The success of “Terrifier 2” has writer and director Damien Leone already hard at work in a third film in the series with a fourth sequel possibly happening as well…
In many ways, “Terrifier 2” continues to be the most talked about horror film of 2022.
While it’s not earning blockbuster numbers at the box office, the indie darling from writer and director Damien Leone has continued to exceed all expectations for a sequel that cost next to nothing (by Hollywood standards) yet the film continues to expand into more and more theaters leading up to Halloween. The total domestic haul for the film sits at around $8 million thus far — on a $250,000 budget that was largely made through crowdfunding.
So it’s no surprise that Leone has already been hard at work on “Terrifier 3” with so much story left to tell that he might expand into a fourth film in the series.
“I had a “Part 3” in mind when writing “Part 2,” Leone told Variety. “There are so many questions brought up in “Part 2” that are not answered, and that was part of the design because I know I’m going into a “Part 3.” I pretty much have the entire treatment ready for “Part 3,” but it’s getting so big that it could potentially split into a “Part 4” because I wouldn’t want to make another 2 hour 20 minute movie. So we’ll see.
“My fear is that eventually the well is gonna run dry, we’re gonna wind up jumping the shark, there will be nothing left to say with this character. It happens with a lot of franchises that I’m still a huge fan of. I’ve watched all these “Part 10s” and “Part 13s,” but sometimes that could really ruin the entire franchise. For them to peter out or not have this satisfying arc or the movie goes in another direction, that could be devastating to your overall franchise. I want to try and avoid that.”
The original “Terrifier,” which operated on an even smaller budget first introduced the character of Art the Clown (as played by David Howard Thornton) and the silent, smiling mass murderer has already become a bit of a horror icon through two films.
While there were some characters that did appear in both “Terrifier” films, the sequel largely introduced a new story outside of Art the Clown continuing on his killing spree. That will change with the third film as Leone expects his “final girl” Sienna Shaw (as played by Lauren LaVera) from “Terrifier 2” to return to once again battle Art the Clown in the third film.
“Sienna is crucial to the franchise moving forward,” Leone said. “There are a lot of interesting things that are going to be brought up with that character and her trajectory. I know there were a lot of things thrown at the audience in this movie and it sort of unravels like a nightmare, but nothing was thrown in just arbitrarily for the sake of being weird.
“Everything means something, and it’s all going to make sense, for sure. I kind of regret doing this, but I recorded a director’s commentary for the Blu-ray and I actually did explain a lot of stuff that I shouldn’t have. People might want to check that out because they’ll definitely get some spoilers as to what’s going on on.”
Leone said he’s not against partnering with a larger studio for the third “Terrifier” movie, although he has no plans to tone down the violence and gore that has reportedly sent some moviegoers screaming out of theaters, vomiting and passing out due to the extreme nature of what’s happening on screen.
As far as upping the ante with the kills in the third film, Leone admits that there’s definitely high expectations to exceed what’s already been done in the first two movies and that forces him to work even harder when putting together those sequences once production begins.
“There’s definitely pressure,” Leone said. “I think we’re set up to fail with “Part 3” in terms of the gore, no matter what, because now people have their expectations so high. If I go way past that we’re going to be thrown into the bad taste category, and if we don’t hit that then we’re going to have dropped the ball.
“So I have to hit a bullseye in terms of the gore for “Part 3.” So no pressure there.”
“Terrifier 2” remains in theaters now with plans for a blu-ray release of the film in the near future along with streaming options as well.
