2022 has been quite the year for the horror genre. With films like X, Pearl, The Black Phone, Barbarian, Nope, and Hatching entering our cinematic stratosphere, the genre has never felt richer with great movies. Finally, the spooky season has arrived as the year enters its final few months. The genre has two heavyweights entering the ring with Halloween Ends, and a film I’ve longed for since its first entry brought life to the no holds barred slasher of yesteryear, Terrifier 2.
While the former is a few weeks from release, Terrifier 2 arrives and immediately vaults into the discussion as one of the most entertaining horror films of the year. Damien Leone crafts a 140-minute grand slasher epic in Terrifier 2. An utterly brutal and relentless macabre of mayhem that solidifies Art the Clown as one of horror’s elite slashers.
For cinephiles wondering how Art could return after the first film’s conclusion, you have not been doing your slasher film homework. The sequel welcomes Art back to the horror community following the massacre of Halloween night as brother and sister Sienna and Jonathan become Art’s latest desire. As Art stalks the duo, he quickly disposes of anyone that stands in his way in the most gruesome fashion until a final confrontation arrives.
To some, Terrifier 2 may come off as a carbon copy of the original. But, to those I say, what would you call every sequel in the Friday the 13th franchise? Damien Leone ups the ante in this sequel giving the film’s core audience everything they longed for. In retrospect, this sequel is reminiscent of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2, a film that follows the trajectory of the first film with a larger budget.
Some of the best aspects of Leone’s screenplay are diving into family trauma and developing the film’s protagonist Sienna. This time around, Art is given a true foe, and while the “final girl” tropes are on display, Sienna stands toe to toe with the menacing clown. Again, Lauren LaVera offers a break-out performance that provides nuance and, most importantly, believability to Sienna’s strength and fierce drive to take down Art.
On the other side of Sienna is Art, and once again, David Howard Thornton is downright incredible. When it comes to physical performances in the horror genre, Thornton is among the best. From his mannerisms to hilarity after each brutal kill, Thornton will evoke genuine fear from his audience as he slices and dices through each victim.
A talking point from the first film is the infamous “down the middle” kill Art performs. To some, it may have been the most gruesome kill they’ve seen in a horror film. I can confidently say that it is child’s play compared to what’s to come in the sequel. Terrifier 2 not only ups the ante on its body count but has one, if not the most terrifying, violent kill scenes in a horror film I may have ever seen.
In the backdrop of these performances and horror show is George Steuber’s cinematography that effortlessly captures the true horror Art’s victims go through and some of the most haunting and downright creepy imagery in a horror film this year. While I’ll leave that surprise for cinephiles to discover, Steuber’s lens and the synth score by Paul Wiley deserves high praise.
While the mythos the film dives into in its third act may not always work, Terrifier 2 gets the job done by satisfying the long wait for Art to return and creating a desire for more entries in the series. In an era where the slasher genre can be seen as past, Terrifier 2 pulls no punches and gives cinephiles what they want – a satisfying throwback to slashers of yesteryear that is nothing short of delightful.
