What is Terrifying?

There’s a lot of buzz surrounding the film Terrifier 3, which landed number 1 at the box office opening weekend. As someone who studies numbers closely that had me thinking, There must be something to this franchise that I’m missing. So, I streamed Terrifier 2 out of curiosity. Everything I read suggested you can skip the first one, which was thin on both narrative and budget, and jump straight to the sequel.

Most of the buzz surrounding the franchise centers on its gratuitous violence. The marketing seemed to dare audiences to sit through the third film “without vomiting.” That doesn’t appeal to me. It’s true that I love a good rollercoaster, but I get motion sick each time I ride. I either vomit or get close to vomiting. At least rollercoasters defy gravity though. The same feeling without the speed doesn’t seem pleasant.

But there must be something to these films! Critics and audiences seem to like them.

So I streamed part 2. The positives: good cinematography. Inventive dream sequences. Effective creation of nostalgia (I felt like I was both outside on Halloween night last week, and trapped somewhere in the ‘80s). Maybe one of the best musical scores I’ve heard in years (I’m a sucker for the 80’s style synth music). The actor playing Art the Clown did a great job at being scary and twisted. He’s creepy as hell. I’d be lying if I said the movie didn’t keep me interested.

The cons: too violent for me. I’ve gotta be honest, it crossed my limits. This film is downright repulsive and not in a good way. Maybe I’m too old for the gross stuff. If a film is going to be transgressive with its violence, I need a purpose somewhere. You could even argue the violence in silly sci-fi films like Starship Troopers serves a purpose (it emphasizes the lack of individuality in the grunt soldiers). But violence for the sake of being violent just isn’t funny or thrilling. There has to be a narrative weaving through the violence. I didn’t detect enough of one or really any message about anything other than “this clown is really bad!”

So yeah, there are good elements to the movie. There always are. Nothing is ever all good or all bad, it’s all on a spectrum. But there weren’t nearly enough good elements to get me interested in part 3.

Maybe it is age but I’d rather watch something silly and simple. I heard Happy Gilmore 2 is releasing next year. I’m much more excited for that than Terrifier 3.