Terrifier 3‘s Damien Leone on Lore, Gore, and His Favorite Christmas Horror Movie

It’s not even Halloween yet, but Terrifier 3 is about to pack theaters chock full of blood-drenched holiday cheer. Writer, director, and editor Damien Leone’s twisted creation Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) returns to torment Sienna (Lauren LaVera), the tough but traumatized final girl of breakout horror smash Terrifier 2. You can find io9’s review of Terrifier 3 here, and keep reading for our interview with Leone.

Note: we’ll have more from io9’s interview later this week; this part of the conversation is spoiler-free.

Damien Leone (left) on the set of Terrifier 3. © Jesse Korman/Dark Age Cinema

Cheryl Eddy, io9: We get more “lore” in Terrifier 3 than ever before—Sienna’s destiny as it connects to Art, the backstory with her father, etc. How deliberate has your plan been in revealing these pieces over time? Will we eventually learn the whole story in a future movie?

Damien Leone: Very deliberate. Certainly by design, because I want to make a few films. So I approach this franchise as more of a miniseries where you’re getting pieces of the puzzle as we go. Because if I put it all into one movie, then I don’t really know what else I’m saying in the subsequent film lore, because then it becomes a matter of, “All right, let’s just introduce a new batch of characters and just have Art the Clown slaughter them.” Which, listen, many people would absolutely love. I’m sure they’re already wishing that’s all these movies were. Some people they just, you know, the lore is too much for them or the ambiguity of the lore and the fantasy element. But to me, that’s exciting. And I think that sets it apart from a lot of other slashers.

I really don’t have an interest in just remaking the first Terrifier over and over, like I said, with a new batch of victims that Art kills for no reason. When I was writing Terrifier 2, I knew then where I was going to end this franchise between Art and Sienna. So it’s just a matter of, is it one movie to tell that story or maybe two more? I don’t see it being more than that. But when it is finished, it will be a solid, concise franchise that you could watch with hopefully a beautiful beginning, middle, and end, and you’ll know exactly who these characters are, where they started and where they ended off. 

io9: So your ideal would be five movies?

Leone: I don’t like locking myself into the numbers, just because I don’t know if I—you never know when inspiration is going to hit or if something just changes the trajectory. But I don’t think it would be more than that at this point. I’m already sort of afraid of the well running dry and just starting to repeat myself over and over again: “These kill scenes aren’t living up to the expectations. They’re not as good as the ones that came in prior. Art’s not as funny anymore.” Those are all things I worry about writing these films because we put so much into each movie where to keep being that generous—you can only make these movies effective, I think, for so long before it’s just diminishing returns.

io9: Is there ever a moment when you’re writing a kill scene where you’re like, “This is going too far”? Do you set boundaries on yourself?

Leone: Yeah, I do set boundaries on myself. I would say there’s no subject matter that’s too taboo that I won’t tackle it, if I really feel it’s necessary to the story or something. But then if I decide to go in that direction, it’s my responsibility to execute it in a tolerable way and to see if I could still make it palatable somehow—because we could certainly make these scenes 10 times worse than they are. But then you’re really going to alienate everybody. And ultimately, I want this to be a fun experience for the audience, even though that’s—of course, taste is subjective and we’re clearly going beyond the boundaries of what some people feel is accessible, acceptable, and what their taste is.

But I do always try and push the boundaries of what people are used to seeing, but not too far—and on the other end, trying to maintain some level of accessibility, some sort of mass appeal. Because I think that the Art the Clown character in particular, and Sienna, I think those two characters really deserve to be seen by casual movie fans. And I don’t think this movie needs to be put in some sort of niche box labeled just a gore fest. I think there’s a lot more a lot more to these movies.

io9: There were some recent headlines about a screening where people not being able to handle the opening scene—what do you think when you hear stuff like that? Like people getting physically ill watching your movie? Is that a point of pride?

Leone: It is. I do take it as a badge of honor, especially at this point. It would feel a little more cruel during, perhaps, like the original Terrifier, if people really just had no idea what they were walking into and they were just fainting and stuff. But at this point, it’s Terrifier 2, 3—you should know what you’re in for at this point. And like you said, even in part three, I set it up. I let you know what you’re in for within the first five minutes of this movie. [Laughs.] So it’s like, if you can make it past the first five minutes, you can make it past the rest of the film, in my opinion. I do take it as badge of honor because it’s a testament to the filmmaking. The practical effects are very effective. It means they’re working. It means the way it’s edited and the sound design, it’s all creating this very visceral experience. And that’s what we’re aiming for.

io9: That first scene is out of context with the rest of the movie—Art already has his Santa suit, which he doesn’t actually acquire until a bit later in the story. Did you always want to start off the movie with a scene plucked from the middle of the story?

Leone: Yes. I wanted to have a cold open because I wanted to present Art the Clown to the audience as if they’d never met him before, because a lot of these franchises eventually get to a part three. The audience is just there to see, and they still are there to see, Art the Clown. They’re there to see him kill as many people as possible. That’s how I was when I was a kid. And I was watching Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, that’s the hero of the movie. But I don’t want the audience to be comfortable with this character. I wanted to present him being crueler than ever, darker, creepier than ever, because he should ultimately always be unsettling, even though we have a lot of fun with him. First and foremost, he should be just cruel, sadistic, and evil. And I think the moment we lose sight of that, I don’t think anything works anymore. So that was my intention with with the opening, the cold open, so to speak.

© Jesse Korman/Dark Age Cinema

io9: What are your favorite Christmas horror movies? Because clearly you probably have some favorites.

Leone: I love that subgenre. My favorite film is Black Christmas, of course the original. And we pay a lot of homage to that film in this one. I love the atmosphere of that—certainly Art in the attic, looking out the window in the rocking chair…

But my favorite Christmas horror episode of a show is Tales From the Crypt. It was actually made in a movie first in the ’70s. That is the ultimate iteration of the maniac Santa Claus. And that’s more more than anything else. That was the reason why I was excited to make this a Christmas film, because there’s something so cozy and terrifying at the same time about that situation and Christmas-based horror movies. So I wanted to see if I could take my stab at that. But I never would have thought I could make something fresh with that trope, the maniac Santa Claus, until I figured, “All right, well, I could dress up Art as Santa Claus now, and now that makes Art the Clown sort of fresh again.” And that makes the maniac Santa Claus fresh again and makes the whole thing new. So it just seemed very exciting to go in this direction.

Terrifier 3 hits theaters October 11; we’ll have more from io9’s interview with Leone later this week.

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