Terrifier 3 is still in the editing suite, and Producer Phil Falcone is being extra cautious with what he reveals about it.
“Our fanbase is so sharp”, he laughed to Zavvi. “I see some of the things they write after reading the vaguest comments from us, and it honestly makes us wonder whether they snuck onto set!”
The producer has overseen each of director Damien Leone’s low-budget gore-fests, but he’s never experienced fan anticipation quite like what he’s seen for the third feature-length instalment of Art the Clown’s bloody misadventures. But, without giving the game away, he was eager to give fans a little taste of what they can expect – here’s everything we learnt about Terrifier 3 from our conversation.
It’ll Be Shorter Than Terrifier 2
At 2hr18, Terrifier 2 is significantly longer than your run-of-the-mill slasher. Falcone revealed that the reason the three-quel is taking so long in the edit is due to the challenge of wanting to trim a similarly lengthy running time down, without compromising on the world-building.
He said: “We’re trying to keep it to no more than two hours, which is a battle, because this is a huge, huge movie. I’ve noticed from working side by side with Damien that everything has wound up bigger than we wanted it to be – but he loves the grandeur of this world, and I love being able to supply it for him!
“It’s on such a bigger scale than Terrifier 2, so keeping the runtime around two hours is going to be a difficult task. But we’re doing it the best we can, whilst still making sure it feels epic.”
Terrifier 3 Will Be the Most Extreme in the Franchise
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When Terrifier 2 became a surprise box office sensation, it was largely due to frenzied news reports of people passing out in cinemas due to the amount of bloody carnage depicted onscreen. Falcone doesn’t want to oversell this movie in a similar light, but does caution that this will push the boat out further in that regard.
“I don’t know if people will be passing out and throwing up, but I can tell you, there are things in this that made some of our cast members get nauseous on set. There are a lot of crazy things going on.
“Terrifier is a gore fest, and there’s no absence of gore here. The previous two movies had some epic kills, but this one has the most amazing opening ten minutes – and each new scene I’ve been shown is just as awesome”.
Art The Clown’s Killer Family
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There will be more creepy faces helping Art do his bidding this time around, but Falcone doesn’t want to spoil their (re-)introduction – throughout our chat, he speaks openly of his hatred for trailers that give too much away, even if that is just revealing new characters into the franchise.
The Little Pale Girl, introduced in Terrifier 2, was his first assistant, but brief glimpses in the trailer seem to show a disfigured Victoria (played by Samantha Scaffidi) transforming from victim to accomplice, which was very memorably teased at the end of the sequel.
“You want to keep the franchise feeling alive with possibility, even if Art’s case, you want to keep him dead! The fear is that, three movies in, keeping it with one person going against one person, it’s going to start getting boring – bringing in new characters is a good thing in that sense, but you can’t just add them for the sake of trying to keep it fresh, they have to have a true narrative purpose.
“When we did the first Terrifier, I said that you had to have a kill every five minutes; you could time going to the bathroom or going to get popcorn to that. I was initially scared to build upon that formula for Terrifier 2, even though we needed more story to justify a sequel – and then, even when we had a great script, I was worried people would just want gore.
“Luckily, people thought we had a really good mix, and we’ve aimed to broaden that out even more in Terrifier 3”.
Victoria’s Return
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The teaser keeps its cards close to its chest, and with only a brief appearance within it, you could assume Victoria could come back only for a single scene to satisfy the franchise’s hardcore fans. However, Scaffidi has a meaty supporting role, which Leone has elsewhere said is in part a response to his own anxiety that the character felt “underwritten” in the first movie.
“She’s a big part of the story”, Falcone continued. “I think everybody saw that coming, that Victoria would play a key part in it, but I think people will be very happy with how she’s been developed.
“We’re not starting over with her, and what happened in her past can’t be forgotten – it’s a direct continuation of her journey.”
Terrifier 4 Might Not Be The Franchise Finale…
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A fourth movie has already been confirmed for a while, but reports that it may be the culmination have been vastly exaggerated. However, that doesn’t mean Leone and Falcone have already got plans for film five and beyond.
“If Damien wants to continue and do Terrifier 4, it wouldn’t be a hard thing to do – there’s enough story in this world now to keep going. My opinion has always been if the fans love it, and if we have ways to continually make it better, or at least keep it interesting whilst remaining at a high bar, then of course we’d want to continue.
“But if after we’ve shot 4 we think we’ve got nothing else, then we wouldn’t want to beat it to death. We want to keep the fans happy, not have them resenting us for not stopping at 4!
“You want to keep bringing life to these characters, not drag them down by telling boring stories. It just tarnishes everything you’ve made in the past, and we don’t want to get there.”
Will Terrifier 3 End On A Cliffhanger?
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With Terrifier 4 announced shortly after Terrifier 3, it does beg the question; does this fit into the recent trend of sequels (from Across The Spider-Verse to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning) which end on a jarring to-be-continued note?
This is a question Falcone can’t directly answer, saying only that: “it’s an overarching story, Terrifier 4 will be the continuation of Terrifier 3 in the same way this is the continuation of Terrifier 2.
“And if Terrifier 4 ends up being more story than we can fit into a single film, then there’ll be a Terrifier 5 – but they’ll all blend into one long interconnected arc.”
Bigger Budget – Bigger Special Effects
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The budget for Terrifier 2 was $250,000 – a considerable step-up from the first movie, but still far cheaper than anything else you’d find in the multiplex. This time around, the budget is $2 million, and that will be most apparent when it comes to the gore, with the team recruiting a crew led by the Oscar and Emmy-nominated make-up artist Christien Tinsley, who knows a thing or two about stomach-churning splatter; his Oscar nomination was for The Passion Of The Christ, after all.
“It used to just be me and Damien doing all the practical effects, but this time we’ve got a major effects team working with us. And trust me, Damien isn’t joking when he’s said that this movie is pure insanity.
“There are moments here where, as a producer, I turn up to set and think there’s no goddamn way I can let him get away with this. But then you sit down, watch him make each scene and get mesmerised by the process – it will be a wild ride, and I can’t imagine any fans being disappointed.”
A New Christmas Classic?
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Terrifier 3 might be too bloody to become an annual Christmas rewatch – but Falcone hopes that for horror fans, it will become a Halloween tradition that marks the start of festive season.
“True horror fans love the Christmas angle; the idea of a day where you’re full of joy, elation and love, when you’re getting gifts from your loved ones, getting ruined by something horrific only increases how horrific it is! Putting a maniac like Art the Clown in the middle of a festive holiday just makes it a real emotional rollercoaster…”
Terrifier 3 is released in UK cinemas on Friday, 11th October
