Terrifier 2 (2022), directed by Damien Leone, stars Lauren LaVera, David Howard Thorton, Elliot Fullam, Kailey Hyman, Sarah Voight, Casey Hartnett, Charlie McElveen, Johnath Davis, and Samantha Scaffidi. The film is the follow-up to Terrifier (2016) and follows Art the Clown (Thorton) after he is resurrected by a sinister entity to once again wreak bloody havoc on the town of Miles County. This time, he quickly targets a teenager named Sienna (LaVera), her younger brother Jonathan (Fullam), and their various friends and family. As they begin to drop like flies, Sienna is forced to go to violent lengths to protect the ones she loves. 

All the praise I had for David Howard Thorton’s performance as Art the Clown in Terrifer carries over to this sequel, but that’s just the beginning. Terrifier 2 doubles down on just about everything fans loved about the first movie and that starts with Art. Whereas the first movie showed us Art’s potential, the sequel delivers on it. He’s funnier, scarier, and more brutal than ever before. What’s so smart about this character is that he feels like the perfect amalgamation of various iconic slasher villains. He has the sense of humor of Freddy Krueger, the silent menace of Jason Voorhees, and a look inspired by Pennywise, just to name a few. On top of this, the character still feels unique because it takes little pieces from everything instead of large pieces from a few. If Terrifier 3 is a hit, it might cement Art as the best slasher villain of all time. 

As for the more human characters, there’s likewise an improvement from the first movie. Leone proves that in the same way he understands slasher villains, he understands the “final girl” archetype. Lauren LaVera as Sienna gives a badass and likable performance that almost perfecty foils Art the Clown. The script also succeeds in giving the character flaws without sacrificing her likability.

As for the supporting cast, I was a bit annoyed by the script’s choice to give them what is seemingly intentionally bad dialogue in an attempt to emulate low-budget slasher movies of the 1980s. Even if it is a creative choice, at this point, so many modern horror movies have done it that it’s no longer impressive, it’s just circling back to being straight-up bad. 

The movie retains the gritty, grindhouse visual style of its predecessor but clearly has a larger budget. Whereas the first movie was more grounded, Terrifier 2 leans into the supernatural and fantastical side of Art the Clown. This allows the visuals to take a more funhouse, clown-themed approach. It’s all a lot more strange and cerebral than the first movie, but also more ambitious and lore-driven. This dreamlike nature also results in more brutal and elaborate kill sequences that are creative and fun for gore-hounds, but ultimately just pad out the runtime.

The kills here are some of the most brutally prolonged, mean, and over-the-top I’ve ever seen. These will easily be too much for a large portion of the audience, but for the initiated, it’s exactly what they came to see. It often goes way too far and is needlessly gratuitous, but it’s hard to fault the movie when that’s pretty much the intention. Still, it’s not always fun. That being said, it remains fun ENOUGH because the kills are so over-the-top, that they avoid feeling too real. What works about the violence is that it’s often so unforgiving that even our main characters don’t feel safe. Even the kind-hearted younger brother played by Elliot Fullam feels like he could be offed at any moment. 

Overall, this movie is a slasher extravaganza that features the best slasher villain of the modern era. Unfortunately, the movie constantly fails to realize when enough is enough. Occasionally this works in the movie’s favor such as giving the audience more of what they wanted in Art the Clown, but more often it hurts the movie. This includes the bloated runtime, needlessly prolonged kills, and tedious focus on what is essentially as basic of a plot as the first film. That being said, there’s a lot more depth here in terms of world-building and lore which will no question excite fans franchise. All I can say is this, if you liked the first movie, you’ll like this one more. Anyone who hated that movie will hate this one twice as much. B