The hype surrounding Terrifier 2 in 2022 piqued a lot of interest, and with the release of Terrifier 3, many horror fans have delved into the gruesome world of Art the Clown. This sinister character, born from the mind of Damien Leone, has captivated audiences with a blend of extreme violence and a strangely compelling dark charisma. Before diving into the latest installments, revisiting the original Terrifier (2016) and Leone’s anthology All Hallow’s Eve is crucial to understand the genesis of this terrifying figure. While opinions on the Terrifier franchise are often divided, the question remains: Why Does Art The Clown Kill? Is it simply for shock value, or are there deeper, more disturbing motivations at play? This analysis will explore the brutal acts of Art the Clown, particularly in the first Terrifier film, to dissect the potential reasons behind his horrific violence, and to understand what makes him such a uniquely unsettling horror icon.
All Hallow’s Eve serves as an early glimpse into the chaotic nature of Art the Clown. While the anthology itself is uneven, the segments featuring Art are undeniably impactful. Even in these initial appearances, his vile charisma is evident. There’s a disturbing duality to his character; viewers simultaneously crave to see him defeated and are morbidly fascinated by his successes. This fascination stems from the sheer absurdity and inhumanity of his actions. Art transcends mere sadism, venturing into a realm of violence that is almost comical in its extremity. It’s a slapstick horror, pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable and plunging into the depths of the grotesque.
However, All Hallow’s Eve also introduces a problematic element that would be somewhat refined in later films. The early iteration of Art carries a “mean-streak” that borders on embodying rape culture. Scenes depicting violence against women, such as maiming and branding, raise uncomfortable questions about the film’s approach to sexuality and violence. While some might argue for a voyeuristic irreverence in filmmaking, these early portrayals of Art’s violence lean heavily into overtly sexualized aggression, particularly against female victims. It’s a disturbing undercurrent that suggests an initial character concept where Art’s violence was not just random, but specifically gendered in a distasteful way.
In Terrifier, this exploration of violence continues, but arguably with a shift in focus. While the misogynistic undertones are still present, particularly in the graphic violence against women, the film itself seems less driven by the overtly sexualized aggression hinted at in All Hallow’s Eve. Terrifier dedicates itself to classic slasher tropes, drawing inspiration from horror icons like Craven, Romero, and Hooper. However, it also inherits the passive misogyny that was often present in 70s and 80s horror. This era, while groundbreaking, often depicted women in peril or as victims in various states of undress, inadvertently contributing to a culture where violence against women was, if not explicitly endorsed, then certainly sensationalized.
This passive misogyny, as the original article astutely points out, doesn’t negate its impact. Instead, it can breed further, more explicit forms of misogyny in media. Terrifier, emerging from this lineage, pushes the extremity to new levels with its practical effects and unflinching violence, particularly when it comes to female victims. To understand why Art the Clown kills, especially in Terrifier, it’s essential to analyze the gendered nature of his violence.
Examining the kills in Terrifier reveals a disturbing pattern. The female kills are often laden with sexualized violence and humiliation, while the male kills, though brutal, tend to be more straightforwardly violent. Let’s break down some of these instances:
The first female kill involves a reporter who cruelly mocks a disfigured woman, a survivor of Art’s previous attack. This reporter becomes a target, and her death is centered around her looks and vanity. She is killed by having her eyes gouged out, a violent act directly linked to her superficial judgment of another woman’s appearance. This kill establishes a disturbing theme: female victims are often targeted in ways that exploit or punish aspects of their femininity, in this case, their perceived beauty and judgmental nature.
The infamous “saw kill” is perhaps the most discussed scene in Terrifier, and for good reason. A woman is shown nearly nude, suspended upside down in a sexually suggestive pose evoking BDSM imagery. Art then proceeds to saw her body in half, starting between her legs, a blatantly vaginal and overtly sexual act of violence. This kill isn’t just about gore; it’s about sexual violation and the reduction of a woman to a mere object of brutal sexualized violence. There’s a disturbing lack of context for this level of extremity, suggesting that its primary purpose is shock value rooted in misogynistic tropes. It plays on a sophomoric understanding of femininity, reducing women to their sexual organs and subjecting them to horrific sexual violence for entertainment.
