WARNING: Major spoilers for Terrifier 3 ahead!
Damien Leone’sTerrifierfranchise has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years thanks to itsiconic central villain, Art the Clown. Thus far, there have been three movies in theTerrifierfranchise, each more creatively depraved and gory than the last. The franchise’s initial spike in popularity can be attributed to the viral nature ofTerrifier 2, which was so gruesome that audience members literally got sick. The franchise is even set to expand to a new medium, with aTerrifiervideo game reportedly on the way. As it stands, the public can’t seem to get enough of Art the Clown.
However, Art’s history extends more than a decade before 2016’sTerrifierfirst shocked audiences. While audiences are undoubtedly looking toward the future afterTerrifier 3’s cliffhanger ending, it’s worth taking a look back at Damien Leone’s previous works featuring Art the Clown. The ranking below takes many factors into account, including scariness, quality of story, and how much fun each entry is for horror fans. The list expands beyond the Terrifier franchise to include prequels and anthologies; if Art’s been featured in it, it counts.
6The 9th Circle (2008)
Art’s First Appearance Came In A Short Film
American director, screenwriter, and makeup/effects artistDamien Leone first conceived of Art way back in 2008. Art appeared as a supporting character in Leone’s short filmThe 9th Circle, which features a hodgepodge of typical horror characters. The short film’s true purpose was to show off Leone’s skill as a makeup and effects artist, which is why each monstrous character appears different. As Leone explained toDread Central:
I tell people it was my kitchen sink film … I threw in everything, clowns, witches, demons, monsters, everything up against the wall hoping something would stick.
InThe 9th Circle, Art acts as an emissary of Satan, and follows him in his eerie pursuit and subsequent capture of a young woman in a train station. Art’s true intentions are revealed when he stabs the young woman with a sedative so that she can be carried off as a sacrifice to a Satanic cult. As a short film in whichArt is a mere side character who shows none of his now-famous charisma and sadism,The 9th Circleranks last. It’s important as the first appearance of Art, but it’s not the Art that audiences love.
5All Hallow’s Eve (2013)
Art Featured Prominently In The Horror Anthology Movie
It’s difficult to rankAll Hallow’s Evein the larger context of Art’s film appearances, consideringit’s an anthology film that actually includes two other entries on the list.All Hallow’s Eveis Art’s first feature film appearance, and centers around a babysitter who finds a videotape in her kids' trick-or-treat bag, which she plays after they go to bed. The videotape features three distinct short movies that all feature Art the Clown in some capacity. After watching the video, the babysitter encounters the real Art, who has entered the real world and murdered the kids upstairs.
2008
2011
54%
2013
35%
2016
60%
53%
2022
86%
80%
2024
77%
94%
Two of the (untitled) movies on the videotape are actuallyThe 9th CircleandTerrifier, which again makesAll Hallow’s Evedifficult to rank. The overarching story related to the babysitter encountering the real Art is uninspired, and bothThe 9th Circleand the second movie, which features an alien stalking a woman in her house, are neither terrifying nor truly memorable. However,All Hallow’s Eveis still technically Art’s feature film debut, and features him as the primary antagonist throughout.
4Terrifier (2011)
The Earliest Version Of The Art Audiences Know And Love
The third movie on theAll Hallow’s Evevideotape is also a Damien Leone short film, and it’s the one that most consider to be Art’s true origin. In 2011, Leone wrote and directedthe short filmTerrifier, which features Art committing ghastly murders in the creative and grisly fashionthat he is now known for. In the short, a young woman witnesses one of Art’s murders at a gas station on Halloween night, which causes him to turn his attention to her; Art stalks and torments her for a bit before finally getting to her.
Before being played by David Howard Thornton in theTerrifierfranchise, Art the Clown was portrayed by Mike Giannelli before he retired from acting.
