Damien Leone is Wise to End the Terrifier Franchise With the 4th Movie

The Terrifier franchise has been one of the most unlikely horror hits of the new millennium, evolving from a shockingly gruesome low-budget indie into a mainstream powerhouse. The toothy visage of its antihero Art the Clown now adorns everything from apparel to toys to home decor, with costumes even available at mass-market outlets like Spirit Halloween. Writer/director Damien Leone has managed to outdo himself with each subsequent installment, working with progressively larger (though still very small by Hollywood standards) budgets to deliver an onslaught of gore that pushes the boundaries of mainstream horror.

So far, fans have turned up in ever-larger numbers to see Art’s latest killing spree, with last year’s Terrifier 3 pulling in a $90 million box office gross on a budget of just $2 million. It seems that Leone could keep making Terrifier movies as long as he wants, but he recently announced that the in-development fourth film will bring the series to an “emotional and satisfying conclusion.” Based on the track record for other long-running horror series, this announcement comes as something of a relief.

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As the third entry attempts to add in new lore, it comes dangerously close to finding something to say in between brutal murders.

What Terrifier 4 Will Be About

Not a whole lot is known about Terrifier 4 at this point. Leone announced in an Instagram post in January that the script is currently under way, and that it will reveal Art the Clown’s backstory. Leone seems very enthused about the story he’s working on, saying in the post that he’s “never been so excited to see one of [his] own scripts translate to the screen like this one.” At the very least, if its creator feels good about it, there’s plenty of reason for fans to be optimistic that he’ll be able to draw the series to a close in satisfying fashion.

The idea of exploring Art’s backstory is very intriguing, but also somewhat risky. The previous films have slowly teased out elements of Art’s character, revealing more of the supernatural elements and hinting at the depths of just how frightening his character really is. It’s made the question of just what Art the Clown actually is into a compelling hook, but the risk with giving too much information is that it can sometimes dull the impact of the character. Luckily, Art has always been as darkly funny as he is scary, so revealing more about his origins might not totally sap him of his effect in the same way that it would for more serious slashers.

Leone has earned plenty of good will from horror fans, growing the series organically mainly through word of mouth and not softening the gruesome edges that make the movies such grotesque fun for gore lovers. Art is a character that’s been with him for nearly two decades, since his first appearance in short films in 2008 and 2011, and Leone has more than earned the right to end the saga on his own terms.

Why the Series Should End After Terrifier 4

Ending the series with Terrifier 4 seems like a smart move for a couple of big reasons. As horror fans know all too well, bringing back a character for endless sequels and reboots rarely enhances the experience, but instead usually drags them down through repetition. One of the most well-known examples is Halloween’s Michael Myers, a killer who is so effective in the first film because the audience is given very little information about him. There’s no sense of what motivates him beyond just pure evil, which makes his killing spree that much more disturbing.

But after five or six movies, Michael loses much of his impact, and by the time Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers reveals him to be under the curse of some Satanic cult, the character’s ability to scare is pretty much dead. Subsequent films tried to retcon this plotline and restore some of Michael’s mystery, but the damage was already done. By bringing his series to a decisive end after the fourth movie, Leone might manage to avoid the sense of fatigue that can build up after too many sequels, and end Art’s story with his power over the audience largely intact.

The other reason that ending with four movies is a good move comes from the design of the movies themselves. The Terrifier movies’ bread and butter has always been their envelope-pushing violence, with Leone making use of larger budgets to find ever more creative ways for Art to murder and dismember his victims. The shock factor has always been what sets his films apart from other indie horrors, a willingness to go to places other films might be afraid to go. The problem is, audiences quickly get desensitized to these kinds of shocks, and it becomes increasingly difficult to continue to top the last one with each subsequent sequel. Leone’s largely been able to manage it so far, but it’s hard to know how long that could continue.

Of course, there’s no guarantee Leone might not change his mind somewhere down the line and resurrect Art once again, or if he’ll be the subject of reboots and legacy sequels in 20 years or so. But for the time being, bringing the Terrifier series to an end after four films will help preserve Art the Clown’s status as one of horror’s greatest monsters for future generations of gorehounds.

Terrifier 4

Director

Damien Leone

Writers

Damien Leone

Producers

Phil Falcone

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  David Howard Thornton

  Art the Clown