Damien Leone gives details about his plans for “Terrifier 3,” which secured a full theatrical release this week with the film expected to debut in late 2024….
Writer and director Damien Leone knows expectations are high for him to deliver a truly terrifying third film when “Terrifier 3” arrives in 2024.
Following the word-of-mouth campaign that turned “Terrifier 2” from a small-budget horror film made for around $250,000 to a legitimate hit after earning over $15.1 million at the box office, it didn’t take long for Leone to start plotting ideas for a third film in the series.
Earlier this week, Cineverse Corp. announced a deal for the North American rights for “Terrifier 3” that will result in the film receiving a full, nationwide theatrical release. The film will then eventually land on the Screambox streaming service, which is also owned by Cineverse.
Production on “Terrifier 3” is expected to start later this year with David Howard Thornton returning as Art the Clown — the silent but very antagonist of all three “Terrifier” films — as well as Lauren LaVera, who will reprise her role as the heroine Sienna, who stopped Art the Clown in “Terrifier 2.”
Given the attention that “Terrifier 2” received, Leone admits that he’s got a lot of pressure to deliver another film that will appease the audience, which is why he’s been hard at work tinkering the script for the upcoming third movie in the franchise while also devising all new kills that will certainly shock moviegoers.
“Once I figured out what Part Two was, I knew it was going to be at least a trilogy, so I’ve been working on this since I completed Part Two,” Leone told Variety. “Even while I was writing Part Two, I actually had scenes that I’d already written for Part Three because I knew where it was going to go. 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. This one will actually have a little bit more of an evil overtone to it, so this is going to be hopefully the scariest and the darkest. I want it to feel as if the audience coming into this one isn’t as comfortable with Art the Clown as they feel they are now. I want to see if I can make them really scared of him again.”
Leone has been praised for the outlandish practical effects that he masterminded for both “Terrifier” films, which included several extremely gory scenes that reportedly had some audience members vomiting in their seats.
Considering this is expected to be the third film in a trilogy, Leone knows he has to pull out a few new tricks if he’s going to keep the audience guessing, which is why he’s taken so much time putting this movie together.
“There’s sleepless nights sometimes where, “Oh my God, I can’t let the fans of this franchise down,” Leone said. “They always come to expect the next big kill scene, the next big gory set piece. How am I going to top the now-infamous hacksaw scene in Part One, and now the second movie?
“I get asked at the conventions, “How are you going to top the bedroom scene?” I always want to swing for the fences and try and see if I could outdo myself from the the previous installment.”
As far as the tone of the third film, Leone admits that he had a specific idea in mind when making “Terrifier 2” that won’t necessarily carry over to “Terrifier 3,” although he’s still undecided on the final cut for this movie.
There are definitely elements and characters that will carry over from “Terrifier 2” into “Terrifier 3” but Leone also says he wants to get back to the basics, which he loved in the original “Terrifier.”
“I wanted Part Two to have a “Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” vibe to it,” Leone explained. “That was my tone in the back of my head and I knew I was really going to embrace this supernatural and fantasy element. I also knew I was going to alienate a handful of fans going that route. I personally love it. There’s a lot of people who didn’t love the fantasy, or at least they need more explanation as to why that’s all happening. I didn’t want to explain everything in Part Two, so I am going to explain as we go.
“But the biggest mistake I could do now is double-down on that fantasy aspect. That’s why I want to course-correct a bit; let’s go back to “Nightmare on Elm Street” Part One, as opposed to going further into “Dream Warriors.” That could be very helpful criticism and help me make a better movie moving forward. But we’ll see.”
There’s no date set yet for the release of “Terrifier 3” but the movie is expected to drop sometime in the latter part of 2024.
