Friday 5 October 2018

TERRIFIER


My second movie for Shocktober was Terrifier. I'm not sure why I dislike its particular brand of crass exploitation over say, Maniac, which I like very much. Perhaps because Terrifier can't decide if Art the Clown is mortal or supernatural and if there aren't any rules then there aren't any real consequences. While Art is a superbly nightmarish character - silent and freakish - and the movie is uncompromisingly violent, the kills are not scary. Terrifier does not terrify - it disgusts. It lingers too long on repugnant set pieces  and crosses a line into territory that's just generally unpleasant. Art's real successes are early in the film where he does little more than stare at people - in these moments of bizarre, stoic creepiness we get to be genuinely uncomfortable and Terrifier actually works quite nicely. The odd bit of warped, black humor also unnerves - when Art randomly honks a clown horn in the direction of a victim he cannot reach.

Otherwise Terrifier is largely just a collection of horrifying imagery draped over the flimsiest of plots. Again I've given a lot of thought as to why this doesn't sit right with me, when other horror movies concerned with imagery over plot (Baskin, for example) fall right into my wheelhouse. And I think it's because there's almost no thought process to Terrifier beyond wanting to gross you out. And even it's worst excess is an idea shamelessly lifted straight out of a better movie (naming it would spoil both films, so I will decline to).

Ultimately Terrifier feels like it had the tools at its disposal to become a really fantastic horror movie, but instead focused on gore at the expense of all else. The result is a largely plotless film that's also quite nasty.

IMDB: Terrifier

This review was also posted to Letterboxd

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