Given that 2011’sTerrifieris a short film, there isn’t much opportunity for Art to get into his patented form of murderous mischief. However, it does mark thetrue birth of Art the Clown as a brutal murderer with clear supernatural abilities(he is able to seemingly teleport ahead of his prey down the highway after she had just sped away from him in her car). It’s Art in his simplest form, but he does flex some of the charisma thatTerrifierfranchise’s Art is known for.
3Terrifier (2016)
The First Feature Length Adventure For The Modern Art
Before theTerrifierfranchise beganbreaking records withTerrifier 3, the series' original movie laid the foundation for Art the Clown and his now years-long reign of terror over Miles County. 2016’sTerrifierfeatures a stripped-down story that pits a pair of young women enjoying Halloween night against the version of Art the Clown that audiences across the world now know.Terrifierfeatures Art with all his trademark menaceand plenty of his silent comedic antics, and delivers plenty of gore in its tight runtime.
Art the Clown’s cartoonish behavior, pale countenance, and complete silence combine to create something truly unique and terrifying.
Terrifiertakes the character that Damien Leone first fleshed out in the 2011 short film and perfects him. Leone correctly noted during Art’s conception thatthe 2010s didn’t really have an iconic slasher as previous decades did. He intended to create something that could stand the test of time alongside horror icons like Michael Myers, Jason, Chucky, Freddy Krueger, and Ghostface.Terrifierdelivered just such a character, as Art’s cartoonish behavior, pale countenance, and complete silence combine to create something truly unique and terrifying.
Terrifieralso introduces the character of Victoria Heyes, played by Samantha Scaffidi, who becomes a major player later in theTerrifierfranchise.Terrifiermakes it clear that Art the Clown is much more than a simpler slasher; he delights in committing murders in gruesome, torturous fashion. The kill with the saw and Art eating most of Victoria’s face at the end of the movie proves that Art is something far more sinister than a typical slasher, and his resurrection proves he’s driven by a power far more foul.
2Terrifier 3 (2024)
Art And Vicky Unleash A Yuletide Reign Of Terror
After the viral success ofTerrifier 2, Damien Leone was faced with the challenge of upping the ante both in terms of story and in terms of gore. Following upTerrifier 2’s controversial bedroom scenewas no easy feat, butLeone managed to at least come close to matching the level of depravity withTerrifier 3. In the third chapter in theTerrifierfranchise, Art is back after a five-year wait (literally), to exact some Yuletide vengeance upon Lauren LaVera’s Sienna Shaw, her brother Jonathan, and the other innocents of Miles County.
Terrifier 3is loaded with memorable kills; two of the most notable are his visit to Santa Claus and his homage to Norman Bates in the showers. However, what makesTerrifier 3stand apart from the other entries in the list is how itopens the franchise up to a new world of nightmarish possibilities. Vicky features prominently in Terrifier 3 as the Harley Quinn to Art’s Joker, and her possession by some sort of demonic entity proves just how powerful the forces aligned against Sienna Shaw are.
How Terrifier 3’s Shocking Ending Sets Up Terrifier 4’s Sienna Story Explained By Director
Terrifier 3 director Damien Leone explains how the film’s cliffhanger ending sets up Terrifier 4 and why he didn’t include a post-credits scene.
Terrifier 3expands the franchise lore in ways thatTerrifier 2only touched upon, which is why it’s ranked so high on the list. The character of Art has been perfected, and it’s possible thatTerrifier 3features Art at his funniest, but the expansion of the lore behind Art and Sienna’s ultimate battle is the difference-maker. Their clash carries legitimate weight as a biblical battle of good vs. evil, andTerrifier 3’s ending implies the franchise may be heading in a more hellish direction soon.
1Terrifier 2 (2022)
The Battle Between Art And Sienna Shaw Begins
Terrifier 2is still the best movie that Art the Clown has ever appeared in because ofhow perfectly it built the world around him. A psychotic, immortal, killer clown, especially one as charismatic as Art, will certainly pique horror fans' appetites, but it’s the story and cast of characters introduced inTerrifier 2that took Art to the next level. Art was given his own allies in the Little Pale Girl and Vicky, who help him carry out his mission of malevolence, and he broke new ground in sadism and depravity.
