Terrifier 3 is finally here, and the demented, bloody story of Art the Clown continues with even more depraved antics.
Terrifier 2 saw Art the Clown decapitated and seemingly defeated by Lauren LeVera's Sienna. Though, like any good horror icon, that is not enough to keep him off the board for long. Now he is back for Terrifier 3 (which is now in theaters).
Despite this being the third movie in the franchise, the killer somehow manages to up the ante––even murdering multiple children, though there are some lines Terrifier's Art the Clown will not cross.
Art the Clown Returns To Terrorize the Innocent
Terrifier 3 starts with a scene that takes place in the present and features an entire family getting slaughtered by Art the Clown.
A little girl thinks she hears someone on the roof, potentially Santa. Her parents do not buy it. However, the joke is on them because it is not long before Art shows up in a Santa outfit with an axe in hand.
The killer goes on to brutally kill a young boy in his bedroom and then his two parents as the little girl from before hides from his wrath. He eventually finds her hiding in the kitchen cabinets.
Unlike the rest of her family, he does not kill her; he simply waves at her with glee.
The story then jumps five years in the past, picking up moments after Terrifier 2.
A cop is scoping out the area where Art the Clown was previously decapitated. Not knowing the situation he's got himself into, the cop is quickly killed by Art's decapitated body.
Using the cop's head, Art's body makes his way to the Insane Asylum, where Victoria Heyes is locked up (who gave birth to Art's head at the end of Terrifier 2). It does not go well for the living souls inside the institution, as Victoria and Art successfully escape (and Art even gets a spare outfit change on the train).
The duo camp out in a dilapidated house, where it's revealed that Victoria Heyes is the new vessel for the Little Pale Girl.
Sienna Is Back, But Trauma Ridden
Jumping back to the present day, Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) is picked up by her Uncle Greg (Bryce Johnson) from the mental institution where she has been healing. He takes her to his home, where audiences are introduced to her cousin, Antonella Rose's Gabbie, and Margaret Anne Florence's Aunt Jessica.
Sienna and Gabbie have a very close relationship, with Gabbie serving as the key emotional pillar for Sienna this time around. However, they are not close enough for Sienna to want to share any of her diary's contents with Gabbie, much to her chagrin.
Cutting away from Sienna's reunion, two construction demolitionists start digging around the dilapidated house that audiences saw earlier. They come across both Art the Clown and Victoria Heyes, who emerge from their self-imposed hibernations.
While the kills are as gross as ever, it gets notably more disturbing when Victoria decides she wants to masturbate with a shard of glass while Art deskins one of his victims.
Jumping back to Sienna, who is now partaking in a little family dinner, her trauma is introduced in full force as she sees her dead friend, Kailey Hyman's Brooke, at the dinner table, blaming Sienna for getting her killed. Props to Terrifier 3, though, because Sienna does not cave into the pressure of her hallucinations, as she dismisses herself without making a scene.
Jonathan Is Alive and Well... Sort of
It takes a while, but Terrifier 3 confirms that Elliot Fullam's Jonathan did survive the event of Terrifier 2. Now, years later, Jonathan is attending college, where he has made some new friends.
Among them is his roommate, Mason Mecartea's Cole, and Cole's girlfriend, Alexa Blair Robertson's Mia.
It turns out that Mia is a big fan of Jonathan. She is obsessed with the Miles County Clown–aka Art himself. She has been following Jonathan for years and is hoping he will join her podcast (which is an idea he is not fond of).
As Jonathan will eventually learn in a later scene, their podcast peddles the theory that Sienna is the one responsible for all the murders that went down in the second film.
Their interaction is interrupted by Sienna finally calling Jonathan, marking their first exchange onscreen since Terrifier 2. Their relationship seems intact but strained by everything that has happened.
Art the Clown Has Some Demented Fun
The middle chunk of the film shows Art the Clown having some sadistic fun as he terrorizes the locals.
First, Art zeroes in on three men at a bar––one of which is dressed in a Santa outfit that the clown wants. Funnily enough, none of them seem to notice that the clown happens to be covered in blood.
The bartender's death is simply for Art the Clown, as is the Santa's drunk friend. The Santa, however, has a worse fate in store for him.
Art ties the poor man to a chair in his underwear after stealing and putting on his Santa outfit. Art takes his tank of nitrogen and freezes parts of his victim's body, going on to smash them with a hammer.
The last target is his face, where he also rips off the poor man's beard to match his Santa outfit.
Things somehow get worse not long after that. Art visits the local mall in his new festive outfit, where he takes over for the mall Santa and greets children.
Unlike the other Santa, Art is prepared with gifts for the children. While that might sound nicer than the clown is usually capable of, in each box is a bomb waiting to go off.
Needless to say, the children get curious, and the bombs go off––killing countless children and adults.
Art's rampage is not over yet because he also initiates one of the goriest, most intense shower scenes in all of horror history.
