Art The Clown Almost Got Shot By Real Cops During The Making Of Terrifier

Creator/director of the "Terrifier" series, Damien Leone originally developed Art the Clown as one of many ghoulish antagonists for the short films "The 9th Circle" (2008) and "Terrifier" (2011). The blood-thirsty antagonist, who was inspired by iconic horror killers, then took center stage in 2013's "All Hallows' Eve," wherein two kids and their babysitter discover an unmarked VHS tape that showcased the homicidal clown's gruesome deeds. But it wasn't until 2016 that David Howard Thornton took over the role from the original Art actor, Mike Gianelli, for the first official "Terrifier" movie.

In the film, Art wreaks havoc on Halloween night as he hunts down Tara Heyes (Jenna Kanell) and her sister Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi). Unfortunately, as /Film's Chris Evangelista put it in his "Terrifier 2" review, the first official installment in the "Terrifier" canon was "little more than a plotless, storyless, valueless excuse to showcase gore and not much else." The second movie caused a significant stir in 2022 for its extreme gore and vastly improved story and characters, setting the stage for the upcoming "Terrifier 3." But back in 2016, Leone was seemingly focused solely on making the most graphic butchery he could, resulting in an infamous hacksaw scene that even the most hardened horror fan struggled to sit through.

While "Terrifier" wasn't as well realized a film as its sequel, the makeshift visual effects, most of which were crafted by Leone himself, were undeniably impressive. But it seems one of the biggest issues with shooting a low-budget independent slasher and using practical visual effects is that you will frequently upset unwitting members of the public — as was the case with both "Terrifier" and its sequel. The scariest part, however, is that one of these instances almost resulted in some very real violence.

He's now known for embodying the vicious killer responsible for some of the most gruesome movie murders yet committed to film, but David Howard Thornton was set to become an elementary school teacher before he moved to New York to pursue acting. When he auditioned for Art the Clown in "Terrifier," he wowed Damien Leone with an improvised scene in which he mimed chopping off a victim's head and salting it to taste. That twisted humor would become central to Art's appeal as the "Terrifier" movies continued. But it wouldn't be all fun and games.

Speaking to the eminent periodical Smash or Pass Indie Filmmaking, Thornton recalled how one scene in particular almost got him shot by police. The $35,000 production was shooting in Trenton, New Jersey, when things took a turn. As the actor recalled:

"There were two ladies arguing under the window of where I got my makeup on. I went over to watch the argument while they were filming a scene on set, forgetting how I looked. They looked up and saw this blood covered clown looking down at them and ran off screaming."

Thornton went on to recount how, half an hour later, Leone and producer Phil Falcone asked him to come outside, where he was greeted by "about 15-20 fully armed NJPD officers in full riot gear." He continued:

"It turned out that the area that we were filming in was VERY unsafe and that those ladies called in saying they saw a scary clown man covered in blood. They laughed their butts off when I came out and told me that I better be glad that I did not come out before my director and producer did, or that I would have been shot on [sight]."

Thankfully, nothing as horrific as an actual shooting happened on this specific occasion. As David Howard Thornton went on to explain, he actually ended up taking pictures with the officers, though some kept their distance because "they were afraid of clowns."

Interestingly enough it wouldn't be the last time the police were called to a "Terrifier" set. In fact, having the cops show up to set seems to have become an occupational hazard of Leone's brand of indie slasher filmmaking. During an interview at Creep I.E. Con 2023, Thornton recalled how, during filming for the laundromat scene in "Terrifier 2," in which the mysterious creepy pale girl shows up for the first time, he once again found himself face to face with the New Jersey police:

"The night we were doing the laundromat scene. I'm basically naked covered in blood and all of a sudden the cops show up because someone had reported us to the cops because they saw me walking into the laundromat covered in blood [...] I'm sitting there naked, covered in blood, and [the cops said], 'We hear there was a bloody clown that came in here,' and I'm like, 'Hi, it was me.'"

At least on this occasion, Thornton wasn't faced with an entire riot squad ready to shoot — although, as he went on to explain, he was in the unfortunate position of having to reassure the officers wearing nothing but a newspaper.

Having the cops called to set might not be the only trend David Howard Thornton and his killer clown counterpart started. The year "Terrifier" came out was also the year the infamous creepy clown sightings flared up. As Rolling Stone reported at the time, "Creepy clown sightings are cropping up across the country without explanation," seemingly originating in South Carolina and spreading across the U.S., with similar reports surfacing from Florida to Pennsylvania. Even New York College was forced to send a safety alert to students after "receiving eight different clown reports."

Things went global after that, with similar reports cropping up everywhere from New Zealand to Russia and the U.K. However, despite suggestions that some sort of global purge led by these mysterious clowns was imminent, nothing much came of the whole debacle.

Is Art the Clown single-handedly responsible for global mass hysteria over creepy clown sightings? Well, no. But perhaps whoever reported him, or indeed the cops themselves, were already spooked by these widespread reports of ghoulish harlequins menacing the nation. It's also a little unsettling that all of this transpired the year "Terrifier" debuted. But it just shows that tapping into a widespread primal fear of clowns is never a bad way to go when creating an evil slasher entity to lead your indie horror film, especially when that fear comes to a bizarre head just as your movie is released. 

Meanwhile, the teaser trailer for "Terrifier 3" promises a film that reaches new heights of creepy clown savagery when it arrives on October 25, 2024. We'll wait to find out what Leone and Thornton did to get the cops called on them this time.