Terrifier 2 (2022) Review

 "Something really bad's gonna happen tonight."

-Jonathan Shaw

A year after the events of the first movie, Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is back to bring some murder and mayhem to Halloween.  However, he may have finally met his match when he takes on Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera).

What Works:

David Howard Thornton was the best part of the first Terrifier.  He's absolutely incredible as Art. While Art doesn't get as many iconic moments this time around, Thornton still does a brilliant job as the character.

I do respect the filmmakers for how gory they made these films.  It's far beyond over the top and we get one of the goriest movies I've ever seen.  They certainly didn't pull any punches.

What Sucks:

This movie is nearly 2 and a half hours long.  No slasher movie needs to be 2 and a half hours long.  This was an absolute slog to sit through and it was one of the most miserable cinematic experiences I've ever had.  This movie is not nearly complex enough or interesting enough to be this long.  Maybe if they had trimmed it down by an hour it would have been tolerable, but this was actually the worst.

There is so much of this movie that could have been cut out.  Sienna has a nightmare early on about Art the Clown and clown food.  This whole sequence should have been gone.  It adds nothing to the movie except for some surreal visuals.  This is another case of one man having too much power.  Damien Leone directed, wrote, and edited this film and it's very obvious that he shouldn't have done all three.  He wasn't willing to cut out elements he loved in order to make a better movie.

This movie decides to add a creepy clown girl as Art's assistant and I have no idea why.  Every scene with her in it could have been cut out.  She adds nothing to the movie and there is no real explanation as to why she's suddenly there.

The 3rd act confrontation goes on forever.  There were so many times it could have ended, but it just kept going and going and going.  Return of the King has nothing on this movie.  And it's not like the ending was anything special to warrant the extended ending.  It's a typical final showdown between the final girl and the killer.  There's another good 20 minutes that can go.

One thing that Terrifier 2 does that had promise was set up a possible connection between the Shaw family and Art.  They can see the clown girl when other people can't.  Their deceased father had drawings of Art in his sketchbook.  I was actually interested in this storyline.  What was the connection between the Shaw family and Art?  Well, we never find out.  In 2 and half hours, the movie never bothers to resolve any of that.  The most interesting part of the movie and they ignore it completely.

The poster for this movie is pretty cool.  It implies that there is going to be a showdown between Sienna and Art at a carnival.  In truth, they shot at a carnival for one night and have a few shots of Sienna walking around the deserted rides.  The rest of the climax takes place inside a shitty haunted house that was clearly just a set.  If this movie had done something more along the lines of Hell Fest, it would have been a lot more fun.  The poster got me excited for something that never really happens.

Finally, this movie introduces some supernatural elements into the series.  Apart from Art's resurrection in the previous film, the first Terrifier was pretty grounded.  This one gets really weird and has totally unnecessary supernatural elements.  It feels like the director had too many ideas and wanted to cram every little thing inside.  It ended up being just a mess.

Verdict:

I hated this movie.  It's my least favorite film of 2022 so far.  Thornton does a good job and the gore is extreme.  Both of these things are carried over from the first movie.  Nothing else works.  The movie is way too long, there's too much random crap jammed in, and the movie was in desperate need of an editor who wasn't emotionally attached to the project.  This was a miserable experience.  Stay far away.

 2/10: Awful