Damien Leone has promised to reveal Art the Clown’s origin in Terrifier 4. According to David Howard Thornton, he and […]
Damien Leone has promised to reveal Art the Clown’s origin in Terrifier 4. According to David Howard Thornton, he and Leone have discussed several versions of that story over the years. One thing they’ve talked about is whether audiences should ever feel sorry for Art.
Speaking at Chattanooga Comic Con during a panel hosted by ComicBook, Thornton said Art’s backstory was the first thing he asked Leone about when he sat down in the makeup chair. He wanted to understand who he was playing and why Art did the things he did. At the time, Leone told him he didn’t know.
Thornton said their ideas have changed since then, and he’s still curious whether Leone will explain why Art never speaks. On the question of sympathy, though, he said, “We don’t want him to have a sympathetic background. In my head, he basically is evil incarnate.”
Outside of Jason Voorhees, most of the major slashers grew into horror icons without a particularly sympathetic origin story. That’s true of Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers in the original Halloween, and Chucky. Giving Art a sympathetic background would change how you read everything he does to his victims. The Terrifier films are so unapologetically brutal that asking the audience to feel sorry for him this far into the series wouldn’t make much sense to me.
I’m curious how much Damien decides to reveal in Terrifier 4. Between the religious iconography and the fantasy worlds he’s opened up through Lauren LaVera’s Sienna, he can pretty much take Art anywhere at this point.
There’s been a lot of bullshit floating around online about the fourth movie. In February, Damien addressed the rumors himself and said the screenplay was nearly complete. In May, he confirmed that takes place on New Year’s Eve, with a theatrical release targeted for 2027.
