NEVER TEAR US APART

SPOILER ALERT! BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER FOR FOUND-FAMILY AFFAIR TERRIFIER 3

- DARREN SCOTT

MIDNIGHT ON STATEN Island, New York. SFX has missed the last ferry back to Manhattan and an eerie mist rolls over the streets outside. Inside, however, it’s laughter that fills the air.

Filming has just wrapped after a long day – one of 45 – for Terrifier 3 and the crew are in high spirits. Damien Leone, creator, writer, director and producer of the supernatural slasher movies, is showing us a rough early edit of a scene – which is all kinds of meta given that we’re also standing on location for the same production, which will finish filming in just a few days. It’s also absolutely bloody brilliant – much like the day we’ve had…

SEND IN THE CLOWN

When SFX arrives at Amendment 18 – a Prohibition-themed catering company – on the morning of 11 April, 2024, the first thing to greet us in the unassuming event space is a dead body and a half-melted head. The room is filled with crates, equipment and Christmas decorations. There are boxes neatly stacked with fake wounds and gashes. Someone in a shirt emblazoned with “The Blood Guy” is carrying – you guessed it – buckets of fake blood. As we step around the dummy corpse, we’re told he’s called George, and that he’s worth basically the cost of the original movie…

The definition of “sleeper hit”, Terrifier has actually been around for over a decade. But now Art the Clown has crossed over – not just in ghostly terms, but into being a mainstream horror icon.

Leone says he realised he was onto something with the character when he made his second short film starring Art, also called Terrifier, in 2011. It later featured, alongside Art’s debut appearance in The 9th Circle (2008), in anthology film All Hallows’ Eve in 2013.