TERRIFIER: Missing Depth & A Point

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TERRIFIER: Elements of Horror, but missing Depth and a Point

Terrifier is a new horror by writer/director Damien Leone. It resonates with homage to multiple horror legends, like John Carpenter and early Rob Zombie, but it lacks their purpose and heart. Let’s be honest, for the most part, horror isn’t deep. It isn’t generally wrought with metaphor or resounding life lessons. However, the good ones do have a story behind the characters and at the very least, behind their main monster.

The Need for More Flesh-ing

Art The Clown (David Howard Thornton), is Terrifier‘s monster/antagonist and arguably it’s anti-hero. First introduced in Leone‘s Terrifier short, then All Hallow’s Eve in 2013 (don’t waste any time with that one, though).

In Terrifier, he is back on a completely unrelated hunt. With a mixture of Captain Spaulding from Zombie‘s House of a Thousand Corpses and Marilyn Manson, Art is truly frightening and, at times, disturbing.

Art has all the makings of a phenomenal horror villain, but unfortunately, his creator gave him no depth, background or motivation. Of course, there are “just psychos”, with no actual catalyst in many horror films, but even Jason Voorhees and Mike Myers have back stories and purposeful victims. Art sort of comes out of nowhere, picking victims just because they are there.

He’s mentioned over the news a couple of times, as “police are looking for a man dressed up as a clown” and he’s deemed “dangerous”. No escaped from prison or an insane asylum, no tortuous childhood – he’s not even the entity that haunts a particular campground or house. He just sort of appears, is seen by two women in his vicinity and decides that they are the one’s he’s going to pursue.

TERRIFIER: Elements of Horror, but missing Depth and a Point
source: Dark Age Cinema

The two women he follows also have no story or background. It’s Halloween and they are dressed up going…somewhere? They aren’t significant to Art, nor any other character, in any way. They are wandering around empty streets with no obvious purpose. Not even the area has significance, other than being where Art was reported last seen. Because of the lack of character development and direction in the script, the “story” just becomes one of cat and mouse, with none of the terrifying layers that good horror has. When horror is just predator kills prey, it’s pretty pointless and boring.

The Importance of the Script

Building a screenplay is never an easy task. It takes more than just an idea or concept. The story must be crafted and refined over and over. Screenplays not only take countless rewrites, but years and years of learning the craft and life experience. It’s nothing to go into lightly. When a writer has truly put all of themselves into a piece, they come out of it transformed. They are exhausted mentally, spiritually and physically.

A script isn’t something that you just want to create; it is something that you must create. Only with that much passion behind an idea, can a writer come out with something truly great. This includes even the scripts that aren’t super profound, because film is an emotional medium. If you, as the screenwriter, invest nothing of yourself into the script, how will any audience be moved, in any way, by your final product?

TERRIFIER: Elements of Horror, but missing Depth and a Point
source: Dark Age Cinema

The dark elements of pain and immeasurable rage seep through the pores of most of Rob Zombie‘s horror films. Whether you agree with me or not, his version of the classic Halloween, though also not without flaws, contributed a depth of brutality missing from the original. It wasn’t so much the background story he gave Michael Myers, but the level of disturbance.

There was a continuous and unforgiving dark apathy throughout the story that never let up. This, mirrored through the ferociously merciless killer, compounds the feeling of dread and hopelessness in the entire film. There is no way out for main character, Laurie, without major sacrifice and complete transformation. It left me feeling unsettled and disturbed in a way most horrors don’t.

Terrifier, in contrast, reminds me of the scripts I attempted as a beginning screenwriter. It has a couple of great elements, awkwardly strung together with a pointless,”made-up-as-you-go-along” story. The dialogue is rough, doesn’t exist to move the story forward and just fills empty space. The acting itself, with the exception of Art, is criminal, painfully faked and never felt.

There are scenes of horrific violence, to which the actors react like they are only mildly troubled. A body being cut in half from pelvis to skull with a hacksaw (really??), however unbelievable, is nothing short of horrifying. Unless these victims were raised in the Hewitt family household (which they very well could have been, though we’d never know it), much more reaction is needed.

Terrifier: Conclusion

Art is a gorgeously disturbing vision with so much nasty potential. Because of that, I was able to overlook many of the film’s flaws. He is freakishly fun and murderously malignant. I loved that he never spoke a word, reacting only with facial expressions. Thornton‘s performance, overall, is highly focused and gleefully wicked. However, he could only get so far without a thorough script.

I’d love to see Leone continue with this character in his writing journey. I want to see Art in a frightening story, that is layered and complex. I want the same feeling of nausea and disturbance I felt in Zombie‘s Halloween, if not more. Art deserves it.

TERRIFIER: Elements of Horror, but missing Depth and a Point
source: Dark Age Cinema

There’s no clear protagonist in the film. Is it one of the two main victims? Is it Art? Leone has definitely brought an homage to many of horror’s legendary filmmakers.  The downside of this is that it doesn’t feel like his own work. It’s more a montage of already used conceits and scenes using slightly different characters. Overall, it likened to watching people crawl through a blood soaked labyrinth with no direction or ending. The sub-par acting by the rest of the cast made the parts without Art The Clown unbearable and is reminiscent of low budget “adult” films.

Terrifier did leave me torn though, which is a good thing. It had a magnetism throughout and, no matter how bad a scene was, I still wanted to see it through to the end. This is not a finished product, but I do feel like Leone is on to something here and I’m pulling for him. Art the Clown has the potential to be a formidable, gruesome, franchise horror character, he just needs more seasoning and cultivation. A murderously gleeful, silent Art, combined with a victim or two we care about, could prove seriously scary and fun. I hope we see and, more importantly learn, more about Art in the future!

What terrifies you?


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