After overhearing Cole and Mia talk about how evil the Miles Country Clown is, Art follows the duo into the shower, where they are getting down and dirty with one another.
With a chainsaw in hand, Art interrupts their fun, using his new tool to slowly cut through both of them in creative and thorough ways. Mia is the first to be killed by her horror icon, while Cole gets a more intensive dismembering outside of the shower.
Sienna Starts To Lose It
Before the bombing instance, Sienna's mental state takes a turn for the worse when she is convinced that she saw Art the Clown at the mall while shopping (which she did).
She takes this to her brother, Jonathan, who is not fully convinced. He has been trying to move on from everything that happened, and he's not so sure that Sienna is.
Sienna quickly throws back some of her brother's theories from years ago at him.
She reminds Jonathan of how he used to read heavily into demonology, previously telling her they "have to destroy the little girl before it's too late... destroy her because she's inhuman—–a demon."
After the duo part ways, Jonathan gets close to reporting on Sienna's questionable mental state to Aunt Jess. He is frustrated about the entire situation and feels he has few options about what to do.
When Sienna returns home, she realizes Gabbie has been looking at her journals. Her cousin knows everything that happens to her, but Sienna tries to play it off, claiming she is sick.
With that said Sienna starts to freak out legitimately the moment she hears about the mall bombing on the news. She's convinced Art is back––and she is right.
Sienna and Art the Clown Meet Once Again
In a panic, Sienna makes sure that Jonathan is called and informed. She tells
Here, it is alluded to that the two set up a plan in case Art is back when Jonathan mysteriously asks Sienna if she grabbed something.
Sadly, Jonathan does not get to see the plan enacted––but we will get to that in a moment.
After waking up from some strange visions, Sienna comes downstairs to see her worst nightmare come to life. Art and the Pale Little Girl (now in Victoria's body) are at the house and have hung Uncle Greg's dead body on the wall.
Sienna tries to escape, but Art gets the upper hand and knocks her out. She awakens with Aunt Jess tied up across from her.
After taunting Jess with the head of what Victoria claims is Gabbie's dead, Art stuffs a tub down Jess' throat and crams live rats down it. As she chokes to death, he slits her throat, allowing the rats to exit her body gruesomely.
Victoria reveals that the decapitated head in the middle is not Gabbie's after all. It belongs to poor Jonathan, who was killed offscreen.
As Sienna becomes overwhelmed by grief, Victoria tries to enter her body, but Sienna successfully fights her off.
Victoria chides Sienna about how strong she is. The grotesque villain also adds that she now "knows why they chose [Sienna]."
Thankfully, Sienna still has one move in her back pocket. A present she stashed by the Christmas tree earlier in the film––the item Jonathan and Sienna talked about getting.
Just as Victoria is about to kill Gabbie, who knows about the present, the kid claims she never got to open Sienna's present for her. In a rare act, Victoria and Art indulge the moment, allowing Sienna to open it for Gabbie.
They do not make it easy, though––as Art cripples Sienna's hands. Thankfully, that's not enough to stop what's fated to happen.
Sienna's Magical Sword Explained
In the box is the magical sword from Terrifier 2 that was gifted to Sienna by her father.
The origin of that magic sword remains shrouded in vague mystery.
It all goes back to Sienna's dad, who somehow knew that one day, she might face an evil person like Art the Clown. Throughout Terrifier 3, there are flashbacks to the two of them and the origin of the comic book character he created for her.
Even after this film, though, how Sienna's father knew about anything is still a mystery.
In addition to dreaming about her father, Sienna also has visions. The one she has right before encountering Art the Clown again shows a strange demonic figure forging her sword and armor in what is probably some version of Hell itself.
Much like it was in Terrifier 2, this sword is the key to Sienna's survival.
Terrifier 3 also reveals some new powers of the sword as well.
Once in Sienna's possession, it starts to heal her wounds. However, it does take a little for the film to reveal that, leaving many probably scratching their head, wondering how Sienna is able to use the weapon at all.
The Terrifier 3's Win-Lose Situation
At the end of the day, Sienna does get a win.
After getting her sword, she slices the throat of Art the Clown and throws the sword right through the Pale Little Girl's chest. Sienna proceeds to stab Victoria in the mouth and decapitate her, which seems to kill her for good.
Gabbie and Sienna share a brief moment before Art comes swinging with his chainsaw, trying to kill Sienna for good. He's unsuccessful, however, as Sienna stabs him in the gut––robbing him of his powers.
The downside, on top of there being more dead family members to stack onto her already existing trauma, is that Gabbie is also sucked into the abyss that appeared where the Little Pale Girl's body once was. While Gabbie is probably not dead, wherever she ended up, it probably isn't a nice place to be.
As Sienna tries to recover, she realizes that Art has escaped. He's now on a bus, safely on his way to his next destination.
Terrifier 3 is now playing in theaters.
Be sure to get an Art the Clown-themed popcorn bucket to go along with the cinematic carnage!
