Art The Clown Is Ready For The Holidays With The Terrifier 3 Teaser

Art the Clown just doesn't let up. It's been just over a year since "Terrifier 2" took the horror scene by storm, making bank at the box office and inspiring a wide range of responses from enthusiasm to disgust to reported cases of vomiting and fainting. Art's already back for more, though, as the teaser for "Terrifier 3" just dropped along with a special re-release of the second film. This time, the seemingly immortal killer clown is ready to deck the halls with entrails: yep, this is a holiday movie.

"Terrifier 3" was first announced back in June 2023, and given the way these movies have previously been made — on a shoestring budget, with Damien Leone serving as writer, director, and editor — it's no surprise that the sequel ended up on a fast track toward release. In an exclusive interview with /Film, Leone shared that he was also able to bring in a professional makeup team to work on the effects this time around, which made the process a lot quicker. "I can focus on one thing instead of a hundred things," Leone explained, "So that's going to be really exciting. And the other thing it's going to allow me to do is shoot the movie in three months as opposed to three years."

That snazzy new practical effects team's work is on display in the first trailer for the new movie, which takes place during the holiday season and, based on the franchises' gnarly track record, might just end up being the goriest Christmas movie ever. Christmas horror movies have become a mainstay for lots of horror fans, and this year will also see the release of the "It's A Wonderful Life" slasher movie riff "It's a Wonderful Knife." Then, of course, there are trashy classics like "Silent Night, Deadly Night" and "Christmas Evil." Will "Terrifier 3" rise above all the other Christmas horror films we've seen so far and deliver something spectacularly gruesome for the holidays? It's too soon to say, but it's probably a safe bet.

First and foremost: this is a pretty damn effective teaser. While this probably won't be an actual scene from the film and is more likely something created specifically for this teaser trailer, it sells the movie perfectly (and gosh, that film grain is beautiful!). In the teaser, it's Christmas Eve, and snow is falling outside. A child awakens, hearing something — or someone — downstairs. 

We see that someone appears to be none other than Old Saint Nick, Santa Claus, dropping some presents under the tree. The inquisitive child creeps down the stairs to spy on Santa. Of course, it's not really Santa — it's Art the Clown in full Santa gear! And he's got an axe! What happens next happens off camera, but when we cut back to Art, he's drenched in blood. The implication is clear: Art just killed that kid! Which begs the question: does this go too far? Some folks are bound to think so. Indeed, someone took to Twitter (aka X) recently to decry this, which caused filmmaker Damien Leone to cheekily retweet the comment with the film's release date.

Twitter/X

Killing kids in horror movies is certainly a taboo — up there with killing dogs/cats — but it's clear that Leone doesn't care about pushing boundaries with these films. Indeed, pushing boundaries is exactly what the "Terrifier" movies do so well.

While full plot details aren't available for the third film yet, it's safe to say that the plot will involve Art the Clown unleashing his usual blood-soaked brand of mischief upon a group of unlucky people, most of whom will die in gruesome ways. And when it comes to the third film, director Damien Leone knows that he has a lot of hype to live up. The director previously told Variety: 

"There's sleepless nights sometimes where, 'Oh my God, I can't let the fans of this franchise down.' They always come to expect the next big kill scene, the next big gory set piece. How am I going to top the now-infamous hacksaw scene in 'Part One,' and now the second movie? I get asked at the conventions, 'How are you going to top the bedroom scene?' I always want to swing for the fences and try and see if I could outdo myself from the previous installment."

In typical hype-building fashion, Leone told Bloody Disgusting to expect much more than a "20-second gimmick" teaser, and the new trailer delivers with an extended glimpse of what audiences will see when Art (David Howard Thornton) returns. Also returning for the new installment? Lauren LaVera, whose final girl Sienna Shaw was the highlight of the second film. Stunt actor LaVera has become a beloved rising star on the horror scene since her turn in the sequel, and with Sienna alive at the end of "Terrifier 2," some fans are anticipating her return just as much as Art's.

The second "Terrifier" film also left us with some intriguing lore, as a spectral girl who signifies Art's first victim appeared, both Art and Sienna were resurrected, and poor Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) seemingly birthed Art yet again in the film's mid-credits scene. "Terrifier 3" might dive even deeper into the Art the Clown mythology, but there's only one thing we can guarantee about the holiday splatterfest before we've actually seen it: "Terrifier 3" will gross us out. "Terrifier 3" opens in theaters on October 25, 2024.