Damien Leone returns again and again – and with the same craft recipe, even if the orders of magnitude have changed – to his favorite character: Art the clown. And with this Terrifiing 3, he made the box-offices burst without common measure and further expanded his horrific mythology. Be careful, it stains!
A little trick and it comes back...
If you follow the strolls of Art the clown – The 9th Circle (2008) and Terrifiing (2011), both of which are combined in a long format called All Hallows Evethen Terrifiing (length film version), Terrifiing 2 (it starts to do a lot) and now the third part – you've had time to discover the completely barred universe genre developed by Damien Leone. A universe in the form of a microcosm, which it has never stopped swelling, swelling, swelling until it obtains real horrific blotches (this is not negative, we will come back to it), pushing ever further the boundaries of transgression.
Here, the terrible Art (always embodied by the awesome David Howard Thornton) accompanied by (Immonde) Victoria regains her cabosse after being cut down by Sienna (Lauren LaVera) at the end of the second part. A sleep of a few years, and now a demolisher awakens the two sleeping entities in an abandoned building, in a (obviously) bloody scene. While the clown filled with his blood harvest returns to wander around town, he will eventually cross the road of Sienna who thinks he's hallucinating...
As usual, it is not on his intrigue that Terrifiing 3 Go catch his spectator. It is even an excuse to reorganise the Sienna/Art duel in this third part. No, what's captivating with this saga is, in particular, the striking force that Leone has achieved by maintaining its independence from the studios and its will to do so despite a much more comfortable budget than the previous ones (the success of the Terrifiing 2 went through that). His other audacity? That of always wanting to push the gore and politically incorrect pottery further, nailing the beak to the misogyny criticisms attributed to the previous strands: men, women, children, everyone takes it for his rank with our dear Art.
More and more logic
This ever-increasing will is accompanied in this third part by a more significant integration of the sexual aspect. This freudian marriage counter-nature of rot and carnel made the great hours of the cinema of exploitation (we talked about it in an article on the release of the film).Alien Romulus) and its well-breeding vein. Here, the vision is quite different: scratch – with yellow and chipped nails – a little deeper in the wound of malaise. Additional sordid layer. Hemoglobin-flavoured glaze on a black budwood. No doubt, it could only work...
Between a female doonanism scene rich in hemoglobin, a (very) embarrassing emerging sexual tension between Art the clown and Victoria but also and above all a rather memorable shower scene replaying the body cutting scene this time in male version, the sex goes through this Terrifiing 3. And it is clear: Leone keeps its promises. Admittedly (as in the previous section) we could have cut a few lengths by this one to make this feature film, which is still too long, more nervous, you won't see anything as outrageous at the cinema this year. A (belle?) surprise therefore, carried by Shadowz and ESC in theaters in a bold bet and raised despite the ban at least 18 years! Terrifiing 3 indeed blew up the box office counters and it's so much better. And given the end of the film and these numbers, Art still has beautiful days ahead!
Our other articles on the saga Terrifiing :
Encore passé un bon moment en regardant la film, c’est étrange à écrire comme ça j’en conviens. La première scène est franchement excellente. Idem pour la rencontre avec Santa… la boucle est bouclée. Art avait toujours eu un côté père Noël avec sa hotte, j’ai trouvé l’idée très bonne. Celle de la douche est sympathique aussi mais on sent quand même que le film commence à s’étioler avec un petit effet redite sur la longueur. Reste l’idée assumée d’Art sans tête, le virage vers Freddy déjà engagé avec le second et un duel à venir qui j’espère se clôturera par autre chose qu’une happy end.
Je reste un éternel fan du premier pour son côté film fauché au rythme imprévisible. Un dimant noir sans concession et nettement moins guignolesque en termes de ton. J’aime un peu moins le côté diabolique qui apparaît dans ce troisième volet et surtout le personnage de Victoria qui casse l’originalité des silences et le côté film muet. C’est le plus gros point noir pour moi et j’espère qu’on se débarrassera du personnage dans le prochain.
“Mamelle indissociable de l’horreur, ce mariage freudien contre-nature de la pourriture et du charnel a fait les grandes heures du cinéma d’exploitation (nous en parlions dans un article lors de la sortie d’Alien Romulus) et sa veine bien racoleuse. Ici, la velléité est tout autre : gratter – avec des ongles jaunes et ébréchés – un peu plus profondément dans la plaie du malaise. Couche de sordide supplémentaire. Glaçage saveur hémoglobine sur une forêt noir au boudin. Pas de doute, ça ne pouvait que fonctionner…” Je n’aurais pas dit mieux ! 👌
[…] une tension palpable, ce film vire au contemplatif le plus total. Un film déroutant qui comme Terrifier, offre des scènes gores toujours plus ludiques et en rupture totale de ton par rapport au vécu […]