Another female kill involves a woman who witnesses the saw kill and attempts to fight back. She is ultimately killed with gunshots to the head. While seemingly less overtly sexual than the saw kill, the aftermath is telling. Her corpse is decorated with Christmas lights and a crude sign reading “CIRCUS,” transforming her into a grotesque spectacle, a prop in Art’s macabre performance. This reinforces the idea of women as disposable objects in the film’s violent narrative, their deaths serving as visual fodder rather than carrying any deeper narrative weight.
The final female kill analyzed is particularly disturbing. It involves a homeless woman who mistakes a doll for her child. She encounters Art, who is also holding a doll, and attempts to appeal to his supposed kindness, even offering him a “mother’s touch.” Instead of showing compassion, Art scalps her and removes her breasts. He then grotesquely impersonates her by wearing her scalp and placing her breasts on his chest. This act is a perverse mockery of motherhood and femininity. By stealing and grotesquely appropriating symbols of womanhood – hair and breasts – Art further dehumanizes his female victim, turning her very essence into a costume for his twisted performance.
In stark contrast, the male kills in Terrifier are largely centered around head trauma. While undeniably violent and gruesome, they lack the overtly sexualized and humiliating elements present in the female kills. Men are subjected to blunt force trauma to the head, often resulting in graphic injuries. The original article suggests a possible interpretation of this, albeit jokingly, as a deconstruction of male “headship” and authority. However, even with such an interpretation, the violence against men remains fundamentally different in nature from the violence against women. It’s brutal, but not explicitly designed to be sexually humiliating or to degrade their gender identity in the same way the female kills do.
This disparity raises the question: why this gendered violence? One interpretation is that it reflects a deep-seated misogyny, whether intentional or not, within the film’s narrative. The female victims are not just killed; they are often sexually violated, humiliated, and dehumanized in ways that their male counterparts are not. This pattern reinforces harmful real-world dynamics of violence against women, where sexual violence and degradation are often intertwined.
However, another perspective is that Art’s violence, while undeniably disturbing and often misogynistic in its presentation, might not be driven by a coherent “why” in the traditional sense. Art the Clown is, after all, a supernatural entity, an agent of chaos. Perhaps his motivations are not rooted in human psychology or rational intent. Instead, his killings could be seen as expressions of pure, anarchic evil, devoid of any deeper meaning beyond the desire to inflict terror and suffering. In this view, the misogyny might be less a deliberate thematic statement and more a byproduct of the horror genre’s historical exploitation of female vulnerability and the shock value associated with sexual violence.
Furthermore, the extreme nature of the violence in Terrifier can be interpreted as a commentary on the desensitization to violence in modern media. By pushing the boundaries of gore and grotesquerie, Damien Leone might be forcing viewers to confront their own tolerance for on-screen violence, and to question the ways in which violence, particularly sexual violence against women, is often sensationalized and commodified in entertainment. The film’s shocking kills, while disturbing, could be intended to provoke a reaction, to make audiences uncomfortable with the very act of watching such extreme violence.
Ultimately, why Art the Clown kills remains ambiguous. There is no clear backstory or explicit motivation provided in Terrifier. He is a force of nature, a silent, grinning embodiment of pure evil unleashed upon unsuspecting victims. While the film’s gendered violence is undeniable and problematic, it’s also possible to interpret it within the broader context of slasher film tropes, shock horror, and a potentially nihilistic worldview.
In conclusion, Terrifier is a film that revels in its excess, pushing the boundaries of gore and violence to an extreme degree. Art the Clown, at the center of this carnage, is a terrifying creation whose motivations remain shrouded in mystery. While the film exhibits clear misogynistic tendencies in its portrayal of violence against women, particularly in the first film, understanding why Art the Clown kills requires considering multiple layers: the potential for commentary on societal misogyny and media desensitization, the chaotic nature of the character himself, and the inherent shock value of extreme horror. Whether the misogyny is intentional commentary or simply a disturbing byproduct of genre tropes, Terrifier forces viewers to confront uncomfortable questions about violence, gender, and the very nature of horror entertainment. The sequels, Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3, further explore Art’s reign of terror, and how the franchise evolves – or perhaps confronts – these initial problematic portrayals of violence remains a crucial point of discussion for horror fans and critics alike.
