Terrifier

Directed by Damien Leone, Terrifier follows several characters, including Jenna Kanell’s Tara and Samantha Scaffidi’s Vicky, as they’re stalked and murdered by a vicious figured known only as Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton). It’s familiar subject matter that’s employed to watchable yet ultimately underwhelming effect by Leone, although it’s certainly worth noting that the movie does, by and large, fare much, much better than most of its low-budget horror-movie brethren – as Leone, armed with his own screenplay, delivers an unexpectedly stylish endeavor that boasts a handful of insanely (yet appreciatively) larger-than-life kill sequences. There’s little doubt, as well, that Terrifier benefits substantially from Thornton’s captivating (and almost instantly iconic) turn as the expressive, frightening Art the Clown, with the actor’s impressively committed performance going a long way towards compensating for the narrative’s increasingly-frequent bumps and lulls. And while it runs an appropriately brisk 86 minutes, Terrifier admittedly (and eventually) progresses into a repetitive third act that ensures the whole thing peters out to a fairly palpable degree – which does, in the end, cement the picture’s place as a hit-and-miss calling card for a director surely destined for bigger and better things.

** out of ****