Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Terrifier 3 (2024)
This article includes descriptions of fictional murder, self-harm, and suicide.
WhileTerrifier 3never explains the differences between Vicky and Art the Clown, these are relatively easy to work out by looking at their respective responses to injuries.Terrifier 3is not a movie that is overly concerned with the mechanics of its plotting. In general, director Damian Leone’sTerrifiertrilogy owes more to the gory splatter movies of Herschell Gordon Lewis than the tightly wound narrative experimentation of Christopher Nolan. That said, amidall ofTerrifier 3’s brutal kills, there are a few tidbits of lore and clear plot details that canny viewers can discern.
Terrifier 3’s Biggest Character Death Is A Cop Out
Terrifier 3 kills off one of the franchise’s most important characters, so why is their death so underwhelming and could this set up a future twist?
Eagle-eyed viewers who watched the movie’s ending closely can attest thatTerrifier 3provesArt the Clown is a demon. Not only does he once again escape injuries that would kill any normal person, but a passenger on a bus he boards is reading the novel “The Ninth Circle.” This is a cryptic nod to Leone’s 2008 short film of the same name wherein Art the Clown kidnaps a woman to sacrifice her to Satan. This subtle reference acts as evidence that Art is still the same character he was in that outing.
Vicky’s Original Injuries Don’t Heal Because Of Her Human Origin
Vicky Is More Human And Thus More Easily Defeated Than Art
Similarly,Art the Clown’sTerrifier 3accomplice Vickyseems like something of a mystery until viewers look closer.Vicky started out as one of Art’s human victims in 2016’s originalTerrifier, an unfortunate soul who was left alive after Art chased her, tortured her, and eventually ate a significant portion of her face. Vicky understandably lost her mind after this ordeal, becoming a murderer inTerrifier’s flash-forward opening scene and spendingTerrifier 2in an institution for the criminally insane after killing a reporter. ThenTerrifier 3complicated this.
Vicky is still mostly a human that the Little Pale Girl has possessed.
InTerrifier 2’s ending, Vicky gave birth to Art the Clown’s grinning severed head after Sienna decapitated him.Terrifier 2’s Art the Clown accomplice, the Little Pale Girl, walked off with the head and then seemingly possessed Vicky to facilitate Art’s comeback.The Little Pale Girl isn’t inTerrifier 3since she takes control of Vicky’s living human body in the opening scene. As such, Vicky is still mostly a human that the Little Pale Girl has possessed, which explains why her injuries can’t magically heal as fast or efficiently as Art’s frequent new wounds can.
Terrifier 3 Confirms Vicky Doesn’t Have Art’s Regenerative Healing Powers
Terrifier 3 Proves Art Is Actually A Full-Blown Demon Now
Whereas Art seems to be an actual full-blown demon in his final form,Vicky is still at least partially human inTerrifier 3. When Sienna decapitates her with a magic sword, Vicky’s body turns into a puddle of black acid. When the same thing happened to Art inTerrifier 2’s ending, his still-solid body returned to life hours later and his head was reborn via Vicky. Now, notably, Vicky does still possess some superhuman abilities. At the beginning of the movie, she slits her wrists and dies, only to awaken five years later none the worse for wear.
Evidently, it is fair to say that Vicky isn’t an entirely normal human in Terrifier 3. However, asVicky’s inability to possess Siennaand her subsequent decapitation proves, she also isn’t indestructible. In 2016’sTerrifier, Art the Clown awoke from his death by shooting in the morgue and seemed surprised by his own regeneration. It seems reasonable to suggest that demonically possessed people like Art and Vicky gain more powers the more times they regenerate, and Vicky may have been felled permanently by Sienna before she could reach Art’s almost unstoppable status.
Vicky Not Healing Suggests The Little Pale Girl Is Not As Powerful As Art
Vicky And The Little Pale Girl Appear To Be Semi-Human
Terrifier 3’s version of Art the Clown is effectively immortaland can overcome various injuries, from shooting to beheading to being run through with Sienna’s magic sword. In contrast, Vicky could only regenerate once. Moreover, when decapitated by Sienna, she not only died but was reduced to a puddle of acidic ooze.Jonathan’s note fromTerrifier 3saw him suggest to his sister that the franchise’s demons may need to be brought to life via human hosts, which might explain this discrepancy.
2016
$35,000-$55,000
$416,000
60%
53%
2022
$250,000
$15.7 million
86%
80%
2024
$2 million
77%
94%
Both Vicky and the Little Pale Girl appear to be humans who were originally targeted by Art the Clown and became possessed by demons after Art deprived them of all hope. This is precisely what Vicky tries to do to Sienna inTerrifier 3’s ending, although the attempt fails. Since Vicky and the Little Pale Girl were never as gleefully sadistic as Art in the first place, this might explain why their demonic forms are less powerful than the killer clown. Art the Clown’s bone-deep love of sadistic violence might be the very quality that fuels hisTerrifier 3powers.
