Terrifier 2

The scariest thing about Terrifier 2 is that the viewer doesn’t feel in control. Most slasher movies follow a series of narrative tropes that, by the end, ultimately restore order to the universe. Viewers can watch with an awareness of the tropes—the rules of the game, reinforced by decades of genre fare. We enter into a contract with the filmmakers that they will deliver the experience as expected. We know that whatever mayhem might ensue, the masked killer will eventually be stopped, leaving at least one survivor, usually a woman. But writer-director Damien Leone’s sequel unfolds in a dreamscape where anything can happen; Leone shakes our trust in the model. The movie’s tormentor, Art the Clown, a sadistic force who’s played by David Howard Thornton and dresses like a demonic court jester, pantomimes his way through a series of horrific killings, never making a sound. Armed with a bag of rusty tools and weapons, he peels the skin off his victims, blows off their faces with a shotgun, yanks off body parts, and literally rubs salt in their wounds. In the opening of Terrifier 2, he also returns from the dead, conjured by some unknown force to continue his reign of terror. Leone’s sequel doesn’t feel like it’s playing by the rules, and that’s frightening.

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