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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Terrifier 2, in theaters now, solidifies Art the Clown's (David Howard Thornton) place alongside horror icons Freddy, Jason, Michael, Leatherface and Chucky. This little horror-franchise-that-could deserves the hype. Terrifier 2 picks up right where the 2016 Terrifier left off. Art, who was presumedly killed in self-defense, has woken up in the morgue and made the coroner his latest victim in his escape.
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Art then goes to a public laundromat to wash his costume, which is hilarious and practical. How do slashers clean up after each graphic kill to appear pristine again in the next scene?
This pre-title sequence also introduces more surreal elements to the Terrifier franchise. Art still has a gaping hole in his head from Terrifier 1 and his return is rightfully left unexplained.
Art also sees The Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain) who is invisible to other laundromat customers. So, Art is seeing his own imaginary accomplice and the sequel will introduce more surreal concepts later.
But first, jump to one year after Art's first Halloween rampage. Sienna (Lauren LaVera) is making her Halloween costume.
Sienna's brother, Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) wants to go as Art, to which Sienna rightfully objects. Their single mother (Sarah Voight) just wants her kids to behave.
Art invades Sienna's dreams in a surreal violent children's show set that's even more haunting than Freddy Krueger. Even Freddy wasn't sick enough to play a clown, and the "Clown Cafe" song could be the next Silver Shamrock jingle.
The dream sets Sienna's room on fire when she wakes up, suggesting a Freddy-ish link between Art's powers and the real world. It also broaches the possibility that Art is a delusion or supernatural presence, but he very much shows up in the real world too.
Leaving Art and the Pale Girl's powers and connections unexplained makes them more unsettling than if they followed explicit rules. Mythology is great, but hopefully no Terrifier sequel ever explains away all the mystery.
The graphic violence in Terrifier 2 is no joke. Most horror aficionados can probably stomach it, but the stories of vomiting in theaters are not hype. This is beyond Saw and Hostel.
The kills highlight physical gore makeup the likes of which would grace the pages of Fangoria in the heyday of '80s horror movies. Terrifier 2 is unhindered by a rating like the mainstream franchises.
As Art's kills get more and more outrageous, they also show the seams of the effects. That's actually a relief so you can rest assured this is all still pretend, but they're taking it so extreme it becomes absurdly hilarious.
The kills get increasingly more cartoonish. It's a macabre and gruesome cartoon but it stops looking real so the horror is in the extremity, not the reality.
Art just piles on more and more to the point where the victim should have died of blood loss, but they're still twitching and trying to crawl away.
Art is scary. Thornton's performance is mischievous and theatrical, doing silent mime expressions that convey full dialogue with no words spoken.
Art's M.O. is to annoy people with his clown schtick to the point they get aggressive, but by then they're underestimating him. Art expects people to get annoyed so they get agitated and make themselves more vulnerable to attack.
In the (hopefully) final girl role of Sienna, LaVera conveys an empowered young woman. The film reveals more about her family's traumatic history, but it's clear immediately that Sienna has self-parent and be a role model while she's trying to have a childhood.
At two hours and 18 minutes (with a mid-credits scene longer than most Marvel ones), Terrifier 2 is an epic slasher. The Scream movies were exceptions in the genre pushing their runtimes close to two hours, but Terrifier 2 fills its runtime with shocks, terror and endearing characters.
Terrifier 2 is still in theaters from Cinedigm and Iconic events, and premieres on Screambox Oct. 31.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001 and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
