There’s “over the top” and then there’s “through the roof”. Terrifier 3 is a case of the latter. There is more blood and guts in this sequel than most horror flicks have in their entire franchise. I have a feeling that somewhere Herschell Gordon Lewis is smiling.
Terrifier 3 earns extra points for being a Christmas horror flick, something the world can always use more of. It manages to give us all the things we crave in a Christmas slasher (namely a killer in a Santa suit chopping up people with an axe), but with fresh new nuances (like the killer making “blood angels”) to make it feel fresh.
If you recall, Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) got decapitated at the end of Terrifier 2. To put it delicately… he got better. Now, he’s back with his horribly disfigured girlfriend Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) in tow, and he’s looking to finish off The Final Girl, Sierra (Lauren LaVera) once and for all.
Terrifier 3 is for my money, the best installment yet. It dials back the fairy tale weirdness of the second flick while still adding enough touches of it as to not turn off die-hard fans. The running time is thankfully shorter than 2 and while it still clocks in at a hefty two hours, it certainly isn’t boring and there is no shortage of the red stuff to go around.
Speaking of which, some of the kills must be seen to be believed. I will go on record by saying that the chainsaw up the ass scene will go down as an all-timer. Sure, some of the gore scenes flirt with tastelessness (like when Victoria masturbates with a shard of broken glass), but if you’re still watching this series after the grisly second entry, then you probably already know what you’re getting yourself into.
Thornton delivers yet another fun performance as Art. He’s basically a mix of Pennywise, Freddy Krueger, and Charlie Chaplin. Some of his reaction shots are priceless this time around. LaVera once again makes for a formidable adversary for him, although her nerdy brother (Elliott Fullam) kind of gets the short end of the stick in this one. The supporting cast, which includes everyone from Clint Howard to Tom Savini to Jason Patric, is fun too.
Your mileage may vary of course, but Terrifier 3 got this old Grinch into the holiday spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment