Terrifier 2
Terrifier 2 is a 2022 American independent supernatural slasher film written, edited, and directed by Damien Leone. It is the sequel to Terrifier and the second installment in the Terrifier film series. It includes the return of David Howard Thornton and Samantha Scaffidi, who portrayed Art the Clown and Victoria Heyes, respectively, in the first film, and features Lauren LaVera, Elliott Fullam, Sarah Voigt, Kailey Hyman, and Casey Hartnett in new roles. The plot follows Art's resurrection and pursuit on Halloween night of teenage Sienna Shaw, who discovers that she is destined to defeat him.
The film originated from a feature film concept Leone began developing shortly after filming his directorial debut short film The 9th Circle. The concept of the planned film focused heavily on an angel-dressed heroine and ultimately fell apart. Following its predecessor's release, Leone wanted to bring the heroine back—she would evolve into Sienna, someone Leone describes as the "heart and soul" of Terrifier 2. Leone spent three months writing a character-driven screenplay following criticism of the first film's perceived lack of narrative.
Funding was exacting as the script was more ambitious than the first film and required a bigger budget. Leone secured finances from private investors and Scotty Gelt Productions prior to filming, and he launched an Indiegogo campaign with a $50,000 goal to produce a practical effects-driven scene. The campaign was a massive success, reaching over 430% of the initial goal with a donation total of $250,000. It is one of the numerous films impacted by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, with principal photography coming to a halt mid-2020 due to the pandemic lockdowns.
Terrifier 2 had its premiere at the FrightFest on August 29, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 6, by Cinedigm. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for LaVera and Thornton's performances, though the film's runtime received some criticism. Many critics considered the film to be an improvement over its predecessor. A sequel, Terrifier 3, was released in October 2024.
Plot
After being resurrected by an unknown entity following the Miles County Massacre, Art the Clown brutally murders the coroner examining his body and goes to the laundromat to clean his blood-soaked suit, where he encounters the Little Pale Girl—a mysterious entity in similar clown attire.One year later, teenager Sienna Shaw is preparing her Halloween costume: a Valkyrie character designed by her recently deceased father. Her younger brother Jonathan has become fixated with Art since discovering art of him in their father's sketchbook. That night, Sienna has a nightmare about a commercial for "The Clown Cafe" in which Art appears. He kills various Clown Cafe patrons as Sienna tries to pull a sword from a box of cereal. She wakes from the dream in her bedroom, where a fire is burning the dresser the sword is resting on, but the sword is unscathed.
That day, Jonathan sees Art and the Little Pale Girl at school playing with a dead opossum and is blamed when his principal discovers the carcass. Sienna has a panic attack when her friends Allie and Brooke discuss Victoria Heyes's mutilation of talk show host Monica Brown. Sienna and Allie go to the costume shop, where they encounter Art. Art kills the shop vendor before arriving at Allie's home trick or treating. Allie ridicules him because she thinks he’s too old to go trick or treating. Art later breaks into Allie's home and brutally maims her, keeping her flayed body alive long enough to traumatize her mother, whom he later kills.
Jonathan shows Sienna and their mother Barbara their father's sketchbook, filled with newspaper clippings revealing that the Little Pale Girl bears resemblance to Art's first victim Emily Crane. He believes their father knew how to stop Art, saying that he gifted her the sword for that purpose. Sienna departs for a Halloween party; Jonathan flees after Barbara slaps him. She is then shot and killed by Art, and when Jonathan returns home, Art kidnaps him and steals Sienna's sword.
At the Halloween party, Brooke spikes Sienna's drink; Sienna has a panic attack after seeing the Little Pale Girl in the crowd. Brooke's boyfriend Jeff drives them home when Sienna is lured to The Terrifier attraction at an old abandoned carnival. The Little Pale Girl mimics Jonathan's voice over the phone, pleading for a ride home, while Sienna goes searching alone. After a big argument on the way, Art castrates and murders Jeff. Brooke is chased into the park and murdered as well, while Sienna is beaten unconscious.
Sienna awakens to find Art using a scalpel on her brother and begins attacking him with his own weapons. The siblings discover Art is immortal and he wears them out with his endurance. He stabs Sienna with her father's sword and throws her into a portal to Hell where she encounters the "Clown Cafe" again. Sienna dies but is resurrected by the sword. She decapitates Art while he is biting into Jonathan's calves. The Little Pale Girl takes his head and leaves as Sienna and Jonathan embrace.
In a mid-credits scene, Victoria writes "Vicky + Art" and obscenities on the wall with her own blood. She gives birth to Art's living head as her eyes glow bright.
Cast
Additionally, Jenna Kanell and Catherine Corcoran are credited for photographic cameos as Tara and Dawn, respectively.Production
Writing
On February 12, 2019, Leone revealed in a post on his social media, showing the cover page, that the first draft of the screenplay was complete. Leone envisioned the concept of the film dating back to 2008—with an idea of an angel-warrior costumed heroine battling the Art the Clown character. This heroine was the basis of Sienna, who Leone wanted to bring back for Terrifier 2, which he knew he wanted to make while filming the first film. The writing process for the film differed from Leone's previous film projects, in which he had to work around part-time jobs. Leone spent three consecutive months writing. Much of his focus was on developing a character that could rival Art in popularity. When he was not writing, he would read books about screenwriting and listen to screenwriters discuss their processes with writing.He opted to bring back the angel-attired heroine a decade later and adapt her into Sienna Shaw. Leone described much of the screenplay revolving around the teenage girl, his favorite character he has ever written. Leone describes the screenplay as much bigger in scope than the previous film and recollects not considering a budget while writing.
One of the factors during writing was establishing an adversary to Art—something inspired by the relationship between superhero Batman and supervillain Joker. During a lunch with Leone and David Howard Thornton, the actress who plays Sienna, Lauren LaVera, was told of this intended dynamic between her character and Art. Besides Sienna, LaVera recollects the script focusing heavily on Sienna's younger brother Jonathan, their mother, and her friends—all of whom play a crucial part in the story.
Casting
Both Thornton and Scaffidi were confirmed to reprise their respective roles of Art the Clown and Victoria Heyes, becoming the only returning cast members of the prior film, other than a brief voice cameo by Michael Leavy as the Club Announcer and DJ voice, and Corey Duval, who returns as the coroner from the first installment. There were also reports of Steven Della Salla and Jason Leavy, the two cops in the original film, returning in cameo appearances as well; the three are all producers on the second installment. On September 11, 2019, it was announced that actress Lauren LaVera was cast in the lead role of Sienna Shaw. On October 15, it was announced that Felissa Rose, Chris Jericho and Tamara Glynn had joined the cast in cameo roles. Actress Leah Voysey had auditioned for Sienna and her friends Ally and Brooke before co-producer Jason Leavy, who knew about Voysey's singing and guitar skills, invited her to be the host that performed a song in the Clown Cafe dream sequence, which after being filmed led to Leone bringing Voysey to appear as a nurse in the credits scene.Filming
While Leone had secured full funding for the film from a handful of private investors prior to filming, he launched an Indiegogo with a $50k goal to finance a practical effects driven scene and to attach a well known actor to the project. The campaign was a major success, grossing over $125k in the first week. It reached a total of $250k by the end of the campaign, 430% more than the initial goal.Filming began in October 2019. While a majority of the film's main storyline had already been completed, principal photography was halted due to COVID-19, becoming one of many films affected by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. On September 7, Leone revealed that he was in the process of working on the prosthetic makeup for Victoria's disfigured face in preparation of filming Samantha Scaffidi's scenes. As Sienna's costume received a positive reception when production stills were officially released, when asked about the attire, LaVera described liking it on the first day of wearing it but began to feel disdain for it throughout the course of filming as it was uncomfortable to wear. She even obtained blisters from wearing it. Filming quietly resumed and wrapped on July 10, 2021. The post-credits scene would originally reveal Art growing out of the back of Victoria's head, but once Malignant had a similar getup for its villain, Leone discarded it and shot another sequence where Victoria gave birth to Art's head.
Marketing
A teaser trailer for Terrifier 2 was released on July 24, 2020. MovieWeb's Jeremy Dick commented on the teaser, stating that "the teaser is pretty exciting to watch for anyone who enjoyed the first movie."It was also announced that a three-issue limited release comic book series would be issued prior to the film's release.