The now infamous “bedroom scene” ofTerrifier 2was the most cited scene when it came to audience members passing out, getting sick, or needing to leave the theater.
More importantly,Terrifier 2introduced Lauren LaVera’s Sienna Shaw. Every great villain needs a nemesis, and Sienna is Art’s, the perfect benevolent reflection of his evil.Terrifier 2introduces the lore behind Sienna’s father and her angel warrior costume, and features a climax that elevates her character to something supernatural to counteract Art. She is killed by Art and is able to return from his own personal corner of Hell (the Clown Café), indicating she might be immortal just as he is.
Terrifier 2tops the list becauseit’s the most complete movie that Art has ever been in. It contains some of the scariest scenes in theTerrifierfranchise and features not only a well-defined heroine that audiences can rally behind, but also an engaging cat and mouse game between Art and Sienna. The action builds to an appropriately bloody and downright awesome climax that sees Sienna take vengeance for the friends and loved ones that Art killed, but leaves the door wide open for more.
What’s Next For Art The Clown?
Terrifier 2thrust Art the Clown into the mainstream pop-culture horror movie zeitgeist, even though it was his second most recent movie appearance. With hordes of new fans, especially since the release ofTerrifier 3in 2024, many are wondering what’s next for Art the Clown and what the future of theTerrifierfranchise holds. Currently, thenext plannedTerrifiermovie isTerrifier 4.
Director Damien Leone confirmed the sequel toTerrifier 3all the way back in February 2023.At the time, Leone expressed that he envisagedTerrifier 4would mark the endof the franchise. Prior to the release ofTerrifier 3,he toldBusiness Insider"I am writing ‘Terrifier 3’ as we speak. I definitely want to make at least one more. There may be two to tell this story and tackle all the ideas that I have in my head.“However, has since seemed to backtrack onTerrifier 4being the end somewhat, though not to the point that he’s suggested that he’s happy to keep making movies about Art the Clown forever:
“As a storyteller, as a filmmaker, you want to you want to create a satisfying franchise, a satisfying conclusion where you could just watch it from start to finish and understand the journey and the arcs of your characters and say, “Wow, that was a satisfying experience. I know what it is, and there isn’t like five timelines and say, ‘Well, which one do I like,'” and this and that. So I mean, that’s the goal, and I’m saying that now as like a naive artist, but you never know what’s going to happen down the line, but that is the goal is I don’t want to make too many of these, and I want it to have a satisfying conclusion.”
Still, to make matters more confusing, in 2024 he then seemed to suggest that he didn’t see the franchise continuing much further thanTerrifier 4after all. Speaking toVarietythe year thatTerrifier 3released, he explained:
“There is no definitive answer at this time regarding how many more films I will make before concluding the ‘Terrifier’ saga. Personally, I can’t see it going further than one or two more films, but only time will tell. For now, all I can say with certainty is that I know how it ends, and it will be epic.”
At the time of writing, it seems that the only thing certain about Art the Clown’s future is that he will return for a fourthTerrifiermovie. Anything after this is pure speculation.The chances of aTerrifier 5aren’t slim, but, judging by Damien Leone’s comments, the odds of installments after this are ever-dwindling. Still, with so much fan demand and the fact that Art made his debut in the anthology horrorThe 9th Circle,which isn’t aTerrifiermovie, there’s every chance he could crop up outside of the central franchise once again too.
Terrifier
Created by Damien Leone, Terrifier is a horror multimedia franchise that centers around the sadistic Art the Clown, a serial killer who appears on Halloween night to stalk partygoers. The series is known for being one of the most shocking in the slasher genre, with over-the-top kills and a darkly comedic tone. Art the Clown’s first appearance was in a horror anthology film, All Hallows’ Eve.
