s the graphic imagery such as a mock depiction of Jesus’s crucifixion with a dead body and other slasher cliches painted with intense ferocity.
The movie to me was perfect as the plot itself was very well written and thought out in the same way other horror films that dealt with a Christmas theme have in the past such as Black Christmas or the Silent Night Deadly Night franchise. An aspect I also love about the Terrifier franchise is that it pays homage to a lot of different types of horror cinema that came before it such as slashers, B-movies, thrillers, direct to video franchises and even tragedy stories. Such films I compared this movie to were mostly old fashioned horror films such as Psycho, Evil Dead II Dead By Dawn, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday The 13th, IT and Halloween.
As I departed the theater I took one last look at the poster Tinseltown had posted on its walls of the glorious film I had watched, and with all the jolly tears of joy I had I muttered “I wanna see it again.”
